Frank E. Brettell (1862–1936) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

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manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

and administrator. He played as a full-back for Everton, a club that was originally called St. Domingo's. He combined his role as player-secretary-manager with his full-time job as a reporter for the ''

Liverpool Mercury The ''Liverpool Mercury'' was an English newspaper that originated in Liverpool, England. As well as focusing on local news, the paper also reported on both national and international news allowing it to circulate in Lancashire, Wales, Isle of Man ...

''. He became secretary of

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

in 1896 and remained there for two years before moving to London to join

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

as their first manager. He then accepted a more lucrative offer to join

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

and guided them to a second-place finish in their first season in the Southern League. He accepted an offer to join

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park ...

in 1903 and helped establish the club in the professional game. The job was to be his last as a manager and he retired from football altogether a year later.

Football career

Brettell began his football career with a local club St. Domingo. He initially played as centre- or

inside-forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for the club, and later due to injuries as half-back and even on goal. He combined his playing duties with a role as secretary-manager of the team in 1875.Frank Brettell
Greens on Screen. Retrieved 25 February 2010. The club was reformed as Everton in 1879 with Brettell as a member of the committee during the club's first year. After his playing career ended, he continued as a full-time reporter for local newspaper the ''

''. He joined

in 1896, again as secretary-manager. Two years later in February 1898, he was appointed manager of

, and took up the post on 14 March 1898 soon after the club had been converted into a

Public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fr ...

. He signed a number of players from Bolton Wanderers and other northern clubs, including John Cameron from Everton who took over as manager of Spurs after Bretell left. His stay as the club's manager was relatively brief; he resigned in February 1899 to join

after they offered him substantially more money to take the job. His first season in charge was also Portsmouth's first in the Southern League and adapted to their new surroundings well, finishing fourth in the league table. He left the club in June 1901 by "mutual agreement"; according to ''Football Chat'' "a detailed explanation ould serveno good purpose". "Let it suffice that the directors could not agree with him on certain rather important matters, and a mutual agreement was arrived at by which he consented to resign". It would be another two years before he took up his final managerial role when Brettell was invited to build a professional team for

in 1903, an offer which he accepted. Having been able to call upon twenty-eight years of experience as a football administrator and manager, he succeeded in his task and led the club into the Southern League for the 1903–04 season. He used his extensive network of contacts to bring a number of experienced professionals to

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.Andy Clark Andy Clark, (born 1957) is a British philosopher who is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. Prior to this, he was at professor of philosophy and Chair in Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh in ...

, Jack Fitchett,

Bob Jack Robert "Bob" Jack (4 April 1876 – 6 May 1943) was a Scottish football player and manager. Born in Alloa, Jack played in the Football League for Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End and Glossop, and the Southern League for Plymouth Argyle and ...

Billy Leech William Leech (15 July 1875 – 24 November 1934) was an English association football, footballer who played for Port Vale F.C., Burslem Port Vale, Leicester City F.C., Leicester Fosse, Plymouth Argyle F.C., Plymouth Argyle, Stoke City F.C., S ...

and

Jack Peddie John Hope Peddie, commonly known as Jack or Jock Peddie, (3 March 1876 – 20 October 1928) was a Scottish association football, footballer who played for various clubs in both England and Scotland, including Newcastle United F.C., Newcastle Uni ...

. He led the club to creditable ninth- and fourth-place finishes in the Southern League, as well as winning the Western League in 1905.Argyle History
Greens on Screen. Retrieved 25 February 2010. Brettell left the club at the end of his second season in charge and wouldn't manage a professional team again, but his place in

English football Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...

history was assured.

Later life

It is believed that he retired altogether the following year, but only a little more is known about him. He was the son of William Brettell, foreman at a nut and bolt works, and Charlotte Burgess. He moved to the Liverpool area with his parents in the 1860s, became a school teacher in the 1880s and 1890s, marrying Lavinia Isabel Spearman in 1882, with whom he had 10 children. After his professional career in football finished he continued to live in Plymouth, working as a clerk to a carrier firm in 1911. He died in Dartford, Kent, in 1936 aged 74.

References

;General * * * ;Specific

External links

Soccerbase Statistics

Plymouth Argyle Managers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brettell, Frank Sportspeople from Smethwick English footballers Association football fullbacks Everton F.C. players English football managers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. managers Portsmouth F.C. managers Plymouth Argyle F.C. managers English Football League managers 1862 births 1936 deaths