Southampton & Sheffield United, 1902

April 19th, 1902.
Sheffield United were to face Southampton at Crystal  Palace and The Sporting Life was jam packed with statistics on the Cup Final teams.

	Age	Weight		Height
Foulke	25	21 st	133 kg	6 ft 2 1/2	1.89
Thickett	28	14 st 7	91 kg	5 ft 8 1/2	1.74
Boyle	25	12 st 7	79 kg	5 ft  9	1.75
Johnson	24	12 st  5	78 kg	5 ft  9	1.75
Wilkinson	22	10 st 9	67 kg	5 ft 5 1/2	1.66
Needham	29	11 st 3	71 kg	5 ft  6	1.67
Bennett	28	13 st 3	84 kg	5 ft  7 1/2	1.71
Common	21	13 st	82 kg	5 ft 9	1.75
Hedley	24	12 st 5	78 kg	5 ft 11	1.80
Priest	27	12 st 12	81 kg	5 ft  8	1.72
Lipsham	24	11 st 5	72 kg	5 ft  9	1.75

	Age	Weight		Height
Robinson	32	13 st 7	85 kg	5 ft 11	1.80
Fry	20	13 st	82 kg	5 ft 10	1.77
Molyneux	23	11 st 13	75 kg	5 ft 10 1/2	1.79
Meston	31	11 st 11	74 kg	5 ft 9	1.75
Bowman	30	11 st	69 kg	5 ft 7	1.70
Lee	23	13 st	82 kg	6 ft	1.82
A Turner	25	11 st 11	74 kg	5 ft 9	1.75
Wood	34	13 st 1	83 kg	5 ft 10	1.77
Brown	23	11 st 8	73 kg	5 ft 11	1.80
Chadwick	32	10 st 11	68 kg	5 ft 6	1.67
J Turner	29	11 st 5	72 kg	5 ft 7	1.70

The game finished 1-1, Harry 'The Wolf' Wood (playing in his 5th Cup Final) scoring a controversial equalizer for Southampton in the 88th minute. Wood was in an offside position when the ball came to him, reportedly tying his bootlace. The referee, Mr Kirkham, adjudged that the ball had come off a United player. Then followed the  legendary incident in which a naked Foulke berated Mr Kirkham who had to hide in a cupboard to escape the goalkeeper's attentions.

England 1904

The England squad in Glasgow ahead of their 1904 meeting with Scotland. The startched collars and watch chains speak of affluence. Woodward (an architect) and Harris (son of a senior Civil Servant and studying at Cambridge University) were amateurs. The remainder were the noveau riche on £4 a week.
The players pictured are, from left to right:

1	Steve Bloomer – inside right	Derby County
2	John Rutherford-outside right	Newcastle United
3	Bernard Wilkinson- centre half	Sheffield United
4	Alec Leake – left half	Aston Villa
5	Alf Common – forward (reserve)	Sheffield United
6	Fred Blackburn -outside left	Blackburn Rovers
7	Abraham Jones- centre half (reserve)	Middlesbrough
8	Tom Baddeley – goalkeeper	Wolverhampton Wanderers
9	Vivian Woodward- centre forward	Tottenham Hotspur
10	Herbert Burgess -left back	Manchester City
11	Sam Wolstenholme – right half	Everton
12	Bob Crompton – right back (captain)	Blackburn Rovers
13	Stanley Harris -inside left	Old Westminsters

England, who won that year's British Home Championship, were 1-0 winners  thanks to a 64th minute goal from Bloomer. 

Alf Common

In the above cartoon Alf Common, wearing his £1000 transfer tag, protects Middlesbrough from the spectre of the Second Division.
Tradition has it that Middlesbrough broke the transfer record to sign  Alf Common from Sunderland in February 1905 in order to save themselves from relegation. However, no teams were relegated that season as the First Division was expanded from 18 to 20 teams (Boro finished in 15th, two points above Bury who would have been down but for the restructuring). 
The following season Midlesbrough avoided relegation on goal average. In Common's remaining seasons on Teeside Boro finished 11th, 6th, 9th and 17th as Common racked up 58 league goals in 168 appearances.

Transfers

After the legalization of professionalism in 1885, the players were theoretically in a position to sell their labour  to whoever they wished. To ensure that the balance of power in the relationships between clubs (businesses) and their players (the workers) remained firmly in favour of the clubs, the FA introduced  the ‘retain and transfer’ system, which  gave clubs a great deal of power over the players. Once signed, having collected a maximum fee of £10, the player effectively became the property of the club.

The first player to be transferred for over £100 (£9,000)*  was Willie Groves (Scotland) who went from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa in 1893.

Andy McCombie(Scotland) was transferred from Sunderland to Newcastle United  in February 1904 for a fee of £700 (£61,000)*

Alf Common (England) was the first four figure player.

In February 1905, he moved from Sunderland to Middlesbrough for £1,000 (£86,879)*

1913 George Utley (England), from Barnsley to Sheffield United  £2,000 (£180,000)*

1913 Percy Dawson (England), from Heart of Midlothian  to Blackburn Rovers £2,500 (£225,000)*

1922 Syd Puddefoot (England), from West Ham to Falkirk  £5,000 (£192,500)*

1922 Warney Cresswell (England), from South Shields to Sunderland £5,500 (£211,750)*

1925 Bob Kelly (England), from Burnley to Sunderland  £6,550 (£ 310,700)*

1928 David Jack (England), from Bolton to Arsenal  £10,890 (£534000)*

1932 Bernabé Ferreyra (Argentina), from Tigre to River Plate  £23,000 (£1,230,500)*

* approximate 2012 value in brackets.