Outcasts FC

Manchester United during the dispute

Meredith pictured as Guy Fawkes

Following the demise of the AFU there was no organized body to represent the interests of the professionals until 1907.  The rather clumsily named Association of Football Players’ and Trainers’ Union (the 'of' is unnecessary?) popularly known as The Players' Union was formed on  December 2, 1907  at the Imperial Hotel, Manchester. The main figures involved were Manchester Untited's Charlie Roberts and Billy Meredith.

The The Players' Union campaigned for freedom of movement, compensation for loss of earnings through injury and opposed the ceiling on wages. 

On June 9th 1909, the FA management committee announced thet any player not cancelling their membership of the Union by July 1st would have their registration cancelled. 
In response to this threat the teams of Newcastle United, Middlesbrough and Sunderland joined en masse, as did about 150 other League players. Manchester United (and their reserves) were all members bar 3- so the ban would have hit them particularly hard.

Peter Curran, Labour MP for Jarrow and President of the General federation of Trade Unionists gave the players his backing- they are morally right in every way, and cannot do other than win, and their demands are fair as fair can be. The Football Association is an association of capitalists and the Players' Union is a union of workmen...

Veitch

Prominent in the negotiations that brought an end to the dispute was Colin Veitch, Newcastle United's egalitarian socialist and Chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association between 1911 and 1918.
On August 31st  1909 the FA backed down and recognized the Union. All suspensions were lifted and the players that had been suspended had the wages owed to them paid.

The unfortunate thing is that so many players refuse to take things seriously but are content to live a kind of schoolboy life and to do just what they are told . . . instead of thinking and acting for himself and his class-  Meredith

Try to remember that union is strength, and without it you can do nothing- Roberts

All Together Boys!

Charlie Roberts, Alex Downie and George Wall have a trot round Old Trafford, The Crewe skipper still has a love for his old clubmates and their new quarters.

Dundee Evening Telegraph 14.02.12

Glaswegian Alex Downie played for Third Lanark, Bristol City and Swindon Town before joining Newton Heath in 1902. The following year the Heathens underwent a change of name  and became Manchester United.  The half back played 191 games for the club before moving on to Oldham Athletic, United were still playing at Bank Street when he left the club.
At the time Downie was at Crewe Alexandra (1911-12) they were playing in the new Central League. They had been a League club between 1892 and 1896 and rejoined with the expansion in 1921-22.

Manchester United's First FA Cup Win -1909

GK		Harry Moger
RB		George Stacey
LB		Vince Hayes
RH		Dick Duckworth
CH		Charlie Roberts (c)
LH		Alex Bell
OR		Billy Meredith
IR		Harold Halse
CF		Jimmy Turnbull
IL		Sandy Turnbull
OL		George Wall

United played in a white strip with a red chevron.

The toss, the captains were the two great centre halves, Charlie Roberts and Billy Wedlock. Referee Mr Jim Mason.

A great view of Crystal Palace as the game gets underway. Note the 2-3-5 formations.

 Sandy Turnbull scores for United. Turnbull was later implicated in the 1915 Betting Scandal and was  banned for life from football. Turnbull was killed in action in Arras (1917). His life ban was posthumously rescinded by the Football Association in 1919 (!).

England's New Internationals 1905-06

	Club	Position	Caps	Goals
Herod Ruddlesdin	The Wednesday	wing half	3
One of the most curiously named footballers- Mothers, read your Bibles!
Harold Hardman	Everton	outside Left	4	1
A member of the gold medal-winning British team at the 1908 Olympics, Mr Hardman was later chairman of Manchester United.
Dicky Bond	Preston North End	outside right	8	2
Bond left the military in order to turn professional. During the 1914-18 war he rejoined the army, and was a prisoner of war.
Herbert Smith	Reading	left back	4
An amateur, he also played for Great Britain in the 1908 Olympic games.
Joe Bache	Aston Villa	inside left	7	4
Charlie Roberts	Manchester United	centre half	3
It is remarkable that a man who was reckoned to be so complete a centre half only earned 3 caps. Roberts, as we know, influenced Vittorio Pozzo and was also a labour activist.
Harry  Linacre	Nottingham Forest	goalkeeper	2
Linacre kept a clean sheet vs Scotland
Arthur Bridgett	Sunderland	outside left	11	3
7 of Bridgett’s caps came against continental teams (unusual at the time). His England goals came in Vienna (2) and Budapest (1)
Frank ‘Tabby’ Booth	Manchester City	outside left	1

World Team of the Decade-1900s

	Player	Team	Country
GK	Leigh Richmond Roose	Stoke	Wales
It was reading about Roose's selection for the World v Another Planet in 1905 that gave me the idea for this series. A playboy maverick shamateur Roose represented 7 clubs in the Football League as well as Celtic.
RB	Bob Crompton	Blackburn	England
I'd pick Bob Crompton on looks alone- his appearance is imperious, He also clocked up a remarkable 41 international appearances and 600 plus games for Blackburn Rovers.
LB	Jimmy Watson	Sunderland	Scotland
Daddy Long Legs was a key  member of Sunderland's championship winning side of 1902.
RH	Andy "Daddler" Aitken	Newcastle United	Scotland
Aitken played over 300 League games for Newcastle United and represented Scotland 14 times.
CH	Charlie Roberts	Manchester United	England
The mobile pivot was the inspiration for Pozzo's metodo.
LH	Ernest Needham	Sheffield United	England
The industrious and cerebral half back who was a 'box to box' player.
OR	Billy Meredith	Manchester City	Wales
The original Welsh Wizard of dribble who played top class football for 30 years.
IR	Bobby Walker	Heart of Midlothian	Scotland
Considered by many contemporaries to have been the greatest player to date and a man who inspired the development of the inside forward as a midfield playmaker.
CF	Vivian Woodward	Tottenham Hotspur	England
Woodward was not all about smashing in hatfuls of goals against inept foreign teams- he scored  14 goals in 16 Home Internationals  and 103 goals in  238 League appearances.
IL	Colin Veitch	Newcastle United	England
A fascinating man who could haver been a succesful politician and was an accomplished dramatist, Veitch was a versatile player and successful club captain.
OL	Bobby Templeton	Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Woolwich Arsenal Celtic, Kilmarnock	Scotland
Templeton possessed dazzling skills and was known as the Prince of Dribblers

Charlie Roberts and The Metodo

When Vittorio Pozzo was developing the Metodo that would help Italy to win 2 World Cups he had a very definite model in mind. Pozzo was a lifelong Anglophile, and when he was living in England  he had become a great admirier of Manchester United. Pozzo met Charlie Roberts and the men became friends.

At the time Charlie Roberts was the very acme of the pivotal centre half, orchestrating his team's attacks. It was this playmaker role that Pozzo remembered when the rest of the world was drifting into the 'third back' game.
Roberts was an interesting man. A pioneer of the players union (the Association of Football Players’ and Trainers’ Union), his militancy and refusal to bow to his employers demands led to the Union being accepted  by the FA.

Charlie Roberts upset the Football Association by starting the fashion of wearing very short knickers. At the end of every season he traveled to Grimsby (where he had played before joining United) and spent his summers working on a North Sea trawler.
In 1928 Roberts teamed up with his former Manchester United teammate and Union comrade Billy Meredith to coach Manchester Central. Charlie Roberts Jr, his son, played for Central. 
Pozzo found his 'Roberts' in Luis Monti, who had joined Juventus in 1930. Monti was a vigorous and mobile centre half who retained the traditional play making  role of the centre half, 
rather than settling into a purely central defensive position.

Shorts, Knickers etc...

This illustration of the 1872 Scotland v England match shows the players wearing 'knickerbockers', trousers that were tucked into the stockings. Some players of this era (Kinnaird notably) wore ordinary trousers.

By 1891 there was a slight shortening, but the knickers were still below knee length, as we can see in this illustration of the FA Cup Final between Blackburn Rovers and Notts County.
 In the early 20th century Manchester United's Charlie Roberts was a trend setter, wearing what were considered indecently short knickers. Roberts' was an extreme case and most players persisted with knee length shorts.

Roberts

1920

Female footballers in 1920 had a distinctly modern appearance. This must have represented considerable novelty appeal to the onlookers. 

1936- Harry  Hooper (Sheffield United)  wears shorts that would not look out of place today. Alex James ( Arsenal ) sports his trademark voluminous pants (I hesitate to use the word 'shorts').