The Jacks

This has got nothing to do with Swansea Town (or City)...

David Jack took a look at the masses of people covering the Wembley pitch on 28th April 1923 and said to his father 'If I don't get a goal in the first five minutes I'm coming off...' 
He got one in the 3rd minute. The first goal ever scored at Wembley. So every football lover should know the name of David Jack.
He was , however, part of a footballing family that shows us a great deal about the game's development in the first part of the 20th century.

Bob Jack

David's father, Bob Jack, was a Scotsman. An outside right, he started playing for Alloa Athletic as a 15 year old. Like many Scottish professionals at the time he moved to England, where he played for Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End before stepping down in class to turn out for Glossop, Plymouth Argyle and Southend United.
He had moved into management whilst still at Argyle (joining them in 1903 he became player manager in 1905) and was player manager during his 4 year stint with Southend (1906-10). On retiring as a player he returned to Plymouth, where he was in charge for 28 years (for a total of 1,093 games). In later life he carried out scouting duties for Southend (when David was managing them).

Bob Jack had three grandly named sons who were all footballers:

David Bone Nightingale Jack was one of the most well known footballers of his era.

An inside forward, he began his career at Plymouth Argyle when his father was the manager. After just one season he moved to Bolton Wanderers in 1920.  He was the club's top scorer for five of the eight seasons he was there, scoring 144 goals in 295 league matches. In 1928 Bolton were facing financial problems. David Jack then became the world's most expensive footballer when Herbert Chapman paid  £10,890  to take him to Arsenal (the previous world record was £6,550).

Rollo

Robert Rollo Jack was an inside right. 3 years younger than David, he began his career with Plymouth Argyle at the age of 20. Having made 15 league appearances he was sold to Bolton Wanderers (where he joined David) for £1500. Rollo was a fringe player at Bolton, and in six seasons  he only made 29 League appearances. In 1929 Rollo joined Clapton Orient and was a regular for 3 seasons. He drifted into non league football before joining Swindon Town in 1934. 


Donald Atrill Jack. Donald didn't reach the level of accomplishment achieved by his brothers. He was a reserve player with Argyle, also turning out for Torquay United.  He joined Bolton Wanderers in 1922, but only played for the reserves. He also served Bradford City, but was not a first team player. 

After giving up football to pursue a career in accountancy Donald played as an  amateur with Finchley. 

Reading in Italy 1913, Attilio Fresia

Reading 1913-14

without doubt, Reading FC are the finest foreign team seen in Italy.

 Corriere della Sera

In the summer of 1913 Reading of the Southern League undertook a tour of Italy. It is likely that Willy Garbutt was involved in organizing this. Garbutt began his career with Reading (1903–1906) before moving on to Woolwich Arsenal and Blackburn Rovers. In 1912 his playing career at an end, he moved to Genoa and managed the team.
 After a transcontinental railway journey Reading played the following six fixtures in Italy.

11.05.13: Genoa FCB 2-4 Reading
Genoa fielded 5 British born players. Both of Genoa's goals were scored by Attilio Fresia, who had moved there from Andrea Doria that season for a fee equivalent to £400.

12.05.13: Milan FCB 0-5 Reading

14.05.13: Casale 2-1 Reading
Casale, who won the Italian National Championship in became the first Italian team to defeat English professional opposition. The local press had billed Reading as the Football League runners-up (they were 8th in the Southern League- the 1912–13 league runners up were Aston Villa ). Bizarrely Casale played on a very small pitch-probably about 50 yards (34 yards according to one report ) by 90 yards.

15.05.13: Pro Vercelli 0-6 Reading 
The best team in Italy. Reading won with ease in a controversial and fiery game. Reading's Morris retaliated to a kick from one of Pro Vercelli's players and the Pro Vercelli team and the home crowd 'turned ugly'. Reading were going to walk off the pitch, but Pro Vercelli's captain was able to restore order.

18.05.13: Italy 0-2 Reading
Italy's starting line up included 8 players from Pro Vercelli, 2 from Genoa and 1 from Milan.
Following this match Reading were invited to play against Germany  but their travelling arrangements (they left for England the following day) forced them to decline.

 Attilio Fresia 

Attilio Fresia 's performance for Genoa aroused Reading's interest. Fresia had made his international debut against Belgium ten days before reading's arrival. He brought a new dimension to ther Italian game with his high level of skill and astuteness.  Reading signed him for £17, but the transfer (being the first of it's kind) was delayed by bureaucracy and Fresia remained in Genoa , assisting Garbutt, until December 1913. Fresia became the first Italian to play football in England. He didn't make much of an impression (although media interest was high)- the press observed that he struggled  on heavy pitches. Fresia returned to Italy the following year. After the war he moved to Brazil in the hope of recovering his health (he had chronic respiratory problems) and worked with Palestra Italia. He returned to Italy once more in 1922, and died the following year aged 32.

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.

Charlie Buchan - £100 a goal

 In 1925 Arsenal wanted to sign the veteran Charlie Buchan from Sunderland in 1925.
Based on the belief that Buchan was good for 20 goals in a season, Sunderland valued him at £4000.
Arsenal proposed that if Sunderland were that confident in Buchan's goalscoring potential (he was 34 years old) that they would pay £2000 for him, but add £100 for every goal that he scored.
Having rejoined the Highbury club, Buchan scored 21 goals that season, so Arsenal ended up paying £100 more than Sunderland had originally asked!

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.