If you have been reading the history of Chapman’s time at Arsenal on this site, or taking in some of the articles about his history as a footballer and as a football manager, you’ll probably have picked up that we ran a celebration day at St Mary’s Church in Hendon, where we discussed all that Chapman has done for Arsenal, and delivered into his own life.
It was a fantastic day out – and I write that not as a person who set the day up – that was Drew Grey the chair of Arsenal Independent Supporters Association – but as one who lent a hand with a couple of short talks about Chapman’s time at Arsenal.
And the main thing that struck me throughout the day was that the church itself was fully aware that Chapman was buried in their church grounds, and who he was and what he achieved. It does mean that any Arsenal supporter paying a visit to the church is certain to get a very warm welcome with a lot of understanding of just who it is that you have come to pay your respects to.
Chapman as we know from the series that has been running on this site, was a football man through and through, and was the man who transformed Arsenal. The year before he came to Arsenal, the club missed relegation to the second division by one place. In his first season, Chapman took Arsenal up to second in the league. And of course, after that he gave Arsenal the club’s first FA Cup win, and its first two League titles.
At his untimely death, Chapman left behind him a club that was recognised as the best in the League. They had won the League the season before his passing, then after his death, his deputy took the club on to win the title again, and then the following season a new permanent manager was brought in and Arsenal won the league for the third time running – under three managers.
I do hope you have a chance to look at the article on the Untold Arsenal site, and of course, if you feel that AISA is an organisation that you would like to be part of you can get in touch with Arsenal Independent Supporters Association directly through that link.
On this site we have been tracing the history of Herbert Chapman’s life through a series of articles. These have been paused for a short while as we prepared for the meeting held on Thursday 12th June, but we’ll now pick up on them again to take us on through the rest of Chapman’s time at Arsenal.
Article by Tony Attwood
Here’s an index of the series so far…
100 Years since Herbert Chapman Joined the Arsenal
- 1: Taking over from failure
- 2: Approaching a 100th anniversary at Arsenal of mega-importance.
- 3: The Arsenal that Knighton left behind
- 4: Knighton is removed
- 5: A new manager
- 6: What happened to Chapman at Leeds?
- 7: Success at Huddersfield, and concern at Arsenal
- 8. Why did Chapman leave successful Huddersfield
- 9: Arsenal wait for the right moment
- 10: Why Knighton had to go
- 11: Chapman – the man who moved from club to club
- 12: “What made him such an amazing manager
- 13: The Man of Revolutions in a period of no rights
- 14: Chapman reforms Leeds City and is banned from football for life
- 15: The making of Huddersfield Town
- 16: What went wrong at Leeds?
- 17: Chapman banned from football for life, but football goes on
- 18: Chapman wins the league at Huddersfield
- 19: Chapman leaves Huddersfield and replaces Knighton at Arsenal
- 20: How Arsenal moved from 20th to 2nd in one season under Chapman
- 21: The first season, what actually happened?
- 22: Chapman’s first season at Arsenal: the changes he made
- 23: Success did not come at once
- 24: The changes made for the 1st season
- 25: Why Chapman wanted to leave Huddersfield
