oohaahmortimer asks:
"did the charlton board turn down the opportunity to sign sir stanley matthews? "
Back in November 1938, after guiding Charlton from the 3rd Division South to Runners Up in successive seasons finishing just 1 point behind Champions Man City , manager Jimmy Seed was intent on establishing Charlton as the leading force in the land.
He offered the then huge sum of £13,000 for Stanley Matthews and the Stoke City manager was willing to sell !
When he told chairman Albert Gliksten, he gasped,"Have you gone mad, Jimmy!"
To give you a better idea of what a £13,000 offer meant in 1938, the transfer record was set by Arsenal a few months before at £14,000 paid for Bryn Jones of Wolves. Only someone like New York Addick could perhaps tell you what that would be worth in today's money.
But dear old Uncle Albert needn't have panicked as the next day, Stoke City directors refused to sell at any price.
Ten months later the Second World War put paid to League football and Albert Gliksten reminded Jimmy Seed of the extravagant bid. "A good job we didn't buy Matthews," he said, "It would have been £13,000 down the drain!"
Jimmy said in his memoirs how wrong he was, as Stanley Matthews was still pulling in crowds until he retired in 1965 aged 50 - just imagine playing top flight football around that age today. Even Teddy Sherringham couldn't manage that one.
Seed was still sore about not signing Matthews many years later. From his book, 'The Jimmy Seed Story', he reckons that '.....in spite of the war years, Charlton would have paid off that £13,000 with handsome dividends. Gates would have jumped, and Charlton would have had the glamour that the team has always lacked in spite of many splendid achievements. Charlton should have pursued Matthews even if it meant paying £15,000 or more. It would have been their finest ever investment.'
What might have been, eh?
Despite strong rumour, I missed every single match that season so I've cribbed all my information from 'The Jimmy Seed Story by Himself' - a brilliant read if you can still get hold of an old copy.
I got mine from the now demolished Oxfam shop just along from Bromley South station about 25 years ago. Ask your old Grandad, he might just have a treasured copy gathering dust in the attic.
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I believe the the first edition of Seed's book is called 'The South Stand Story'.
Mine, still with battered bright red dust jacket is a rather yellowed hardback copy published in 1957.
I'd love to read Eddie Firmani's & Sam Bartram's books. Can you still get them/or the boxed set?
PS: Did anyone actually read right the way through my rather long winded essay or skip straight to the bit about the book at the end.......?
;o)
Club shop might still have the boxed set?
In future, what I can't say in one sentence I'm not going to say at all! *stomps off into the sunset*
PS: You don't believe that, do you? Leopards don't change their spots.
believe it or not Amazon have people selling them firmani's and seed's all for less than a score.
A quote from the book from Stanley.
I met Ronnie Biggs at his apartment in rio,we had tea and he asked me how Charlton Athletic are doing these days? It Turned out he had supported charlton from being a small boy and had often seen me play at the valley.
I Told him i'd tell him how Charlton were fairing if he told me had managed to escape from prison.
A Great book.
Actually the sub-title for the book is "they'll name a stand after me one day but the ignorant twats will spit on my memory by not using the stand's proper name". He was a little bitter in the end. ; - )
Got first editions of the three books in that pack plus Jimmy's coaching book "Soccer from the inside" and the biography of Seed that he Grandson made as part of a jounalism course. Only 20 copies every producded. His Grandson gave it to me for safe keeping to be give to a Charlton musuem whenever that opens.
Also got a spare copy of the 1903 - 1937 history if anyone wants to make me an offer.
Nice little anecdote, Badger.
Step aside Michael Grade, Jim Davidson et al .......Ronnie Biggs, No 1 Charlton Fan.
Add that to your list of Charlton Celebs! LOL
Bang on, Ooh Aah Morts.
Just imagine Charlton being plastered over about 4 pages of every newspaper every day.
Crowds of 75,000 again.
And Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry playing for US!
And, worst of all, there'd be no football on the bloody telly without it being bloody Charlton AGAIN!
Big thanks to everyone for suggesting where I coud get Firmani's & Big Sam's books.
Except to Weegie, of course, who fell asleep half way through reading my post......
Bing's little snippet from the book about building a big 2-tiered stand is interesting.
Our Jimmy says in his book that the chairman Albert Gliksten asked him,"Will you guarantee to keep us in the First Division for three seasons?"
Seed says that he thought his chairman was right at the time, but once again had been proved wrong.
If the projected second stand had been built, the club 'may well have staged international games
which would have put the club on the map like Arsenal and Tottenham.
'Charlton with one, or even two, double decker stands plus, of course, Stanley Matthews, could have been London's most successful club, but after our remarkable achievements, the policy became one of holding on rather than building up.'
A policy that saw the club slide from the brink of being a glamour club in the 30's to the almost terminal decline in the 80's.
Are you still awake, Weegie.....?
;o)
And this morning, I've just taken delivery of a slim volume of Jimmy Seed's memories - perfect, since I'm going away later this afternoon.
Chapter four is called "Charlton on Queer Street", incidentally.