Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

Same old story?

felthamaddict
felthamaddict Posts: 200
in General Charlton
I just read on Wikipedia that Jimmy Seed 'discovered' Stanley Matthews, but Charlton didn't want to spend any money. Can this be true?
«1

Comments

  • Stig
    Stig Posts: 29,036
    Yes, absolutely true.
  • Stig
    Stig Posts: 29,036
    ...although 'discovered' might be a stretch. I think every football fan in the land had 'discovered' him by then.
  • felthamaddict
    felthamaddict Posts: 200
    Yes, an interesting word choice - the rest seemed pretty reliable tho.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,236
    Sort of.

    He didn't "discover" him, he was already playing for Stoke.

    Seed wanted to sign him but the board didn't want to pay a big fee for a  young, relatively untried player.


  • AFKABartram
    AFKABartram Posts: 57,833
    Henry Irving said:
    Sort of.

    He didn't "discover" him, he was already playing for Stoke.

    Seed wanted to sign him but the board didn't want to pay a big fee for a  young, relatively untried player.


    Thanks for the detail, Henners. Always helpful is having a Jimmy Seed expert on here 👍
  • felthamaddict
    felthamaddict Posts: 200
    Thank you Henry - I didn't know that piece of club history.

  • Lordflashheart
    Lordflashheart Posts: 5,623
    Defo true that Seed wanted to sign him - I think £13,000 was the suggested fee - and Matthews wanted to come 

    Oh what might have been !!!!

    As Lennie said, all those years ago - ‘never look back wishing’ 
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,236
    AFKABartram said:
    Henry Irving said:
    Sort of.

    He didn't "discover" him, he was already playing for Stoke.

    Seed wanted to sign him but the board didn't want to pay a big fee for a  young, relatively untried player.


    Thanks for the detail, Henners. Always helpful is having a Jimmy Seed expert on here 👍
    Something lacking from the site so I'm happy to help 
  • JamesSeed
    JamesSeed Posts: 17,380
    edited December 2023
    AFKABartram said:
    Henry Irving said:
    Sort of.

    He didn't "discover" him, he was already playing for Stoke.

    Seed wanted to sign him but the board didn't want to pay a big fee for a  young, relatively untried player.


    Thanks for the detail, Henners. Always helpful is having a Jimmy Seed expert on here 👍
    😂
    If they’d bought Matthews and updated the stadium as Seed requested, who knows where we’d be now. It was ever thus. 
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,236
    felthamaddict said:
    Thank you Henry - I didn't know that piece of club history.

    Believe it is in Seed's autobiography.

    Copies available from the museum 

  • Sponsored links:



  • JamesSeed
    JamesSeed Posts: 17,380
    Can I recommend this weighty tome:

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204365959047?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=rqgqb12prds&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=STNLlGt7T4S&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

    Hopefully to be updated at some stage, as there are vast gaps that need filling. I just need a little more time…
  • Big William
    Big William Posts: 3,842
    The legend was that the board asked Seed if he could guarantee prolonged  division football if they signed him, he couldn't, so no deal. Apparently when WW2 started Seed was told "See, we would have wasted our money". Considering he played for another 20+ years, points to a certain lack of foresight. ..
  • Lewis Coaches
    Lewis Coaches Posts: 5,409
    This is also a interesting read .
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,236
    Big William said:
    The legend was that the board asked Seed if he could guarantee prolonged  division football if they signed him, he couldn't, so no deal. Apparently when WW2 started Seed was told "See, we would have wasted our money". Considering he played for another 20+ years, points to a certain lack of foresight. ..
    I thought that was about building more seats but it is a long time since I read the book
  • JamesSeed
    JamesSeed Posts: 17,380
    edited December 2023
    Henry Irving said:
    Big William said:
    The legend was that the board asked Seed if he could guarantee prolonged  division football if they signed him, he couldn't, so no deal. Apparently when WW2 started Seed was told "See, we would have wasted our money". Considering he played for another 20+ years, points to a certain lack of foresight. ..
    I thought that was about building more seats but it is a long time since I read the book
    It was actually a new stand. In the 3rd division days Seed and the Glickstens were watching a match at The Valley when it started raining, and they noticed that the 15,000 crowd in the ground started drifting away. This led to the decision to build the ‘covered end’. 
    After reaching Div 1 (1937) JS asked Albert Glicksten about building a new covered stand with seating to accommodate the increasing crowds, but the Chairman said he’d only do it if Seed could guarantee three more seasons of first division football. 
    If someone asks you that, you say “Yes!” I’m afraid he didn’t. 
    There was also talk at one time of building a super stadium that could accommodate 200,000 fans, making it by far the biggest stadium in Britain.
    Of course transport links were always a problem. Most of the other London stadiums were and are served by tube trains as well as buses and, being more central, by black cabs too. Charlton would always struggle when the crowds were bigger, even in the days of the tram, but people were used to walking when necessary, back in the day. 
    I’m not sure how we’ll cope when we return to the Premier League in 2033 and the crowds come flooding back. If only. 
  • jonseventyfive
    jonseventyfive Posts: 3,354
    If you don't mind me saying, you guys say some pretty interesting stuff (in posts).
  • AFKABartram
    AFKABartram Posts: 57,833
    Thanks Jon, that’s very kind of you. 
  • JamesSeed
    JamesSeed Posts: 17,380
    Lewis Coaches said:
    This is also a interesting read .
    People think ‘soccer’ is an Americanism, but here it is being used in 1947. 
    And it was this photo of Seed that inspired the Keir Starmer hairstyle of course. 
  • T_C_E
    T_C_E Posts: 16,421
    Lordflashheart said:
    Defo true that Seed wanted to sign him - I think £13,000 was the suggested fee - and Matthews wanted to come 

    Oh what might have been !!!!

    As Lennie said, all those years ago - ‘never look back wishing’ 
    I understand @Redmidland sent his season ticket back in protest at the decision.
  • killerandflash
    killerandflash Posts: 69,879
    JamesSeed said:
    Lewis Coaches said:
    This is also a interesting read .
    People think ‘soccer’ is an Americanism, but here it is being used in 1947. 
    And it was this photo of Seed that inspired the Keir Starmer hairstyle of course. 
    Soccer was still very common here up until the 80s

    The Guinness Soccer Six for example

  • Sponsored links:



  • SporadicAddick
    SporadicAddick Posts: 6,873
    Soccer was used as a term to differentiate the game from rugger. It’s very much an English term originating from the very early days of football. It is a common myth that the term is American.
  • guinnessaddick
    guinnessaddick Posts: 28,659
    Charlton were also interested in John White when he was in Scotland, but wouldn’t pay the asking price. He went to Spurs and was a member of their ‘61 double winning team, sadly killed by lightning at the age of 27.
  • Stig
    Stig Posts: 29,036
    Soccer is a contraction the term Assoccer which was coined by Oxford students in the 1880s to differentiate the game from Rugger, which is also called (bizarrely, in my opinion) football. It is  based on the full name Association Football. Over time this was shortened to Soccer. I believe it was also called Socca, though that term now seems limited to six a side games. I'm scared to Google Assoccer in case that has developed a new meaning too.

    Lots of British football fans recoil at the word soccer as a result of snobbishly believing it is an American name for the game. It's not an Americanism at all though, although they tend to use it to differentiate the game from Gridiron, which is also called (bizarrely, in my opinion) football. 
  • GoldthorpesHeel
    GoldthorpesHeel Posts: 107
    edited December 2023

    Lewis Coaches said:
    This is also a interesting read .
    Used to be a copy of that book at my parents' house. Think we donated it to the museum.
  • killerandflash
    killerandflash Posts: 69,879
    Did you have 3 copies?  :D
  • Isawlearyplay
    Isawlearyplay Posts: 273
    Great read everyone
    Thanks 
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,236

  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,236

  • felthamaddict
    felthamaddict Posts: 200
    Mathews, Leary , Firmani - Charlton heaven.
  • JamesSeed
    JamesSeed Posts: 17,380
    killerandflash said:
    Did you have 3 copies?  :D
    I’ve got six or seven copies 🙂

Categories

“Marketplace”