Football writing, thoughts and more by Gary James
On this day (10 December) in 1983 41,852 witnessed Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat by promotion rivals Sheffield Wednesday at Maine Road. The crowd was the highest Division Two crowd of the season. Here’s a contemporary report of that game and a few highlights from the game:
We’re in the knock out stages of the World Cup and Manchester City players are contributing significantly to England’s progression at the moment. They are household names and are delivering on the biggest stage, but what about the first City player to appear for England? Who was it and when? Well, here’s the answer.
The first Manchester City player to appear for England was Herbert Burgess, who was reportedly born in Openshaw on 25 February 1883. Burgess was a left back but, according to articles at the time, was only 5ft 4.75 inches tall (weighing 11st 7lbs).
He made his first England appearance against Wales, and City teammate Billy Meredith, in February 1904 and did well in a game that ended 2-2 at Wrexham.
Prior to City Burgess had joined Football League side Glossop in March 1900 and, after three good years there, he moved to City on 30 July 1903. The fee City paid was £250. This was a period when Manchester’s Blues seemed to be cherry-picking the best Glossop had to offer and one report even suggested the nearby club was becoming a nursery club for City.
Burgess made three international appearances in 1904 with the Welsh game followed by a 3-1 victory over Ireland at Solitude, Belfast in March and a 1-0 win over Scotland at Parkhead, Glasgow on 9 April 1904. Only two weeks later Burgess helped City to FA Cup success (they became the first Manchester team to win a major trophy) and the Blues were also League runners up. These were great days for Burgess.
He made one further appearance for England – a 2-1 defeat at Hampden Park on 7 April 1906, played in front of 102,741 – and was furious that one of the Scotland goals was allowed to stand.
This period was a tough one for Burgess as the illegal payments scandal at City completely rocked his world. He was one of 17 players suspended by the FA (I can talk about this for days – it was so unfair and northern newspapers believed it was some sort of conspiracy by the southern based FA!).
Burgess was forced to leave City and, along with other star men, including Billy Meredith, he joined the then underdogs Manchester United and helped them achieve their first major success. He then moved to Denmark and played for Kristiania before joining Hungarian club MTK Budapest.
When his playing days came to an end he became Budapest’s manager and then managed Padova (1922-1926). He left Padova to become Milan’s manager in 1926 and after two years there he returned to Padova.
From 1930 to 1932 Burgess managed another Italian club, Roma. This photo is of Burgess (with cap on) as manager of AS Roma.
Burgess immediately etched his own name into the history of Roma, winning the first ever Rome derby in only his second game in charge. Roma won 1-0 win at Lazio’s Stadio della Rondinella. Burgess also guided Roma to success in the second derby, winning 3-1, the following May, this time at their all-wooden ground Campo Testaccio.
Burgess never lost a Rome derby during his time there as they drew their subsequent two derbies under him. His Roma team also pushed eventual champions Juventus all the way in the 1930-31 campaign, finishing just four points behind Juventus as runners-up.
Sadly, it’s been reported that Italy’s development under the dictatorship of Mussolino meant that English coaches were under pressure to leave and Burgess returned to Manchester, taking a job as a labourer on a housing estate on the outskirts of Manchester. He also became trainer to Ashton National.
He died in 1954.
In total at City he made 94 first team appearances and scored two goals. Had the illegal payments scandal not occurred he may well have been an England regular for several years. As it is his career is pretty impressive for a lad born in Openshaw in the 1880s – FA Cup & League winner; England international; manager of prominent clubs in Hungary and Italy.
People tend to think that it’s only in the modern era that Manchester City have achieved anything or that footballers have gone abroad to coach major clubs like Milan, Budapest and Roma, but the truth is that men like Burgess achieved so much over a century ago. We must take steps to remember them. Oh, and while I’m here it’s worth pointing out that City did have international players for years before Burgess but they didn’t play for England.
The earliest played to make an international appearance while on City’s books made an appearance for Wales in 1890 when the club was still Ardwick. Maybe I’ll write about him one day too?
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If you have enjoyed this piece and would like to support my writing while also accessing further great content, then why not subscribe? Those who subscribe on an annual basis get access to everything posted on this site since December 2020. Those subscribing on a monthly basis get access to everything posted since 1 October 2022. It’s £20 a year (subscribe above) or £3 per month (subscribe here). Why not try it for a month?
I’m delighted to announce that the 2023 International Football History Conference will be staged at Hampden Park, Glasgow on 30 June and 1 July 2023. The call for papers and details of how to get involved will be announced in January but here are a few details for those interested in getting the date in their diaries….
The aim of this conference is to listen to quality research and to network with others. We hope delegates take the opportunity to meet with colleagues, friends and other delegates to share your research, hear their ideas and help establish a strong network of football (of all types!) researchers and experts.
The most recent conference was held in Manchester in November 2022 and it owes its success this year to all delegates whether presenting or not, and to the following who have provided great support:
City Football Group & Routledge
We would also like to put on record our thanks to British Society of Sports History for their support during Covid when the BSSH funded a zoom licence which allowed us to have a couple of gatherings online.
Rouledge have provided vouchers for a ‘Best Paper Award’ each year and their support has helped enormously.
Following feedback and the support of Richard McBrearty and the Scottish National Football Museum we will be able to take the conference to Glasgow for the first time in 2023. Provisional details are:
In addition to any debate suggestions, presentations in the following formats will be welcomed:
Short Form (7 minutes) – 20 slides (plus a title slide) with a maximum of 20 seconds per slide.. Ideal for a summary of research; to present early findings; Image related research etc.
Twenty Minutes – Twenty minutes of slides but no audience questions.
Fifteen plus Five – Fifteen minutes of presentation slides plus five minutes of questions (or any combination up to a maximum of twenty minutes).
Follow @footycon for further information.
If anyone would like to contribute to the conference (in terms of organisational support both in the build-up to 2023 and at the conference itself) then please let us know as soon as possible. The more volunteers, the better the conference. Also, financial support is always useful in helping to keep the costs for delegates down. If you are involved with an organisation who can provide some support then please get in touch. Or if you feel you may be able to add value in some way then we are keen to hear from you.
See you in Glasgow, 30th June & 1st July 2023!
Here’s the schedule for the Manchester 2022 conference (you can search on twitter to see images from the conference with #Footycon22 ):
On this day (8 December) in 1993 Brian Horton’s Manchester City defeated Everton 1-0 with a goal from Carl Griffiths. You can read more on the 1993-94 season here:
On this day (7 December) in 1999 came one of Stockport County’s most celebrated victories of all time when they defeated Manchester City in a (2nd tier) League meeting at Maine Road before 32,686. Here are highlights (or lowlights depending on which team you support):
On this day (6 December) in 2004 Bradley Wright-Phillips marked his first League appearance with an 80th minute goal for Manchester City against Middlesbrough. I won’t bother mentioning the final score but you can watch highlights of the game here if you want:
On this day (3 December) in 1951 John Burridge was born. 43 years and 147 days later he appeared for Manchester City’s first team and became the oldest player to appear in the Premier League. You can read more about the 1994-95 season here:
On this day (2 December) in 2009 goals from Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Vladimir Weiss gave Manchester City a 3-0 victory over Arsenal in the League Cup quarter-final tie. A crowd of 46,015 watched the game in Manchester. Here’s a contemporary report of the game:
On this day (1 December) in 1970 Manchester City’s 1969 FA Cup winning ‘keeper Harry Dowd joined Oldham Athletic. Dowd had achieved a great deal at City over the years, including scoring a goal. You can read about that goal here:
On this day (30 November) in 1981 former Manchester City, Oldham & England coach Bill Taylor died at the age of 42. Taylor was a tremendous coach who joined City from Fulham in 1976 and also coached England. At the time goalkeeper Joe Corrigan commented: “His coaching methods were an inspiration to so many players and he helped tremendously to improve many of them. He was always a bright and breezy character and he had a terrific sense of humour. I can never repay the debt I owe him for the help he gave me both with City and England.”
Gary James' Football Archive 