Edgar Chadwick

Chadwick spent the autumn of his career at Liverpool, after a sensational period at Everton from 1888-1899. He signed for the Blues before the inaugural Football League season of 1888/89 and played 300 games and scored 110 goals. His highlight was winning the League Championship in 1891. The 5ft. 6in. (167 cm.) left-winger was called "King of the dribblers and master of the ball" by Victor Hall in the Liverpool Echo in the 1920s. "To see Edgar Chadwick in play was to realise for the first time what the art of 'dribbling' really meant," he noted.  

Chadwick joined Burnley at 30 years of age, but despite being the top-scorer of the team with ten goals he couldn‘t prevent their relegation to Second Division. He moved to Southampton where he was victorious in the Southern league before featuring in the 1902 FA Cup final where the Saints lost 2-1 to Sheffield United in a replay. That defeat completed an unwanted hat-trick for Chadwick who had twice before been on the losing side with Everton in an FA Cup final, in 1893 and 1897. After 52 league games and 18 goals for the Saints, Chadwick bought his own transfer for £35 from the Burnley Club, whose Football League player he still was, with the object of returning to League football.

Chadwick was registered with the FA as a Liverpool player on 3 May 1902. He played in the Reds' forward-line for two seasons between the Championship wins in 1901 and 1906. His teammates undoubtedly learnt a whole lot from playing with him as "he had a kindly disposition to new players and especially to young ones coming along", as Victor Hall noted. Chadwick missed only five of the 34 first division matches in the 1902/03 season and scored seven times, including two in the 9-2 demolition of Grimsby Town at Anfield on 6 December 1902. He added a further 15 matches to his total the following season of which 11 were defeats in the disastrous 1903/04 campaign.

A pioneer in Englishmen coaching abroad Chadwick became a respected coach in Holland and took charge of the Dutch national team in 1908, a post he held until November 1913, guiding the team to bronze medals in the 1908 and 1912 Olympics. He returned to Blackburn to work as a baker and made one final appearance as a wartime guest for Blackburn Rovers against Manchester United on 11 November 1916, at the age of 47!