I mentioned in a recent post that I had spent a night with Billy Wright at St George’s Park.
Billy has a link with Charles Reep through Stan Cullis, the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
This was the first whisper of notation for me at St George’s this week.
A second came on the way to my workshop room yesterday. I was in the Walter Winterbottom part of the building.
Graham Morse has written a biography of Walter (The Father of Modern English Football). It was published in the centenary of his birth in 1913.
My recollection is that Walter conducted one of the first real-time, time and motion notations in football. He wrote about his record of a Bobby Robson performance for England. (I do need go back to a primary source for the details of this analysis but I think it is reported in Allen Wade’s FA Guide to Training and Coaching.)
This is why it is a whisper … I need to follow this up but did not want to miss an opportunity to acknowledge his innovative thinking. Hopefully, a contribution to a ‘Who do you think you are?’ record of notation in sport.
Photo Credit
Walter Winterbottom (FA)
