[11] He was released by Grimsby and drifted down into non-league football with a brief spell at Swindon Town, playing three games and scoring twice,[12] but had to leave the club as he was unable to find a job in the area.

[15] Because of his studies, he mainly played for Worksop's reserves, but in a first-team match against Northampton Town he caught the opposition's eye and they offered him a contract, leading him to turn professional for the first time in 1901.

[19] In 1904, Chapman moved back to his old club Northampton Town, playing a season effectively on loan from Notts County (as they kept his registration), before being transferred permanently in 1905 to Tottenham Hotspur for £70.

The club's first ever transfer fee, £400, was paid for Welsh international Lloyd Davies who remains Northampton's most capped player,[29] winger Fred McDiarmid and playmaking centre half David McCartney.

[32] Additionally, they proved their mettle in the FA Cup against First Division sides, knocking out The Wednesday and taking Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United to replays, losing 1–0 both times.

[33] In the 1912 close season, he was offered the chance to manage Second Division Leeds City, and with Northampton's blessing moved north again to join the League club.

[40] For the next two years, City's assistant manager, George Cripps stood in for Chapman on the administrative side, while chairman Joe Connor and another director took charge of the team.

[39] Chapman returned to Leeds City from Barnbow after hostilities had ended, but resigned suddenly in December 1918, eventually moving to Selby to take up a position as a superintendent at an oil and coke works.

[25] Huddersfield Town backed Chapman in an appeal against his ban, arguing that as he had been working at the factory in Barnbow during the war, he had not been in charge of Leeds City during the time illegal payments were supposed to have been paid.

[46] In Chapman's first full season in charge (1921–22), Huddersfield Town won the FA Cup, beating Preston North End 1–0 in the final at Stamford Bridge, the club's first major trophy.

Bolstered by the money from the cup run, Chapman was able to make further signings such as goalkeeper Ted Taylor and forward Charlie Wilson (later to be joined by George Cook).

Huddersfield started brightly but a poor run of form in October and November (in part caused by an injury to goalkeeper Ted Taylor) saw them drop to ninth at one point.

[55] Taylor was replaced by new signing Billy Mercer and a resurgence in form saw Huddersfield climb the table, regaining top spot with a 5–0 win over Arsenal in February,[56] and eventually finishing two points clear of runners-up West Bromwich Albion.

[67] It proved to be an early dawn for Arsenal, who spent most of the rest of the 1920s in mid-table, as Chapman took his time finding the right players to fit his new system, outlining a five-year plan for success.

[68] He retained relatively few players of his predecessor Knighton's era – Bob John, Alf Baker and Jimmy Brain being the exceptions – and instead looked to bring in talent from elsewhere.

[64] In February 1926, he signed the pacy winger Joe Hulme, followed that summer by forward Jack Lambert and full-back Tom Parker, who would later succeed Buchan as captain.

[68] Although Arsenal's league form was indifferent, in 1927 they reached the FA Cup Final, their first, but lost 1–0 to Cardiff City after an error by goalkeeper Dan Lewis.

[71] As at his previous clubs, Chapman worked on improving the defence, notably through the signings of Herbie Roberts and Eddie Hapgood at centre half and left back respectively.

Bob Wall, Chapman's personal assistant at the time, later recounted the negotiations he made with Bolton's directors as follows:[71] We arrived at the hotel half-an-hour early.

[74] A huge sum was offered (a blank cheque, some say) for the prolific McGrory, and Maley was more than ready to accept, for Celtic needed money to pay for its new stand.

[75] Chapman had laid out a five-year plan for success in 1925, and it came to fruition exactly on schedule, as his Arsenal won their first major trophy in the 1930 FA Cup Final, beating his old side, Huddersfield Town, 2–0.

[77] Chapman employed Bastin and Hulme as pacy wingers who could cut inside instead of hugging the touchline;[78] they could either shoot for goal themselves or pick each other out if the centre forward was marked out of the game.

[90] In the following close season, Chapman became the first professional manager in charge of England, albeit in an ad hoc unofficial capacity, for a summer tour of Europe.

[92] Chapman started the process, signing Ray Bowden, Pat Beasley and Jimmy Dunne, and had converted the young George Male from left half to right back.

Arsenal went into 1933–34 looking to retain the title, and started consistently; they worked their way to the top of the league and were a comfortable four points clear after a goalless draw with Birmingham on 30 December 1933.

[94] The following day, he travelled to his native Yorkshire to watch Sheffield Wednesday, Arsenal's next opponents, before spending a final night in his home town of Kiveton Park.

[6] Chapman was one of the first football managers in the modern sense of the word, taking full charge of the team, rather than letting board members pick the side.

[96] Unlike many of his contemporaries in Britain, Chapman was a fan of the continental game and counted among his friends Hugo Meisl and Jimmy Hogan, coaches of the Austrian "Wunderteam" of the 1930s.

Chapman had proposed a Europe-wide club competition more than twenty years before the European Cup was instituted, and regularly took his teams abroad to play foreign sides.

[102] Chapman advocated the use of white footballs and numbered shirts, as well as adding hoops to Arsenal's socks to make it easier for players to pick each other out.