So on 18th May 1910 Woolwich Arsenal’s board met the Football League, at the Imperial Hotel in central London, with a view to explaining if the club could go forward for next season. The League were anxious to know because they wanted to settle down and draw up the fixtures for the coming season.
Chelsea and Bolton tried to encourage their demise in the hope that they would not be relegated, but Norris seemingly came to the rescue. Or did he?
On 19th May Norris and his sidekick Hall turned up in Woolwich, seemingly having discussions with the owners of the club, and trying to drum up some new owners so they didn’t have to take all the risk themselves.
Hall proved to be as inept as Leavey’s friends at selling shares with a buy back option if the club moved out of the area – or maybe it was just that everyone had had too much of attempts to sell Woolwich Arsenal. Maybe no one believed the club could continue.
There was a meeting of the Woolwich Arsenal Fundraising Committee in the evening which Hall and Norris attended. They refused to give any assurances that the club would stay in Kent, nor even that the club would survive. It became clear that Norris was playing hard-to-get. He wanted the locals to cough up some money, and they were not playing.
The question was, who was on the board of the new club. It looked decidedly like Norris and Hall, with another of their Fulham mates, Allen.
It was not as settled as maybe the Football League had thought.
Tony Attwood
The Untold Index to Everything Positive and Nice (except Fifa and its bent world cup)
Woolwich Arsenal – now there is a club on the brink of disaster
The Book – not as useful as the Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy, but still, quite good for a read during the summer break.
