Memories of football legend Fred Pentland, a star in England and a hero to fans in a corner of Spain

Yes, take a Bilbao, Fred Pentland, a footballing supreme who led before the false 9s, holding midfielders and full-backs. Back then, top players were too “sick as a parrot” to post about social injustice.

He was the man who introduced ‘our kid’ to old football, introducing the tricky, short ball-keeping style that became Spain’s trademark.

And Fred, whose career began with lowly Black Country outfits such as Avondale Juniors and Willenhall Swifts, is still regarded as one of the nation’s greatest managers. He was the first to lead a Spanish club to the league and cup double.

And he achieved the feat twice with Athletic Bilbao in 1930 and ’31, as well as winning four successive Copa del Rey finals, a feat that has never been equalled. Fred was also the architect of mighty Barcelona’s biggest ever defeat, 12-1, 1931, against Bilbao.

Make no mistake, Fred was much more than the Mourinho of his time – a period of Brylcreem, beef tea and oranges at half time. He was a tactical genius when there weren’t many tactics.

Forget the tried and trusted 4-4-2 formation, Fred shocked the world by unveiling his 2-5-3 style.

But then Fred’s approach has always been unconventional.

He spent his first training session with the Bilbao team learning the proper way to tie his bootlaces, telling the mystified players: “Get the basics right and the rest will follow.”

He changed the way top-flight football was played, although England’s top brass were slow to embrace Pentland’s refined style.

Our national team paid for not listening to Fred’s words. He was one of the coaches when Spain beat the Three Lions 4-3 in 1929 – England’s first defeat by a team from outside Great Britain.

On their website, Athletic Bilbao still speak of Frederick Beaconsfield Pentland with reverence. His website tells of his debut due to ‘Mr Pentland’:

“It wasn’t just the silverware that made Fred Pentland an athletics legend. He introduced professional standards, changed training habits and introduced tactics based on intensity, possession and wing play that have since become synonymous with Athletic Club.

“What’s more, Pentland did all this with style and personality, his sense of humor and humanity ensuring that, even a century later, he remains a revered figure.”

It was stupid. In These Football Times, Jack Rodway wrote: “If you couldn’t play the way he wanted, you’d be shown the way out. Not that that was a bad thing. He was ahead of his time and Spain had never seen a manager like Pentland before.”

In his time, managers had not yet become fashion icons. They didn’t parade around the technical area in designer vests and suits.

Fred stepped onto the touchline with a fat cigar permanently clenched between his teeth and a bowler hat perched on his head. This trademark appearance earned the grey-faced boss the nickname El Bombin – The Bowler.

And that England hat quickly became a symbol of the club. In a strange ritual, Fred allowed his players to gleefully put him down after any memorable victory.

On the street, he walked around wearing that ever-present bowler and spinning with a bowling ball. Fred fit the Bilbao fans’ vision of a successful Englishman – and embraced the role.

However, his is an unlikely international football fairytale that has risen from humble beginnings. Fred, one of seven children, was born in Lord Street, Wolverhampton, on 29 July 1883, of Irish parents. Joseph’s father worked as a printer.

He worked in an arms factory in Birmingham before being signed, aged just 17, by Second Division side Small Heath, which would later become Birmingham City.

At Small Heath, Fred’s contribution was less than small, his impact insignificant. He made just one first team appearance as an inside forward in a losing FA Cup tie and was sold to Blackpool in 1903.

It would be the first of many moves for the local boy. After just eight appearances, Fred moved from the seaside club to Blackburn Rovers – and really found his feet as a footballer.

Rovers fans loved Fred, who played 51 times for the outfit, but the club still tried to offload him in 1906 for the princely sum of £250.

There were no takers and Fred was forced to develop his craft away from the football league spotlight. Next stop was Southern League club Brentford.

While waiting at the station to leave Blackburn, the players and fans, accompanied by the Palace Theater Band, broke into a chorus of “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”.

It looked like Fred’s career was slipping into non-league oblivion, however, in 1908 Middlesbrough offered a second chance at First Division football.

Fred grabbed it with both hands, making 92 appearances from 1908 to 1912, scoring 11 goals and collecting five England caps.

It was his last hurrah. From there, the end of Fred’s career smoldered in football’s dimly lit basement: Halifax languished in the Midland League, Stoke in the South.

As a player, he was good, but far from great. One sportswriter reflected, “His flaw was a tendency to over-elaborate.”

As a continental manager, that “tendency to over-elaborate” would serve Fred well. Throwing the ball down the field was not his style.

His arrival on the national stage came after a bumpy ride.

After his playing days were ended by injury, Fred traveled to Berlin to learn the coaching trade and by 1914 he was at the helm of Germany’s Olympic football team.

A little thing called the Great War kept him from seeing that job through.

When the conflict broke out, Fred was interned in Ruhleben, a civilian detention camp where the 5,500 “guests” already included a number of football stars. With the likes of England’s Sam Wolstenholme and Fred Spiksley and Scotland’s John Cameron among the inmates, Fred became a football boss behind the barbed wire.

He had a group of former top players at his disposal, the list also including Edwin Dutton (Germany), Steve Bloomer (England) and John Brearley (Spurs and Everton).

As president of the Ruhleben Football Association, he organized a full schedule of matches and, in a move that has echoes of the Sly Stallone-filmed PoW film Escape to Victory, assembled a World XI squad.

Fred was an important coach in custody.

He returned home in 1918, married nurse Nahneen Hayes – the couple had a daughter – and a year later packed up again to manage AS Strasbourg.

From there, he accepted the position of coach of the 1920 French Olympic football team and led the team to the semi-finals.

Fred was a man prepared to travel for work and in 1920 he began his 15-year spell in Spain with the top job at Racing de Santander. He would also go on to manage Bilbao and Atletico Madrid before being forced back to Britain by the Spanish Civil War.

Here, he traded the magic and beauty of Spanish football for the mud and nettle standards of fourth division football with Barrow.

Fred died aged 78 on 16th March 1962 in the village of Lytchett Matravers in Dorset.

Until then, England had almost forgotten his immense contribution to the modern game. In Spain, he remained a hero until the end. He will always be a legend.

In 1959, Bilbao held a testimonial match against Chelsea at San Mames in honor of the great man, and with thousands roaring every faltering step he took on the pitch, Fred kicked off the game.

Gaizka Atxa, president of the Mr Pentland Club, a UK-based Athletic Bilbao supporters’ group, said: “You hear his name on the street and everyone knows he’s a man with a bowler hat and a cigar. He has maintained his status as a myth or legend.”

Remember this while watching Euro 2024.

The free-flowing passes, the intricate ball-play close to the quarter…it was all created by a Wolverhampton man.

Quite simply, Fred Pentland shaped the modern game. He invented it.

And that’s why every fan should tip their hat to Fred. Of course, El Bombin would rather be a bowler.