| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Albert Henry Gibbons[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1914-04-10)10 April 1914 | ||
| Place of birth | Fulham, England | ||
| Date of death | 4 July 1984(1984-07-04) (aged 70)[2] | ||
| Place of death | Johannesburg, South Africa | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[3] | ||
| Position(s) | Centre forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Kingstonian | |||
| Uxbridge | |||
| 1937 | Hayes | 3 | (0) |
| 1937–1938 | Tottenham Hotspur | 27 | (13) |
| 1938–1939 | Brentford | 11 | (1) |
| 1939 | Tottenham Hotspur | 0 | (0) |
| 1945–1947 | Bradford Park Avenue | 42 | (21) |
| 1947–1949 | Brentford | 56 | (16) |
| Total | 139 | (62) | |
| International career | |||
| 1938–1939 | England Amateurs | 6 | (6) |
| 1939 | FA XI | ||
| 1942 | England (wartime) | 1 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1949–1952 | Brentford | ||
| 1953–1956 | Daring Club Bruxelles | ||
| 1956 | Israel | ||
| 1956–1957 | Hapoel Petah Tikva | ||
| 1961–1963 | Hapoel Jerusalem | ||
| 1963–1965 | Rangers | ||
| Transvaal | |||
| 1966–1967 | Kenya | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Albert Henry Gibbons (10 April 1914 – 4 July 1984) was an English professionalfootballer andmanager who played in theFootball League forTottenham Hotspur,Brentford andBradford Park Avenue. After his retirement as a player, he managed in England, Israel, South Africa and at international level.
Acentre forward who remained anamateur for the first part of his career, Gibbons played fornon-League clubsUxbridge,Hayes andKingstonian.[4] Had it not been for family influence,[4] he may have turned professional with Fulham in late 1934.[5] Gibbons joinedFootball League Second Division clubTottenham Hotspur in July 1937 and scored on his debut,[6] in a 3–0 victory atSheffield Wednesday on 16 September 1937.[7] Owing to hisRAF service, he obtained the nickname "Wings" amongst the Spurs support and made 36 appearances and scored 18 goals during the1937–38 season,[5][8] with 12 of his strikes coming in the form ofhat-tricks in four consecutive games mid-season.[9][10] He joinedFirst Division clubBrentford in August 1938 and made 11 appearances and scored one goal during a poor1938–39 season for the Bees.[2][11] Gibbons re-joined Tottenham Hotspur in 1939, but failed to make an appearance in his second spell with theWhite Hart Lane club.[4]
TheSecond World War halted Gibbons' career between 1939 and 1945 and during the war, he guested forBradford Park Avenue, Brentford,Chelsea,Fulham andReading.[3] In 1945, Gibbons turned professional and signed with Bradford Park Avenue to play the1945–46 season in the wartime league and an expandedFA Cup.[3] The Avenue advanced to the sixth round, with Gibbons scoring four goals in an 8–2 fourth round second leg win overManchester City on 30 January 1946.[12] Avenue were admitted to the Second Division for the1946–47 season and he made 42 league appearances and scored 21 goals.[2] In August 1947, Gibbons returned to Brentford, newly relegated to the Second Division, for a club record £8,000 fee.[13] He was the club's top scorer during the1947–48 season, scoring 13 times.[4] Across his two spells with Brentford, Gibbons made a total of 71 appearances and scored 19 goals before retiring in February 1949.[4]
Gibbons became manager of Second Division club Brentford in February 1949, taking over fromHarry Curtis, the most successful manager in the club's history.[4] Gibbons had been groomed to succeed Curtis at the helm.[4] In March 1949, Gibbons brought former Bradford Park Avenue teammate and futureEngland managerRon Greenwood to the club he supported as a boy and later named himcaptain.[14][15] In February 1951, Gibbons brought football analystCharles Reep toGriffin Park on a part-time basis until the end of the1950–51 season.[16] Reep helped improve the team's goals-to-games ratio, which saved them from relegation.[16]
Gibbons managed Brentford until the end of the1951–52 season, making three consecutive top 10 finishes in the Second Division, but he found himself at odds with the club's board during a difficult time financially for the Bees.[17] A falling out with starwing halvesJimmy Hill and Ron Greenwood towards the end of 1951 saw the Bees' form tail off,[18] with the club finishing the 1951–52 season in 10th place, after challenging for promotion in mid-season.[19] Gibbons resigned in August 1952 and was replaced by his assistant,Jimmy Bain.[20]
Gibbons took over as manager of Belgian clubDaring Club Bruxelles in 1953 and won the1954–55Second Division championship with the club.[3][21]
Gibbons took charge of theIsrael national football team in 1956.[22] His tenure began with a 7–1 aggregate defeat over two legs to theSoviet Union inqualifying for the1956 Summer Olympics. In September 1956, Gibbons presided over Israel's campaign in theinaugural AFC Asian Cup, defeatingHong Kong andSouth Vietnam on the way to finishing as runners-up toSouth Korea.[22] After leaving the job, Gibbons stayed on in Israel to manageLiga Leumit clubHapoel Petah Tikva and guided the club to a runners-up finish in the1956–57 season.[23] After a spell coaching in Australia, he returned to Israel to manageHapoel Jerusalem between 1961 and 1963.[3]
Gibbons moved to South Africa to manage clubsRangers and Transvaal.[3] He accepted his final managerial position in 1966, when he was named as manager ofKenya.[24] He stayed in the job until October 1967, when he was replaced by his assistant, Elijah Lidonde.[24]
Gibbons was called up to theFootball Association representative team for a tour of South Africa in 1939.[25] He scored six goals in six caps forEngland Amateurs in 1938 and 1939 and won one cap for the fullEngland team during the Second World War.[26][27][28]
Gibbons attendedWest Kensington Central School.[5] During the 1930s and through the Second World War, he served in theRoyal Air Force and wasdemobbed in 1946.[18] During the 1960s, Gibbons worked inKenya forCoca-Cola.[17]
| Club | Season | League | FA Cup | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Tottenham Hotspur | 1937–38[6] | Second Division | 27 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 33 | 18 |
| Brentford | 1938–39[11] | First Division | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 |
| Brentford | 1947–48[11] | Second Division | 41 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 43 | 14 |
| 1948–49[11] | Second Division | 15 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 4 | |
| Total | 67 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 71 | 19 | ||
| Career total | 94 | 30 | 10 | 7 | 104 | 37 | ||
| Team | From | To | Record | Ref | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Brentford | February 1949 | August 1952 | 148 | 52 | 40 | 56 | 035.14 | [29] |
| Israel | 1956 | 1956 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 040.00 | [22] |
| Total | 153 | 54 | 40 | 59 | 035.29 | — | ||
Kingstonian
Daring Club Bruxelles
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) | ||