.jpg) Jimmy Hogan in 1908 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Hogan | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1882-10-16)16 October 1882 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Nelson, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 30 January 1974(1974-01-30) (aged 91) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Burnley, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Inside forward | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1902–1903 | Rochdale Town | ? | (?) | ||||||||||||||
| 1903–1905 | Burnley | 50 | (12) | ||||||||||||||
| 1905 | Nelson | ? | (?) | ||||||||||||||
| 1905–1908 | Fulham | 18 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 1908 | Swindon Town | 9 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 1908–1913 | Bolton Wanderers | 54 | (18) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 131 | (44) | |||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1910–1912 | FC Dordrecht | ||||||||||||||||
| 1910 | Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||
| 1911–1912 | Wiener Amateur-SV | ||||||||||||||||
| 1914–1921 | MTK Budapest | ||||||||||||||||
| 1918–1920 | Young Boys Bern | ||||||||||||||||
| 1924 | Switzerland | ||||||||||||||||
| 1925 | Lausanne Sports | ||||||||||||||||
| Dresdner SC | |||||||||||||||||
| 1925–1927 | MTK Budapest | ||||||||||||||||
| 1931–1932 | Austria Wien | ||||||||||||||||
| 1932–1933 | Racing Club de Paris | ||||||||||||||||
| 1933–1934 | Lausanne Sports | ||||||||||||||||
| 1934–1935 | Fulham | ||||||||||||||||
| 1936 | Austria | ||||||||||||||||
| 1936–1939 | Aston Villa | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
James Hogan (16 October 1882 – 30 January 1974) was an Englishfootball player andcoach.[1] He enjoyed some success as a footballer, reaching anFA Cup semi-final withFulham in1907–08, but his primary legacy is as a pioneer of the game and as an innovative coach across multiple European club and national sides. Named "the most influential coach there has ever been" byJonathan Wilson,[1] Hogan is regarded by some as the architect ofTotal Football.[2][3]
James Hogan was born in 1882 into anIrish Catholic family inNelson, Lancashire, the son of mill worker James Hogan. He grew up in nearbyBurnley and received his education atSt Mary Magdalene Roman Catholic School in Burnley.[2] His father wanted Hogan to enterpriesthood and sent him to study as a boarder at the Salford Diocesan Junior SeminarySt Bede's College, Manchester in September 1896. Hogan graduated at midsummer 1900 after deciding not to pursue his vocation any further, although he was College Head Boy in the 1899–1900 Academic Year.
Hogan was a promising young inside forward, and in 1903, he was the first signing ofBurnley's new secretary-manager,Spen Whittaker. Despite being a first team regular, he felt undervalued and in 1905, he asked to be paid themaximum wage, which was£4 a week. The club turned it down, so he left and joinedFulham. Hogan helped Fulham reach theFA Cup semi-final in1907–08 before joiningSwindon Town and thenBolton Wanderers. During a pre-season tour Bolton beat Dutch clubFC Dordrecht 10–0; Hogan vowed to return to Dordrecht in order to "teach those fellows how to play properly".[4]
In 1910, Hogan accepted a two-year contract at Dordrecht and set about improving the team in fitness and ball control, as well as implementing theCombination Game. Impressed by his methods, theRoyal Dutch Football Association recruited Hogan to manage theNetherlands in afriendly againstGermany in October 1910, which Hogan's side won 2–1. Due to his success Hogan also briefly coachedWiener Amateur-SV in 1911 and 1912. Upon the expiry of his contract with Dordrecht in 1912, Hogan returned for a final season as a player at Bolton before returning toVienna to coach theAustria national football team.[5] However, the outbreak ofWorld War I meant that he was interned as a foreignprisoner of war, but was smuggled to the Hungarian border. He moved toBudapest, where he was allowed out of captivity to coach atMTK Budapest between 1914 and 1918. Hogan laid the foundations for MTK's domination ofHungarian football, as they won ten domestic titles in a row between1913–14 and1924–25.
In 1917 Hogan was allowed to go home to be reunited with his family, but found a sour reception. He was told that men who had suffered financially as a result of the war could claim £200 from theF.A. Hogan was almost destitute, but when he went to the FA the secretary, Francis Wall, opened a cupboard and offered him a pair of khaki socks. 'We sent these to the boys at the front and they were grateful.' The unsubtle message was: 'traitor'.[6]
At the end of the First World War in 1918, Hogan travelled toSwitzerland and became coach ofYoung Boys Bern until 1920; he returned to Switzerland in 1924 to coach theSwiss national team alongside his compatriotTeddy Duckworth and HungarianIzidor Kürschner for the1924 Summer Olympics inParis. Switzerland reached the final but lost 3–0 againstUruguay.
After the Olympics, Hogan coachedLausanne Sports[7] andDresdner SC before returning to Hungary to manage MTK Budapest again between 1925 and 1927. In 1926, Hogan was offered a lucrative contract by the Central German Football Association, after which he toured through Germany; Hogan is said to have shown his tactics to more than 5,000 German football players.[2]
Hogan next formed a partnership withHugo Meisl in 1931, coaching theAustria national football team to success during itsWunderteam period when it was recognised as one of the best European teams. Between 1932 and 1934, Hogan managedRacing Club de Paris and Lausanne Sports once again before returning to England to manageFulham from May 1934. However, the players were not ready for new methods and training routines, and Hogan was sacked after only 31 games whilst lying in a hospital bed, recovering from an appendicitis operation in March 1935.[8]
Hogan was contacted by Meisl to help coach the Austria national team at the1936 Summer Olympics, which was hosted by Germany. Hogan's team were initially defeated byPeru in the quarter-final (4–2), however, a controversial rematch was scheduled which the Austrians won by default as the Peruvians left Germany in protest. Austria reached the final but were beaten 2–1 byItaly afterextra time.
Aston Villa appointed Hogan as their managerin November 1936, following the club's first everrelegation theprevious season. Villa board memberFrederick Rinder had witnessed Hogan leading Austria to the final of the 1936 Olympics and persuaded him to return to England. Arriving at Villa, Hogan outlined his philosophy: "I am a teacher and lover of constructive football with every pass, every kick, every movement an object." He wonpromotion back to the top flight and reached the FA Cup semi-final in1937–38 – however, the outbreak ofWorld War II meant that his players were paid off whilst Villa Park was commandeered by theWar Office, and Hogan left before his managerial career at the club had chance to really take off.[9]
Hogan joinedBrentford as coach in September 1948,[10] before joiningCeltic in the same year.[11] Celtic's chairmanRobert Kelly thought that the team's state of decline needed radical attention, and viewed Hogan as an experienced and innovative coach who was capable of reviving the struggling side. Celtic were at a low point and had avoided relegation in recent seasons. However, the majority of the players viewed Hogan's appointment with scepticism and, at times, mocked his methods. Celtic playerTommy Docherty, who later managedScotland,Chelsea andManchester United, credited his managerial success to the school of coaching he received from Hogan, and declared him to be "the finest coach the world had ever known". Docherty also stated: "He used to say football was like aViennese waltz, a rhapsody. one-two-three, one-two-three, pass-move-pass, pass-move-pass. We were sat there, glued to our seats, because we were so keen to learn. His arrival atCeltic Park was the best thing that ever happened to me."[12]
Hogan left Celtic by mutual consent in 1950, when Aston Villa asked him to return and take over from youth training and advise managerEric Houghton. Villa won the1956–57 FA Cup; Houghton and Hogan had laid the groundwork forJoe Mercer's side. Hogan's apprentices included future Aston Villa,West Brom and Manchester United managerRon Atkinson, who stated: "Everything Hogan did was geared around ball control and passing. When Jimmy came to Villa, he was revolutionary. He would have you in the old car park at the back ofVilla Park and he would be saying 'I want you to play the ball with the inside of your right foot, outside of your right foot, inside again, and now turn come back on your left foot inside and outside'. He would get you doingstep-overs, little turns and twist on the ball and everything you did was to make you comfortable on the ball."[9]
Hogan retired, aged 77, in November 1959, but continued to scout for both Villa and Burnley. He later returned to live in Burnley and attended several Burnley home games as a supporter.[13]
Hogan died in 1974 whilst living with his sister's daughter Margaret Melia on Brunshaw Avenue, Burnley. He was buried with his sister, Ellen Melia and her husband Peter Melia, in Burnley cemetery. Margaret died in 1992 whereby she joined them in the same grave. The grave is located next to Jimmy's parents' grave, but does not have a headstone.
In 2021, Peter Briggs and his father Charles Briggs, both members of theTurf Moor Memorial Garden located Jimmy's grave and started fundraising to pay for a headstone. The project was financed by the Turf Moor Memorial Garden, Burnley Football Supporters' Club, the Burnley Former Players Association, Aston Villa, former Burnley directors Clive Holt, Martin Hobbs, Terry Crabb andBarry Kilby, along with Burnley director John Banaszkiewicz. Turf Moor Memorial Garden also mounted a plaque next to Turf Moor within their Memorial Garden.[14][15]
Hogan believed that possession-based football was the answer, but that it must be founded upon constant passing and movement, and added versatility in his players and increased fitness that would allow them to bamboozle an opponent with the fluidity of their attacking moves.
In 2012, Spanish magazinePanenka published apedigree of several influential managers and teams from the 1910s to the 2010s—such as theBrazil national team of the 1950s andPep Guardiola—placing Hogan as itsprogenitor; Hogan created a direct lineage for modern football tactics.[3] Influenced by Burnley-born managerHarry Bradshaw and his adoption of the Scottishcombination game, Hogan was directly responsible for the coaching foundations of two of the most influential footballing sides in history – Austria'sWunderteam and Hungary'sGolden Team.[3]
Hogan is credited with the revolution in European football that saw Hungary defeatEngland6–3 at Wembley in 1953, ushering a new football era. After the match,Sándor Barcs,[16] then president of theHungarian Football Federation, said to the press: "Jimmy Hogan taught us everything we know about football."[17]
Helmut Schön,1974 FIFA World Cup-winning manager, whom Hogan lectured in Germany, stated: "I greatly admired Jimmy and always regarded him as a shining example of the coaching profession. In my lectures to coaches today I still mention his name frequently".Gusztáv Sebes stated: "We played football as Jimmy Hogan taught us. When our football history is told, his name should be written in gold letters".[13] After his death in 1974, the head of theGerman Football Association labelled Hogan as "the father of football in modern Germany".[2]
Hogan's unauthorised biography was written by Ashley Hyne in 2018 and entitled The Greatest Coach Ever? and was published by Electric Blue publishing.
Fulham
Bolton Wanderers
MTK Budapest
Young Boys Bern
Aston Villa
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