Brian Dawes
We were sad to learn this week of the passing earlier this year of possibly our oldest subscriber, 96-year-old Jim Holdsworth.
His son Bob told us Jim had been going to Highbury since childhood and therefore saw the 30s side in which Alex James was his favourite player and remained so right up until a certain Dutchman joined. After a few seasons of Dennis, Jim had to admit that Bergkamp might just be the best he’d ever seen and he saw a few!
Bob told us how much Jim enjoyed The Gooner although always felt we should have more about Alex James. So, with Bob’s permission, as a tribute to Jim here’s a piece about Wee Alex which originally appeared in issue 210 as part of Brian Dawes’ excellent series which celebrated the 32 players who appear on the stadium cores.
Football immortals are a rare breed and unseen at Arsenal until Herbert Chapman's era. One such immortal was 'Wee' Alex James. Signed by Chapman in June 1929 he was unquestionably the greatest player to wear the famous red and white jersey up until the Wenger era. James was the megastar of his day and in the early 1930's probably received more media attention than any over footballer in Britain. Born at the turn of the Century and brought up in a tiny Scottish village James graduated from local football to play over 100 games for Raith Rovers before moving south of the boarder to second division Preston for a £3,000 fee. His move to Arsenal followed a falling out with the Preston manager who refused to release him for a Scottish international match. Now given that James was a proclaimed Scottish maestro and one of the 'Wee Blue Devils' who destroyed England 1-5 in April 1928 you can see he would have been a tad peeved.
Chapman signed James for £8,750, a massive fee in its day but just maybe the bargain of the century for the Gunners. Chapman visualised him in a creative role and moved James far deeper than the goal-scoring position he'd occupied for Preston. Once accustomed to his new deployment he became pivotal to Arsenal's domination of the decade. His then was a deep lying position from where he was able to spray passes to our flying wingers Bastin and Hume or thread tantalising through balls to the likes of Lambert up front. Such passes often resulting in breakaway goals and James's vision was key to our high goal tallies in his years with the Club. His full array of tricks were also something to behold, as indeed were his shorts.
Alex James trademark long baggy shorts were a result of a cartoon made of him whilst playing with Preston, a caricature that he decided to live up to, wearing them with pride and not a little flamboyance. A happy-go-lucky, self-confident humorist Alex was well aware that other professional sportsmen earned more than footballers and went on a one-man strike during the summer of 1931 demanding a pay increase. Thus becoming the only player to cause Chapman grief during his reign at Highbury. Our manager had even secured him a contract with Selfridges as part of the deal that brought him to London.
In 1930, during his first season with Arsenal, Alex scored the opening goal and set up the second in the FA Cup Final win against Huddersfield, our Club's first major trophy and also the first of Alex's two Cup winners medals. The following season he missed only two league fixtures in our first Championship winning season. In fact of the 200 league appearances Alex made between 1930 and May 1937 he was only on the losing side thirty-six times. His influence in Arsenal's four Championships wins was massive and there can be no doubting that he was the king-pin of the team. With Alex at the helm in midfield the Club scored copious goals whilst dominating the decade. Injuries however reduced his playing time until he retired aged 35 at the end of the 1935-6 season. Arsenal's place in football's meritocracy had by then been firmly established, thanks in no small measure to the great Alex James.
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