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In the annals of Arsenal’s history, one name conjures images of a bygone era, baggy shorts and a dead eye for goal. In the record books, his name still stands alone for the most goals scored in one season, with 44 in the 1934-35 season. In the modern era, first Ian Wright and then Thierry Henry surpassed his overall record but that shouldn’t overshadow Drake’s achievements for Arsenal.
Drake was born in Southampton in 1912 and was an adept sportman through his schooldays excelling at cricket and football, though when he left school he became a gas meter reader. A chance to play regular non league football for Winchester Town came along, and Drake took the opportunity with both hands, whilst continuing the meter reading! After two goal filled seasons, in 1931 Southampton came calling and Drake returned to his home town team.

<div><figure class="external-image"><img loading="lazy" class="alignleft" src="http://epltalk.com/wp-content/uploads/goal.com/images/products/large/7123.jpg" alt="" width="226" height="366"></figure></div>Drake’s first season saw him become accustomed to the hustle and bustle of Second Division football but by the end of his first season, he’d got 7 goals and had established himself as Southampton’s main striker. The Saints were a poor side and even with Drake’s goalscoring prowess, the highest they finished whilst he was at the club was 12th, nowhere near promotion. Drake’s first season had caught the eye of the legendary Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman and he made an attempt to sign him in the summer of 1933 but Drake didn’t want to move that far north!
That first full season had seen him plunder 20 league goals and after turning down Arsenal’s advances, Drake hit the ground running in the 1933-34 season. He scored 8 goals in his first 5 games and continued in the same vein eventually getting 22 goals before Arsenal came back in for him in March 1934. This time, frustrated by the lack of progress Southampton were making and with the club facing financial difficulties, Drake moved to Highbury for £6,500.
Arsenal were top and Drake continued to score goals, hitting another 7 in the 10 games he played for the Gunners but missed out on a League Championship medal through lack of appearances. He was to get his hands on one the following season though and hit 42 league goals in 41 games, with 3 hatricks and 4 four goal hauls in his stats for the season setting a record that still stands today.
The following season Drake continued to hit the goals and on December 14th 1935 he set another record when he hit 7 against Aston Villa in a 7-1 rout. Incredibly, he also had another goal chalked off as it cannoned off the crossbar, bounced over the line and back out but the referee didn’t see it.
What makes Drake’s record for the Gunners even more remarkable was that he constantly battled injury problems throughout his career, especially a niggling back injury that would catch up with him at the end of his career. Yet Drake continued to push himself through the pain barrier to make Highbury his hunting ground and whilst Cliff Bastin mesmerised opponents with his wonderful ball skills, Drake would punish any lapses in the penalty area.
Drake was rewarded with his fine form with being called up for England and scored 6 goals in 5 appearances, injuries curtailing his opportunities to represent his country more than just a handful of times. He made his debut in the game that became known as the “Battle of Highbury” against Italy in November 1934, one of an incredible 7 Arsenal players to start the game. Typically, Drake scored the winner in a bad tempered 3-2 win.
As the decade continued, Drake finished as Arsenal’s top scorer in 5 consecutive seasons, as Arsenal continued to be the dominant force in English pre-war football. Between 1931 and 1939, Arsenal’s lowest position was 6th in the 1935-36 season, but they managed to win the F.A Cup with a 1-0 win over Sheffield United. Guess who scored the winning goal. Another League Championship medal came along in the 1937-38 season as Arsenal pipped Wolves by one point.
As with most of his contemparies, Drake’s career was stopped dead in its tracks with the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939 aged just 27. Drake went to serve in the RAF but continued to play for Arsenal in wartime fixtures. On the resumption of League football, Drake was injured against Reading and was forced to retire from playing. Despite this set back he took over as manager of non-league Hendon in 1946, moving to Reading in 1947 were after 5 seasons, Chelsea came calling.
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Upon his arrival, he completely revamp the club, who were classed as London’s poorer side. Changing the badge, the motto, the kit and the club’s philosphy for big signings who continually failed to deliver, he used his knowledge of the lower leagues to sign the quality of player that Chelsea needed. As his team knitted, Chelsea became a force to be reckoned with and won the league in 1955 shocking the two titans, Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers. With it, Drake became the first person to win the league as a manager and a player.
It was as good as it got for Drake as Chelsea amazingly didn’t finish in the top ten again that decade and in 1961 he was removed from his position as manager. He continued to keep involved with football, having spells as Assistant Manager at Fulham and Barcelona under Vic Buckingham. He continued to love football and would often travel to all the clubs in London, for the simple pleasures of just enjoying watching football.
Drake passed away on May 30th 1995, aged 82.
<ul>
<li>Scored 139 goals in 186 full appearances for Arsenal from 1934 – 1939</li>
<li>Two League Championship medals 1934-35 &amp; 1937-38</li>
<li>One F.A. Cup Winners medal 1935-36</li>
<li>5 Appearances for England, scoring 6 goals</li>
<li>First man to win League title as a player and manager 
</li>
<li>Scored 7 goals in one match against Aston Villa on December 14th 1935</li>
<li>Arsenals top scorer in every season from 1934-1935 until 1938-39</li>
<li>Became Life President of Fulham</li>
<li>Played County Cricket for Hampshire from 1931 until 1937 
</li>
</ul>

Legends Of English Football: #10 Ted Drake

Legends Of English Football: #10 Ted Drake  - World Soccer Talk

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If, like me, you’re always looking around the Internet for those hard to find football shirts from your past, frustrated as someone gazumps on you on e-bay for the classic 1987 Tottenham away kit with 3 seconds to go, then there has to be only one website for you to visit: <a href="http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk" target="_blank">www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk</a>
<div><figure class="external-image"><img loading="lazy" src="http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/images/Liverpool-78-AwayLS.gif" align="right" height="211" width="271"></figure></div>To say it’s extensive doesn’t do it justice, this is a site that has kits from the 1970’s up to the 2004-2005 season, all originals, no fakes and no re-issues. It’s a football fans dream, a real goldmine of memories for people like me who were placed as the football boom really returned in the late 1980’s in the UK.&nbsp; The 1980’s were when the kits got trendier, sponsors names started appearing all over the place and away and third kits began to appear for the first time.
It also saw the boom period for when people actually wanted to buy replica kits, a strange concept to us these days that football merchandise at the beginning of the decade seemed to consist of bland scarfs, hats, rosettes and gloves in your teams colours.Between 1987 and 1990, the football shirt fashion came from out of nowhere, now its seen as normal.
I just love browsing the site, clicking here and there on link after link after link, each one reminding me of certain moments of my footballing life, like a polyester time capsule, bursting with memories about the girls I kissed at the time, the music I was listening to, the great players and the world around me. So, I thought I’d ask the Doug, one the guys&nbsp; behind this wonderful website a few questions:
<div><figure class="external-image"><img loading="lazy" src="http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/images/Tottenham-91-HomeAN.jpg" align="right" height="229" width="275"></figure></div> Paul : First of all, thanks for taking the time to talk about the website with me, I really appreciate it. So, to anyone out there who doesn’t know about you, what can you tell us about www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk?
Doug : We are essentially an online shop which sells original and official replica shirts for a wide selection of clubs and national teams from all around the world, from the late 1970’s through to the 2000’s. For the big teams, we stock quite large quantities of home, away and third shirts from many different seasons in a range of sizes. But we try to offer something for everyone from Manchester United to Accrington Stanley, AC Milan to Bari, Boca Juniors to Chicago Fire, England to the USA.
Paul : I’m amazed at some of the kits you’ve got on the site, what gave you the idea to start? 
Doug : The two directors of the site were both students when the idea came about and to make ends meet, realised there was money to be made in original, vintage football shirts. The company has grown from this very small base to a relatively large online store stocking close to 10,000 shirts!
<div><figure class="external-image"><img loading="lazy" src="http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/images/thumb_medium/Man-United-92-AwayNH-USE.gif" align="right" height="187" width="227"></figure></div>Paul : I’m a bit of a football shirt collector, with probably about 80 to 100 myself, but what are the site’s top sellers? 
Doug : The most popular shirts are the Holland home shirt from their famous triumph at Euro 88, the Manchester United Newton Heath design away kit from 1992-1994, Liverpool shirts from the time of their last league title, the Arsenal kit worn on that glorious night at Anfield in 1989, the England home shirt from Spain 82 and generally anything that has a great design, sparks memories of great victories or shirts that are very obscure.
Paul : How do price the kits that you sell on the site?
Doug : The shirts are priced first and foremost on the rarity. If it will take us a year to source another one then we have to charge a price for it that takes that into consideration. After that, it goes down to size and condition. Shirts have to be suitable for an adult to fit into really and the most popular sizes are M, L and XL. We try to stock shirts in excellent condition, this means that they may have been worn in the time between when they were first purchased in the shop in whatever year and when they arrive with us, but don’t really show any real signs of this and are great examples for their age.
<div><figure class="external-image"><img loading="lazy" src="http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/images/thumb_medium/Blackburn--95-Away-LS-Back.jpg" align="right" height="292" width="330"></figure></div>Paul : Do you just sell replica kits? 
Doug : We also sell shirts that have been worn by players. These bear a number of different features that set them apart from the replica kits that you could buy in the shop. We have people who have had the shirt thrown to them in the crowd, handed to them at the training ground or passed on from a family friend etc, selling these type of shirts to us. In the past we’ve had some great items worn by quite a few legendary players.
Paul : So what are your personal favourites and what are the fashion disasters? 
Doug : A favourite of mine are the tiger skin pattern design shirts worn by Hull City between 1992 and 1995, but they are only for the brave to wear them really! All of the Italian club and national kits from the late 80’s and early 90’s have a great style and class to them. As for a design that’s pretty shocking, look no further than the infamous grey Manchester United away shirt from the 1995-96 season. Ferguson blamed the shirt for United trailing 3-0 at half time against Southampton at the Dell and they were never seen again!!
Well Doug, thank you very much for spending some time talking about your fantastic website with me and the readers of epltalk.com. All the best for the future and if I can recommend one website out there for fans, collectors or just curious&nbsp; fans who want to get a feel about how kits have moved on in the last 30 years, www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk certainly ticks all the boxes.

Website Interview: Classic Football Shirts

Website Interview: Classic Football Shirts - World Soccer Talk

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Legends Of English Football: #10 Ted Drake

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