English footballer and manager
Charles Mitten
(17 January 1921 ? 2 January 2002) was an English
football
player and manager who came through the junior ranks at
Manchester United
. Over his career, Mitten also played for
Fulham
,
Mansfield Town
and
Altrincham
in England, and for
Independiente Santa Fe
in Colombia, where he had a notable stint, and where he and a number of other players left to escape the
maximum wage
that was imposed for footballers in England at the time. After his playing career finished, he was involved in football management.
Playing career
[
edit
]
Mitten signed with
Manchester United
in 1936, and was in the junior side with future colleagues
Stan Pearson
and
Johnny Carey
. However, due to the suspension of league football owing to the
outbreak of war
, his first professional appearance did not come until 1946.
During the war, Mitten served in the
Royal Air Force
, guesting for whatever club was nearest his station. He had two seasons playing for
Chelsea
and made 22 guest appearances for
Southampton
, scoring five goals.
[2]
After the war, Mitten rejoined Manchester United and proved himself as an excellent winger during the early years of
Matt Busby
's time at the club. He was part of a talented forward line alongside
Jimmy Delaney
,
Stan Pearson
,
Jack Rowley
and
Johnny Morris
, which became known as the 'Famous Five' of Old Trafford.
[3]
In his four years at United, he helped the club finish as runners-up in the league three times and in fourth place once. He also played in the 4?2 win over Blackpool in the
1948 FA Cup Final
. Over the course of his United career, he made 152 appearances in total, scoring 61 goals.
The "Bogota Bandit"
[
edit
]
In 1950, United went on a 12-game tour of America, where they played in front of massive, sell-out crowds. It was at this point that Mitten questioned the small amount of money footballers received ? the maximum wage in Britain was £12 a week ? compared to their evident global popularity. This point was underlined when two other British footballers,
Neil Franklin
and
George Mountford
, signed for the same
Independiente Santa Fe
in
Colombia
, where the league had broken away from
FIFA
control, which meant that clubs did not have to pay transfer fees to foreign clubs, resulting in many top players from abroad playing in Colombia in a period nicknamed
El Dorado
. During the tour, Mitten was approached by a wealthy Colombian businessmen to play for
Independiente Santa Fe
in
Bogota
. Mitten's signing-on fee was reputedly £5,000 plus a weekly wage of at least £40. For this, he was given the nickname "The Bogota Bandit", which later became the title of his autobiography.
[3]
He played in Colombia for a year, scoring
fifteen times in 34 games,
[4]
and United's form suffered in his absence.
At the end of his first year Colombia joined FIFA and became subject to FIFA regulations. As Manchester United still held his registration, Mitten was unable to play for anyone but them and had to return to England. He was, however, offered a contract by
Santiago Bernabeu
, the manager of
Real Madrid
, who was in the process of forming the all-conquering team that would feature
Alfredo Di Stefano
,
Francisco Gento
and
Hector Rial
. He turned down this offer, and later stated his regret at not being able to be a part of the successful Real side.
[
citation needed
]
Return to England
[
edit
]
Upon his return, Mitten was subject to a ban by
The Football Association
, who fined him six months' wages and banned him from playing for the same period. He was also ostracised by Busby, who sold him to
Fulham
for £22,000 in December 1951. Now aged 31, Mitten made 16 appearances and scored six goals in his first season at
Craven Cottage
, but could not save the club from relegation to the
Second Division
. The next season, he played 40 times for another six goals, forming a pair with the young
Johnny Haynes
. During his time at Fulham, he was picked for the
London XI
in the
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
.
International career
[
edit
]
Mitten made one appearance for England in an unofficial charity match against Scotland in 1946.
[5]
Management
[
edit
]
While still a player, Mitten was appointed player-coach of
Mansfield Town
. Mitten joined the club in February 1956 and remained there for over two years until June 1958. He played 100 league games, scoring 25 league goals. His reign was a success and Mitten's side was praised for their entertaining football. In the 1957?58 season, his side scored 100 goals in League. In his biography, Mitten stated: "The Mansfield job was the best I ever had in football". At Mansfield, he also gave a debut his 16-year-old son,
John
, who later went on to play for a number of clubs, including
Coventry City
.
In June 1958, Mitten left Mansfield and joined
Newcastle United
. Initially, he enjoyed success at the club and steered the club to a pair of solid mid-table finishes, despite an ongoing power struggle between chairman
William McKeag
(who had installed Mitten and gave him full control over the team) and director and former manager
Stan Seymour
(who felt the board should be able to veto Mitten's tactics and team selections). Newcastle gained a reputation for free-scoring football under Mitten, but they also proved to be defensively frail, and they ultimately paid the price for this in 1961, when they were relegated after a season in which they scored 86 goals but conceded 109. Mitten was allowed to remain in charge and attempt to steer the club back into the First Division, but instead they found themselves fighting relegation to the Third Division, eventually resulting in Mitten's dismissal a few months into the season. While at Newcastle, he was also involved in the
George Eastham
affair, which involved another player who challenged the authorities on player's rights.
Subsequent to this, he made a brief playing comeback, serving as player-manager at non-league
Altrincham
before retiring to the sport of greyhound racing, taking up the position of Assistant Racing Manager at
White City Stadium
in 1977.
[3]
Personal and family
[
edit
]
Several of Mitten's brothers also played professional football, and many male members of his extended family, into the next generation or two, were at least semi-professional.
[6]
Mitten died in January 2002, shortly before his 81st birthday.
His nephew
Albert Scanlon
(1935?2009), signed for Manchester United soon after Mitten's departure in the early 1950s and remained with the club until 1960. He was a survivor of the
Munich air disaster
.
His great-nephew, Andy Mitten, is a football journalist and has been an editor of the Manchester United fanzine
United We Stand
since the late 1980s, while another great nephew, Sam Mitten, is on the books at
Stockport County
.
[6]
Career statistics
[
edit
]
Club
|
Season
|
League
|
FA Cup
|
Other
|
Total
|
Apps
|
Goals
|
Apps
|
Goals
|
Apps
|
Goals
|
Apps
|
Goals
|
Manchester United
[7]
|
1946?47
|
20
|
8
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
8
|
1947?48
|
38
|
8
|
6
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
44
|
11
|
1948?49
|
42
|
18
|
8
|
5
|
1
|
0
|
51
|
23
|
1949?50
|
42
|
16
|
5
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
47
|
19
|
Total
|
142
|
50
|
19
|
11
|
1
|
0
|
162
|
61
|
References
[
edit
]
|
---|
- Unknown
(
??
???)
- Steward
(
1933
?38)
- Unknown
(
??
???)
- Lockhead
(
1946
?47)
- Hughes
(
1947
?48)
- Williams
(
1948
?49)
- Swinnerton
(
1949
?51)
- Lythgoe
(
1953
?55)
- Morris
(
1955
?61)
- Fagan
(
1961
?62)
- Mitten
(
1962
?63)
- Pye
(
1963
?69)
- Woods
(
1969
)
- Brown
(
1969
?70)
- Pye
c
(
1970
)
- Davis
(
1970
?71)
- Reilly
c
(
1971
?72)
- Rees
(
1972
?75)
- Rigby
(
1975
?76)
- Dickenson
&
Spratt
c
(
1976
)
- Sanders
(
1976
?84)
- Allan
c
(
1984
)
- King
(
1984
?86)
- Rooney
c
(
1986
)
- Williams
(
1986
?87)
- Docherty
(
1987
?88)
- Johnson
(
1988
)
- King
(
1988
?91)
- Allan
(
1991
?92)
- Davison
c
(
1992
)
- Quinn
(
1992
?93)
- Rowlands
(
1993
???)
- King
(
1994
?98)
- Taylor
(
1998
?2000)
- Ward
(
2000
?01)
- Taylor
(
2001
?02)
- Heathcote
(
2002
?10)
- McKenna
(
2010
?11)
- Sinnott
(
2011
?16)
- Young
(
2016
)
- Harvey
(
2016
)
- Doughty
c
(
2016
?17)
- Parkinson
(
2017
?)
(c) =
caretaker manager
|