Fanfare for the Common player – Game of the People
TRANSFER fees still make headlines, but the football public have become accustomed to players changing hands for astronomical figures and they have watched records such as £ 10 million, £ 50 million and £ 100 million pass into the sunset. We are in a position where £ 100 is becoming a commonplace price tags. Back in 1905, the first £ 1,000 player, Alf Common, also created a stir when he moved from Sunderland to Middlesbrough. This transaction caused no small amount of anxiety and the prudish among the Edwardian public even compared player traffic to a new form of white slave trade.
Common had plenty of competition for international honours, but he won three England caps between 1904 and 1906. He was a bustling forward, strong and a regular scorer. He was five feet 8 inches tall and weighed in at 13 stones. In the modern game, he would be considered too heavy and he was sometimes called “chubby” by opposing supporters. Born in Sunderland in May 1880, the son of an iron ship riveter, he was one of seven children. He initially played in local football, including a spell with Jarrow FC. He signed for Sunderland in 1900 and scored four goals in 14 games in his first season, a campaign that ended with the club finishing runners-up in the first division to Liverpool.
Common moved to injury-hit Sheffield United at the end of October 1901 for £ 325. By the end of the season, he had a FA Cup winners’ medal in his pocket after helping his new club win the competition against Southampton. The Sheffield United side included the giant Willie Foulke in goal and their much-admired skipper Ernest Needham. Southampton had the famous C.B. Fry and Edgar Chadwick in their line-up. The final ended in a 1-1 draw with Common giving the Blades a 1-0 lead on 55 minutes. The replay, a week later, saw Sheffield United win 2-1. Common also won two of his three caps while at Sheffield United, scoring twice in a 3-1 win against Ireland in March 1904.
He longed to return to Sunderland in order to deal with some business commitments. He rejoined his old club in September 1904 with goalkeeper Albert Lewis moving in the opposite direction in a deal valued at £ 520, which made Common the subject of the first £ 500 deal. It was not a long stay back at the club, though and in the early weeks of 1905, Middlesbrough were keeping tabs on the 24-year-old.
Middlesbrough were in trouble and struggling to stay in the first division. Sunderland, by constrast were going well and would eventually finish as runners-up in the first division. They saw Common as someone who could help save their status; they were currently second from bottom and had won just four games in the league. Sunderland obviously felt they could do without Common but they made Middlesbrough pay for his services. Sheffield United, his previous club, had once turned down a £ 700 bid from Aston Villa for the young striker. This time, the asking price was £ 1,000, an unprecedented sum of money for the purchase of a player. Middlesbrough were desperate to get their man and agreed.
At the time, the football world was in a state of flux over wages and bonuses. A scandal was in its nascent stages and would lead to some top players being dragged through the mire and be penalised with suspensions. One newspaper report suggested that some investigation was needed into the Common transfer although it seemed as though Sunderland were trying to help their neighbours. “The transfer fee may be justified as expedient and useful, but whether the principle is perfectly sound and legitimate is very open to question,” said the Athletic News.
Generally, the press was astounded by the size of the fee and asked if footballers were going the same way as thoroughbred yearling racehorses in the market. The Football League demanded an explanation and others highlighted that a young player should cost £ 1,000 but was earning just £ 4 per week. There was a call for transfers to be limited, although some felt that it would be restricting free trade. However, there was a move to set a £ 350 ceiling on transactions with effect from 1908.
Common scored the winning goal from the penalty spot in his first competitive game for Middlesbrough at Sheffield United, giving his new club their first away victory of the season. He scored three more goals as Middlesbrough beat Stoke City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa. He had made the sort of impression his new employers were hoping for and, effectively, kept them in the first division. The following season, they only just avoided relegation despite 19 league goals by Common. His goalscoring earned him a recall to the England team and in March 1906, he played against Wales in a 1-0 win at Cardiff Arms Park.
He spent around five and a half years at Middlesbrough, the longest spell of his playing career. Common was something of a character and on a tour of Denmark with Middlesbrough took the stage at a music hall and sang before an appreciative Danish audience. He was made captain of the team but was demoted after being discovered drunk and disorderly in public. He made 178 appearances for the club, scoring 65 goals. In 1910-11, he moved to Woolwich Arsenal and then Preston North End in 1912. He retired from professional football in 1914. In later life, like many former footballers, he went into the licensed trade until the second world war. He died in Darlington in 1946, aged 65, leaving an estate of £ 1,700.
Common is never mentioned in the same breath as players like Steve Bloomer and other legendary forwards from football’s early years, but he has a place in the history books due to that famous transfer in February 1905. By the time he retired in 1914, around 40 players had cost over £ 1,000 and the record stood at £ 2,000. He was a very decent footballer, one that clubs were always prepared to spend good money on. In some respects, he was a trailblazer.
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