The forgotten story of … Arsenal’s wooden training shed
Secret device was designed to improve players’ technique in the late 1920s and was later used by other top-flight clubs
“The men are not deviating by one hair’s breadth from the ordinary system of training. To alter that system even for a Cup final would be folly,” the Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman said, four days before the 1927 FA Cup final.
A description of that system was provided by the London Daily News. “Just before 10 each morning the players assemble and take ball practice,” it wrote. “This is varied by sprints on the track, as well as a light programme of physical jerks in the dressing room. Lunch is a modest item. An underdone steak varied with a small fillet of fried plaice or sole, plus a light vegetable ration, is the diet chiefly fancied, and fruit, raw and stewed, is popular with nearly all the men. The liquids at lunch are mainly non-intoxicants.”
