Pentland: The Bowler Hat That Sank England

photograph of Fred Pentland

Fred Pentland from the cover of El Norte Deportivo, 1928
courtesy José Manuel Rodríguez Gómez

Name:
Fred Pentland
Coached In:
Spain
Clubs:
Racing Santander, Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Real Oviedo

Born in the town of Wolverhampton, England, on the 5th May, 1883, Frederick Beaconsfield Pentland would go on to be a highly successful coach in pre-Civil War Spain, winning over both the hearts and minds of the Basque public.

After working as a gun makers’ assistant, young Fred Pentland joined Blackpool in June 1903, before moving on to Blackburn Rovers - a club that produced a few English football coaches influenced by the 'Scottish passing game' - in October of the same year. He stayed at Blackburn until 1906 when he made the journey south to play for Brentford, followed by Queens Park Rangers a year later. Whilst at QPR, Pentland played in the 1908 Charity Shield match against Manchester United - the only one that has ever needed a replay.

Now in his mid-twenties, Pentland headed north once more, to Middlesbrough for the start of the 1908-09 season. Whilst at Ayresome Park, he played in 5 England internationals at outside right - he would, however, go on to meet up with the England team again 20 years later, but in very different circumstances.

He made one final move before the end of his playing career - to Halifax Town, newly transferred to the Midland Counties league for the start of the 1912-13 season (although he is said to have joined Stoke City for a short period between February and December, 1913.) Town struggled during this time, but Pentland's ability did help them to fight their way through the preliminary rounds of the 1913 FA Cup competition to the first proper round - success for a team in their position.

In May 1914, Pentland went to Berlin in order to take the position of coach to the German Olympic football team. Unfortunately, with the outbreak of the First World War soon after, he was interned in Germany where he was said to have coached German officers in fitness and technique until the end of the war.

After this false start, Pentland’s coaching career started again in 1920, working with the French football team at the Antwerp Olympics. He could have taken the team to a bronze medal, but instead of playing Netherlands in the third-place play-off match they simply returned home!

In 1921, he joined the Spanish side Racing Santander, but he was soon whisked away by Athletic Bilbao who offered him 1000 pesetas a month to join them - at that time, an offer not to be sniffed at! Pentland become an extremely well-loved coach at the club, taking them to a King’s Cup (Copa del Rey) victory in 1923.

Before Pentland’s arrival, Bilbao had played a long-ball type of game - termed ‘the old 1-2-3’ and taught by previous British managers - but Fred Pentland changed all that, advocating a short passing, possession-based game, with lots of technical training sessions. In fact, one story tells that the very first thing he taught the players was how to tie their bootlaces correctly - “get the simple things right and the rest will follow”. His new tactics were ahead of their time - most teams played with a 2-3-5 ‘pyramid’ formation - but Pentland realised that for his passing game to be more successful, he needed more players in midfield, so he withdrew two of the 5 forward players into deeper lying roles.

He was also said to be quite eccentric - smoking big cigars and wearing his bowler hat during training - and it was from his hat that his nickname arose: bombín (bowler hat). This hat also became part of a tradition - the players would whip it off his head whenever they won a game, and jump up and down on it until it was completely destroyed. In reference to this, Pentland is said to have shouted “¡Que poco te quera bombín. Sóle tres minotos!” (“Only three minutes left for you, bowler hat!”) about three minutes before the end of Athletic’s legendary Copa del Rey success.

Unfortunately, not everything remained rosy at Bilbao, and his system of play started to be questioned. He left, joined Athletic Club de Madrid (Atlético Madrid) for a season, then spent a season at Real Oviedo, before returning to Madrid in 1927. These years were rather uneventful as far as we can tell, and in 1929, he rejoined Bilbao in time for the start of the first official Spanish league season.

Before mentioning Bilbao, however, there is one rather interesting fact, hinted at earlier. In Madrid, May 1929, Fred Pentland was coach of the Spanish national team that played and beat England 4-3, becoming the very first side to beat the English. No doubt Jimmy Hogan would have understood a little of what he felt!

Pentland’s second spell at Athletic Bilbao was a lot more successful than before. After a comparatively disappointing opening season, Bilbao won the league in 1930 and 1931, finished runners-up in 1932 and 1933, and also won the Copa del Rey from 1930 to 1933. In 1931, Bilbao even beat Barcelona by 12 goals to 1 - a score which remains their worst ever. The naysayers that caused him to leave the club originally could now have no doubts about the best, most successful system of play!

In 1933, Pentland once more left for the other ‘Athletic’ club in his life - Madrid. His stay was curtailed by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, when he walked out of Spain with his family, and joined Brentford as assistant-manager in 1936. His final managerial appointment was in February 1938 when he took over as manager of Barrow AFC, lasting until September 1939.

Athletic Bilbao took him back to Spain in 1959 for a tribute game played in his honour against Chelsea. Pentland was also awarded the Distinguished Member medal for his services to the club. Three years later, on 16 March 1962, Fred Pentland died in Lytchett Matravers, Dorset at the age of 78. Athletic held a memorial service at their stadium where part of Pentland’s famous bowler-hat cry, “How little time is left for you” was read out in poetic reference to his death.

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