Leslie Knighton

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Leslie Knighton
Personal information
Full name	Leslie Knighton
Date of birth	Unknown
Place of birth	Unknown, England
Date of death	Unknown
Teams managed
1919-25 1925-28 1928-33 1933-39	Arsenal Bournemouth Birmingham City Chelsea

Leslie Knighton (fl. early 20th C.) was an English football manager.

After spells as an assistant manager at Huddersfield Town and Manchester City, Knighton was appointed manager of Arsenal in 1919, shortly after the club had been promoted to the First Division. He oversaw the club for six years, but Arsenal never finished higher than ninth during his tenure.

While at Arsenal, Knighton was involved in one of the first recorded cases of doping; before a January 1925 FA Cup tie against West Ham United, Knighton gave the players what he described as "little silver pills", given to him by a Harley Street doctor who was a fan of the club; although the pills were successful in increasing the players' energy, after three matches they rebelled and refused to take them for fear of ill effects. Knighton's activities, entirely legal under the rules at the time, were not made public until he recounted the episode in his memoirs.

Knighton had numerous fallings-out with Arsenal chairman Sir Henry Norris; Norris put a strict cap of £1,000 on transfer fees and refused to sign any player under 5'8" tall or eleven stone; when Knighton signed the 5' tall Hugh "Midget" Moffatt from Workington in 1923, Norris was furious when he found out; he overruled his manager and promptly sold the player to Luton Town before he'd played a League game.

Despite Norris's interfering Knighton signed some quality players for Arsenal, including Bob John, Jimmy Brain and Alf Baker. However, he could never knit together a solid winning side and Arsenal's performances gradually declined towards the end of his tenure; they finished 19th in 1923-24 and 20th in 1924-25. Norris dismissed Knighton that summer. Knighton later alleged that Norris has only sacked him to avoid paying him a bonus from a benefit match that he was due. Norris denied this and instead cited Knighton's poor managerial record, but later regretted his dismissal and in his will left Knighton £100, a substantial sum for the time.

After leaving the Gunners, Knighton went on to manage Bournemouth (1925-28), Birmingham City (1928-33) and Chelsea (1933-39).

Preceded by: George Morrell	Arsenal manager 1919–1925	Succeeded by: Herbert Chapman
Preceded by: David Calderhead	Chelsea manager 1933-1939	Succeeded by: Billy Birrell