Sid Kimpton

Sid Kimpton (around 1910)

Gabriel Sibley "Sid" Kimpton (born August 12, 1887 in Leavesden ; † February 15, 1968 ibid) was an English football player who worked as a coach in several European countries after his playing days . He worked particularly long and successfully in France , where he is mostly called George Kimpton to this day .

Player career

Kimpton, for whom 1888 is also mentioned as the year of birth, played at a young age for a team from his birthplace, tried his hand at Watford FC briefly in 1909 and played most of his career at Southampton FC . He made his debut in a 1910 Southern League game against Crystal Palace . For the "Saints" he was also used in limited gaming operations during the First World War , during which he worked in armaments production for the shipbuilder Thornycroft . By 1920 he played over 140 league games, scored 27 goals and was also in eight FA Cup games (three goals) for Southampton on the lawn.

Stations

• 1909: Watford FC
• 1910 to 1920: Southampton FC

Coaching career

Years of apprenticeship and first successes

Shortly thereafter, Kimpton decided to train. At that time, most football clubs on the continent and national teams did not have a permanent trainer. However, there was a growing understanding that the players 'performance and the teams' successes could not be achieved without systematic physical and tactical training. And it made sense to hire people from the British “mother country” of this sport, who at the same time could pass on their know-how , often in the double function of a player- coach, to future local coaches. For Sid Kimpton, the early stages of his work cannot be completely determined. He worked in Poland in the early 1920s , where he led LKS Pogoń Lwów to win the national championship title in 1922 ; then he hired himself out at KSP Polonia Warszawa and in 1923 for half a year in Krakow at KS Cracovia . Probably before 1924 he should also have trained the DFC Prague ; In the middle of the decade, an activity in France was documented for the first time , and this with the doyen of club football there, Le Havre AC (until 1926). In 1928 he returned to England and became a coach at Coventry City FC  - so he was possibly, in contrast to manager James McIntyre (1928-1931), only responsible for physical training.

National and master trainer in France

From 1934 Sid Kimpton worked again in France: for the World Cup in Italy the French association FFFA signed him as a (physical) trainer - the association Sélectionneurs , in particular Gaston Barreau , remained responsible for the line-up of the national team . Kimpton set up a one-week training camp near Compiègne at short notice , which he used for "exemplary preparation"; He also built up the players physically and mentally in the Italian team quarters. In the second round of the World Cup, the Bleus faced the favored Austrian miracle team  - and “It wasn't Austria who made the game, but outsiders France. The équipe tricolore was wonderfully hired by […] Kimpton. Especially in the defense area, she trumped [...] with enormous fighting power and great enthusiasm ”. Nevertheless, they were eliminated with 2: 3 after extra time, and so his activity ended after only one encounter. However, the FFFA brought him again in 1935 to conduct coaching courses, as in the following year. During this time, however, there were repeated disputes about the tactical ideas of the Englishman, who propagated the introduction of the World Cup system and thus met with little approval from Gaston Barreau - in contrast to Jean Bernard-Lévy , the president of the capital's professional club Racing Paris . His first division eleven trained in France as George or Mister Kimpton full-time from 1935 to 1939, and in 1936 he succeeded with racing the doublé ( championship and cup win in the same season). Also thanks to Racing's circle of top-class players such as Émile Veinante (who became Kimpton's successor in the coaching chair in 1939), Edmond Delfour , Raoul Diagne , Maurice Banide , Rudolf Hiden , Gusti Jordan , Robert Mercier , Maurice Dupuis , Jules , who had been retrained by Kimpton from striker to center runner Mathé , Jean Bastien , Mario Zatelli , Kimpton's compatriot Frederick Kennedy , Oscar Heisserer and Alfred Aston , the “revolutionary for France” changeover to the World Cup system with strict man marking was “crowned with success - but not necessarily seductive” - because his team won the cup again in 1939 and also finished in the league except in 1937/38 always on a place among the top three teams.

His systematic way of working is very well documented from this time. Training took place four times a week for three hours each, two days of which were with the ball to practice game situations and ended with a game between the first team and the second team. The other two days were reserved for conditioning, endurance and speed training (forest runs, sprints, etc.) as well as other exercises (gymnastics, jumping rope, etc.), but also served to regenerate and treat minor injuries. Racing Paris even employed a masseur, and at that time the team meeting he introduced on Friday evening was just as infrequent. It began with a detailed individual review of the previous game and ended with an analysis of the approaching opponent's playing structure; Kimpton also used a magnetic board to illustrate this - evidence of the “transition to modern footballing” he forced. He had already proceeded in a very similar way at the 1934 World Cup, as L'Auto reported on May 30, 1934:

“Sunday morning at 10 o'clock the entire French team is on their feet. So it has been decided by coach Kimpton, who does not appreciate it when the team lazy too long on game day. [He has gathered everyone] in the hotel room and gives them a lecture about the upcoming game. [... In] his clumsy and exhausting French, but objectively and simply, [he] illustrates his intentions on the blackboard, sometimes joking in between [...]. Finally, he explains to each individual player what task they have to fulfill. "

Kimptons outward appearance is described as "picturesque with its bushy eyebrows and its only remotely understandable French"; on the sidelines he was always a suit, vest and a panama hat clad, gave himself during training but a bit casual with knickerbockers and flat cap , even though he "never smiled [and] as a sign of satisfaction than once a brow pulled up."

In the 1940s

Sid Kimpton moved from Paris to Rouen FC in 1939 ; the 1939/40 season was, however, severely affected by the outbreak of World War II and the French general mobilization . Under these conditions, the coach did a very successful job in Normandy , because at the time of the premature termination of the game (spring 1940), Rouen was at the top of the table in the northern group of Division 1 . After the French surrender, Kimpton was interned as a German prisoner of war in a camp north of Paris, from which he was only released after the liberation of France. He returned to FC Rouen, which he led in the 1944/45 season to first place in the Division 1 northern group and which also clearly won the subsequent final against southern champions Lyon OU ; however, this last “war season” does not count as an official championship these days. 1945/46 Kimpton trained again the first division Le Havre AC and 1946 to 1950 the amateur league team of AS Cherbourg-Stella .

Sid Kimpton later returned to his native Hertfordshire , where he died in 1968 at the age of 80.

Stations

• until 1922: Pogoń Lwów
• 1922/23: Polonia Warsaw
• 1923: KS Cracovia
• before 1924: DFC Prague
• until 1926: Le Havre AC
• 1928 to 1931: Coventry City FC (assistant coach)
• 1934: French national team (assistant coach)
• 1935: French national team (assistant coach)
• 1935 to 1939: Racing Paris
• 1939 to 1940: FC Rouen
• 1944 to 1945: FC Rouen
• 1945 to 1946: Le Havre AC
• 1946 to 1950: AS Cherbourg-Stella

Palmarès (as coach)

• Polish champion: 1922
• French champion: 1936 (and 1945 [unofficial title])
• French cup winner: 1936, 1939
• World Cup participant in 1934

literature

• Jean Cornu: Les grandes equipes françaises de football. Famot, Genève 1978
• Pierre Delaunay / Jacques de Ryswick / Jean Cornu: 100 ans de football en France. Atlas, Paris 1983², ISBN 2-7312-0108-8
• L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004, ISBN 2-951-96053-0
• Jean-Philippe Rethacker: La grande histoire des clubs de foot champions de France. Sélection du Reader's Digest, Paris / Bruxelles / Montréal / Zurich 2001, ISBN 2-7098-1238-X
• Jean-Philippe Rethacker / Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Genève 1996, 2003², ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1

Notes and evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} so in Kimptons short biography on Christie's page (at the bottom).
2. ^ Duncan Holley / Gary Chalk: The Alphabet of the Saints. ACL & Polar Publishing, Leicester 1992, ISBN 0-9514862-3-3 , p. 198
3. ↑ For corresponding developments in France in the 1920s, see, for example, Alfred Wahl: Les archives du football. Sport et société en France (1880-1980). Gallimard, o. O. 1989, ISBN 2-0707-1603-1 , pp. 202ff.
4. ↑ see the list of club coaches at wikipasy.pl
5. ↑ The period of his first engagement at Le Havre (1921-1926) given in the list of French club coaches at rsssf.com contradicts other sources in this exclusivity.
6. ↑ see the list of managers ( memento of the original from April 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the side of Coventry City FC 
7. ↑ Rethacker / Thibert, pp. 121/122
8. ↑ Hardy Greens : Football World Cup Encyclopedia 1930-2006. AGON, Kassel 2004², ISBN 3-89784-261-0 , p. 57
9. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, p. 301; see also the list of Sélectionneurs and coaches up to 1964 on the website of the French Football Association
10. ↑ Delaunay / de Ryswick / Cornu, p. 138
11. ↑ Rethacker, pp. 30 and 32
12. ^ Hubert Beaudet: Le Championnat et ses champions. 70 ans de Football en France. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2002, ISBN 2-84253-762-9 , p. 19; similarly also Rethacker, p. 32; Cornu, p. 102, however, points to many attractive games and the fact that Racing 1935/36 scored 81 goals in 30 point games.
13. ↑ This paragraph follows Alfred Wahl / Pierre Lanfranchi: Les footballeurs professionnels des années trente à nos jours. Hachette, Paris 1995, ISBN 978-2-0123-5098-4 , p. 90, unless otherwise stated.
14. ↑ Article “La causerie de Kimpton” from L'Auto, facsimile in L'Équipe / Ejnès, p. 51; There is also the team photo with the coach immediately before the World Cup game against Austria kicks off .
15. ↑ Delaunay / de Ryswick / Cornu, p. 134f., And photo from 1936 with Racing's team on p. 141
16. ↑ Cornu, p. 101
17. ↑ Rethacker / Thibert, p. 121
18. ↑ A photo of Kimptons can be found on the club website of FC Rouen .
19. ↑ Rethacker / Thibert, p. 175
20. ↑ according to the Cherbourg trainer list at rsssf.com