By 8th June 1910 there was no doubt at all who was in charge of Woolwich Arsenal – it was Henry Norris.
And to prove it, he did what the previous owners had done – he told the manager (George Morrell) he was safe in his job – which was quite something considering the disaster of a season the club had just had with Arsenal only just missing relegation.
But Norris understood money, and money was what Morrell was good at looking after.
Yet Norris was not getting everything his own way. By now the independent Fund Raising Committee which had been set up when the previous owner had declared that Arsenal had totally run out of money had, against all the odds, and despite the fact that no one wanted to buy the shares that Norris was trying to sell, raised a fair old sum.
However, they were in no hurry to hand the cash over. Norris was not trusted, first because he was clearly Mr Fulham, second because he had proposed to move Woolwich Arsenal out of Kent and into Fulham, and third because Norris had not given any assurances to the contrary.
In the end the fundraisers, shepherded and organised by Dr Clarke, made it clear that without a cast-iron commitment to the club staying in or around the armaments factory, the money that had been raised to save the club, would not be handed over.
There was a club, there was a manager who had just been told his job was safe, there was a ground, and there was some sort of a squad left over from last season, but no one was convinced about Norris’ motives. And the club was still desperately short of cash. Indeed without Norris there was not enough money for the club to continue. But Norris had just told the manager, “your job is safe.”