William Sudell: the first great manager

William Sudell was the man most responsible for Preston’s success. He joined the club in 1867 and became manager in 1881.

Sudell wanted Preston North End to be the best team in the country. He brought in new Scottish players, including a defender called Nick Ross. Ross was perhaps the first player to think seriously about tactics in football.

Sudell and Ross made the other players think about the way they played. They even brought a blackboard into the dressing room before matches to plan how to beat the opposition.

Preston became known as ‘the Invincibles’ - because they almost never lost. In the three seasons between 1887 and 1890 they won the League three times and the Cup twice.

Football is not, however, a game in which any team remains invincible forever. Though they won the Cup again in 1938, Preston never again won the League. In 1961 they were relegated, and they have never returned to English football's top division.

Stolen Money

William Suddell was the first great football manager. He had turned a small club into the best football team in the England in seven years. In 1889 he became the Football Leagues first treasurer.

Sadly, the fall of William Sudell was almost as fast as his rise. In the early 1890s the mill he worked for got into financial trouble. Rumours started that Sudell had stolen money from his employer to pay the wages of Preston players.

In 1892 he left his job as League treasurer, and two years later he left Preston North End. In 1895 William Suddell was sent to prison for three years. He left prison in 1898 and went to South Africa. In South Africa he worked for a newspaper. He died there in 1911.