The football season in England kicks off this weekend and the BNA Team already has the fresh smell of pitch-marking paint (and the smell of hope, too!) in our footie-daft minds.
Kjell Hanssen, one of the many football researchers who regularly visits the BNA Kop, kindly shared this terrific story about how the directors of Aston Villa hired a private detective back in season 1899-1900, in order to find out how the players spent their leisure time.
Oh, but it seems the players were not too chuffed about this spying, though…
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette – Saturday 17 March 1900
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000289/19000317/001/0001
2 comments On The Strange Tale of Aston Villa FC and the Private Detective – Season 1899/1900
As Sunderland were big rivals of Villa at the time, this seems to me a case of the Sunderland press trying to give their own team some hope.
Oh, that’s interesting – thanks for posting this info. Regards, Grant.