Full name Frederick Pagnam Role Footballer Name Fred Pagnam | Years Team Playing position Position Forward | |
Date of birth (1891-09-04)4 September 1891 Place of birth Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England Date of death 1 March 1962(1962-03-01) (aged 70) Died March 1, 1962, Samlesbury, United Kingdom | ||
Frederick "Fred" Pagnam (4 September 1891 – March 1962) was an English footballer and manager.
Pagnam was born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, and started at Blackpool Wednesday before having spells at Huddersfield Town (though he never played for the club) and Southport Central. He joined Blackpool in 1913 and after a season there moved to Liverpool in 1914. A striker, he scored on his Reds debut, against Chelsea on 10 October 1914 and scored four against Tottenham Hotspur a couple of weeks later; he scored 26 that season and was Liverpool's top scorer.
Pagnam's time at Liverpool coincided with a conspiracy by some Liverpool players to rig a match with Manchester United, in order to profit from betting on the result, in what became known as the 1915 British football betting scandal. Pagnam refused to take part in the conspiracy and even threatened to score a goal to ruin the prearranged result; United won 2-0 as agreed, but four Liverpool players and three United players were found guilty of match-fixing by the Football Association, with Pagnam testifying against his teammates.
The outbreak of World War I meant competitive football was suspended at the end of the 1914-15 season; Pagnam continued to play for Liverpool through the war, but when football resumed after hostilities ceased, Pagnam played only eight more matches for Liverpool before being sold to Arsenal in October 1919.
Pagnam made his Arsenal debut against Bradford City on 25 October 1919 and was moderately prolific in his first season, scoring twelve League goals, although Henry White finished higher than Pagnam in the scoring charts. The next season, 1920-21, Pagnam finished as Arsenal top scorer with 15 goals, despite the fact that he had been sold to Cardiff City for £3,000 (Arsenal were quite strapped for cash at the time) in March 1921. In all he scored 27 goals in 53 appearances for Arsenal.
Pagnam lasted nine months at Ninian Park before moving to Third Division South Watford in December 1921. In five seasons and 144 league matches, he scored 67 goals for the Hornets and was the Third Division South top scorer in 1922-23. In 1926 he became Watford's manager; he spent three years in the job but achieved little. Watford finished 21st out of 22 in his first season but finished 8th in 1928-29. After leaving Watford, he had spells in Turkey, coaching Galatasaray SK and the Turkish national team, and in the Netherlands at DWV (1934–1937), HVV Den Haag (1935 caretaker), De Volewijckers (1937–1939) and CVV Vriendenschaar (1939) before returning to the UK in 1939 with his Dutch wife at the outbreak of World War II, where he ran a pub.
Pagnam died in 1962 aged 70.