Providing a list of the best strikers is a little easier than doing so for midfielders or defenders in the sense that they can be judged according to how many goals they have scored. That’s not the whole picture of course, but a forward who doesn’t convert chances is unlikely to survive for long. Leicester City have had some great strikers over the years. Today, number 3.
Leicester City’s promotion to Division One in the 1956/7 season heralded a 12 year stay in the top-flight, the longest achieved so far by the club. The signing of Arthur Rowley, number three in our list of the Foxes' greatest strikers, was a key reason for the club’s rise to the top division in both 1954/5 and again, following relegation, in 1956/7. Rowley had won the Division Two title with Fulham in 1949, netting 27 times in 56 games but he did less well in Division One the following season with eight in 34 games. This drop-off persuaded Fulham to sell him to Leicester (then a Second Division side) for £14,000 in 1950.
Initially, the Filbert Street crowd were less than enamoured by Arthur’s arrival, not least because he was brought in to replace the popular Jack Lee. Rowley soon, however, won them over. His scoring rate for the Foxes, particularly after being moved from a central striking role to the inside left position, was phenomenal. Known affectionately as ‘the Gunner’ because of his explosive left foot, Rowley bagged 265 goals for the Foxes (251 in the Football League) in 321 appearances between 1950 and 1958. This included a Football League high of 44 (from 42 appearances), including four hat-tricks, in the 1956/7 promotion season. It was an injustice that Arthur never won a full England cap.
By the 1957/8 season, Rowley, now in his early thirties, was not an automatic choice and moved on, as player manager, to fourth division Shrewsbury Town in the summer of 1958. Both the fans, and Arthur himself, were stunned at the decision by the club to let him go and, in retrospect, there is a case for saying he could have done a useful job for the team for at least a couple more years. After all, despite only playing 25 games in the 1957/8 season, the striker was still leading marksman with 20 goals, a tally which was vital in keeping Leicester up by a single point.
Arthur continued his scoring exploits with Shrewsbury. In the seven seasons he continued as a player, Rowley bagged 152 league goals (admittedly at a lower level in Divisions Three and Four) and finished his playing career as the leading scorer in the history of British league football with 434 goals (459 if cup goals are added). Some record.
After retiring from playing, Arthur managed Shrewsbury, and a number of other clubs. He continued to live in Shrewsbury after leaving football and was buried there when he died, aged 76, in 2002.
One little known aspect of the Arthur Rowley story, at least to Leicester fans, is that he actually started his football career at Old Trafford and in his brief time there during the Second World War played with his older brother Jack, hence the title of Ian Davidson’s biography of the pair The Forgotten Brothers. Jack spent 18 years with Manchester United, much of it as part of Matt Busby’s squad, winning First Division and FA Cup winner’s medals. With 211 goals in 424 appearances, only three United players – Wayne Rooney, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law - are currently ahead of him in the Old Trafford scoring charts.
More on Saturday.