Background
He was born in Sheffield as the next to youngest child of Arthur William Thompson and Annie Willy.
He was born in Sheffield as the next to youngest child of Arthur William Thompson and Annie Willy.
Too young to go to war, Thompson was encouraged to play for Sheffield school. Thompson first joined Barnsley in 1917 as a 16-year-old amateur, he was on a trial and he managed to play in the afternoon match after the inside left was unable to He scored a hat trick.
He turned professional upon moving to Birmingham in 1918, a move he regretted later, as Manchester United and Liverpool F.C. were both looking to sign him.
After this brief spell he moved to in 1922. In Swansea"s first season in the Second Division, his 19 goals helped Swansea finish in fifth place in the league.
During the cup run, Thompson scored four goals, including the opening goal against Arsenal in a 2–1 victory in round 6 (quarter finals). On 17 March 1928 he was signed by Arsenal for £4,000 but his career at Arsenal was plagued by a knee injury.
He made his debut in a 2–0 defeat by Portsmouth on 28 March 1928 and at first shared the inside left position with Harold Peel, playing 17 times in 1928-1929, scoring five goals as the side"s penalty expert.
After not making any appearances at all in 1932-1933 he left Arsenal for Crystal Palace, having made 27 appearances and having scored six goals in total. He retired from professional football the following season. After Thompson retired, he reinstated as an amateur briefly at Islington Corinthians and later coached Tottenham Hotspur"s reserve team, as well as a spell as a scout with Arsenal.
Between 1947 and 1956 he was Arsenal"s so called "man in black" who watched the team arsenal was to play the next week, he featured in advertisements for Sandeman"s Portuguese, but no one ever discovered his identity, even when the daily express got a picture of him.
On 26 August 1968 Len Thompson died of a heart attack aged 67.