Born: 4 September 1891

Born in: Poulton-Le-Flyde, Lancashire

Died: 1 March 1962

Other clubs: Lytham, Blackpool Wednesday (1909-10), Huddersfield Town (1910-12), Southport Central (1912-13), Blackpool (1913-14), Arsenal (1919-21), Cardiff City (1921), Watford (1921-26)

Signed from: Blackpool

Joined Liverpool: £75, 21.05.1914

Debut: 10 Oct 1914

Final appearance: 04 Oct 1919

Debut goal: 10 Oct 1914

Last goal: 27 Sep 1919

Contract until: 17.10.1919

Wartime: Apps / Goals: 49 / 43

League: Apps / Goals: 37 / 28

All Competitions: Apps / Goals: 39 / 30

Player Profile

Although his Liverpool career was a brief one, Pagnam was a robust forward who had an outstanding goals-per-game ratio while he was at Anfield. Fred's father had been much averse to his son taking up football as a profession but luckily for Liverpool he didn't get his way. He played for his hometown club before signing for Liverpool in 1914 when he was 23-years-old. Old Liverpool stalwart and former Blackpool player-manager, Jack Cox, recommended Pagnam to Liverpool and according to the Liverpool Echo after he had completed his first season he was "generally recognised as the best find of the year in Division 1 circles." Pagnam scored on his Liverpool debut at Chelsea on 10 October 1914 and three weeks later hit the net four times as Tottenham were crushed 7-2 at Anfield. Pagnam was easily the club’s top-scorer that season with 26 goals from 31 appearances. In 1917, Pagnam gave evidence in the famous match-fixing scandal involving seven Liverpool and Manchester United's players who had taken bribes to let their game end 2-0 in United's favour on Good Friday 1915. Pagnam said he was illegally approached en route to the game and offered £3 by Liverpool's Jackie Sheldon to throw the game, but had refused to participate. Like so many players of his generation, his professional career was cut short by World War I, but he maintained his prolific scoring record for Liverpool in wartime matches, 43 goals in 49 matches.

Pagnam scored four goals in his eight League appearances for Liverpool in the 1919/20 season before joining Arsenal for £1,500, the biggest transfer of the season so far, in October 1919. Pagnam had an impressive scoring record in the First Division with the Gunners; 26 goals in 50 League matches. Despite being the club's top-scorer in his second season he was sold, to raise some much-needed funds, to Cardiff City for £3,000, helping the Welsh side gain promotion to the First Division with eight goals in 14 matches. Pagnam only stayed there for six months after failing to score in his first 13 first division games in the 1921/22 season, suffering the only lean spell of his career. He left Cardiff for Watford in Third Division South for a club record fee of £1,000 in December 1921. The 30-year-old netted 17 goals in 27 games for the rest of the season and scored 32 goals in 45 matches in the following campaign. Pagnam's most famous feat at the Hornets was scoring three hat-tricks in a run of five games. According to Watford historians he was "a non-conformist whose quirky personality was not universally popular." Whilst still a player, he had to apologise to the Watford directors for his behaviour towards his teammates. Pagnam must though have impressed the hierarchy at Vicarage Road as he was Watford's manager from 1926-1929. He also had a spell in charge of the Turkish national team in 1931 and coached in the Netherlands for eight years. His coaching overseas ended when he had to escape the Nazis with his Dutch wife in 1940.