Sometimes an idea or at least the kernel of an idea like a seed can carried from one place to another and onward even over water, overseas, by a third party there to extend the metaphor to fall to ground, germinate, grow and flourish, be it permanently or, if not exactly temporarily, then with a significant but ultimately limited life. In this case the idea is a footballing one, the flourishing of which appears in Holland to continue as strongly as ever, whereas elsewhere in one case it seems perhaps to be coming to an end, whilst in another, the first intermediate point en-route, is long gone.

And it is this first intermediate point that concerns us here. It was from there that the idea, a Scottish idea, was carried at least in part across the North Sea by Sid Castle and by others, British and Dutch, from there onwards to the shore of the Mediterranean. But it was also there too that it briefly took root, planted by a man, not a Scot but Durham-born so halfway there, coincidently called Seed, Jimmy Seed.   

The intermediate point was The Valley, the original Valley, the first home of Charlton F.C. The pivotal year was 1933 but it wasn't for our purposes the starting-point. That was 1920. Jimmy Marshall Seed had been born in 1895 in Blackhill by Consett, the youngest of four brothers, but the family moved when he was two to the village of  Whitburn north of Sunderland.  At fourteen he started down the pit. At sixteen he was playing for the village in the Wearside League alongside his elder brother, Angus Cameron Seed, whose name is as good an indication of the true origins of the family as any, at least on his Scots-born mother's side. Jimmy Seed gained five England caps as an inside-forward between 1921 and 1925 but under today's rules they could equally have been for the Auld Country.

But back to facts not could have beens. During the Great War Jimmy Seed was on Sunderland's books but was enlisted and in 1916 posted to France. In 1917 he was gassed, just as my own grandfather had been, and was returned to Britain. A year earlier Angus had been awarded the military medal, for, as a stretcher bearer, dragging wounded back to the trenches, whilst under fire. And in the meantime he had was wounded in the hip by shrapnel, a wound that would ultimately cut his footballing career short. And much the same footballing fate almost happened to Jimmy. Prior to being discharged from the army in 1919 he had played for Sunderland, struggled and let go, not even being put on the transfer-list.

However, he was not entirely written off. The non-League, Welsh team, Mid-Rhondda, signed him, and also Angus, who was playing back in Scotland for St. Bernards in Edinburgh. In fact Angus would remain playing in Wales for four seasons and then return to Scotland to Broxburn but Jimmy after a two title-winning season had both recovered his strength, also come to the attention of none other than Peter McWilliam and in 1920 signed for Tottenham.    

Jimmy Seed would spend seven seasons at White Hart Lane, turning out 229 times and scoring sixty-four times. He arrived aged twenty-six. He left at thirty-two. McWilliam had left the London club in February 1927, because he was not being paid enough, the new manager came in, dropped Seed and cut his money. Seed asked to be released, looked like he might go as player-manager of newly Southern League Aldershot, none other than Angus actually getting the managerial job, and instead remained in the First Division by moving to Sheffield Wednesday. His new club then finished mid-table,  Spurs were relegated, whilst Seed would remain at Hillsborough for four more seasons, 134 more games, thirty-two more goals and in 1929 and 1930 consecutive League titles.   

So it was at the age of thirty-six that Jimmy Seed stepped immediately into management and back in London. He spent two seasons at Clapton now Leyton Orient in the Third Division without any obvious success yet in 1933 was approached both to return to Wednesday, third in the First tier, and Charlton, just relegated from the Second to the Third. He chose the latter, steadied it at fifth in the first season , saw it promoted in first place with Ralph Allen the division's top-scorer the next and in 1936 promoted once more and to the First Division, second behind Manchester United.

Interestingly Seed's promoted squad contained on the face of it not one Scot. However, it did include a Diasporan, who could play not just as an inside-forward but also centre-forward, centre-half and left-half once more. He had been signed in 1935, so newly arrived for the push into the top-flight, becoming captain in short order. In fact he would remain club-captain for the next decade. His name was Don Welsh and would in 1938-39 be capped three times but for England.

Like Seed himself Welsh was half-Scots. Whilst he was Manchester-born in February 1915 his father, William, was born not as sometime reported in Wigton in Cumberland but Wigton in Dumfries. And he was both the best and a typical example of Seed's approach to player-sourcing. Welsh had been signed aged already twenty-four from Torquay United in the Third Division South. Of the fourteen new recruits with just three leaving once promotion had been achieved all were also from lower divisions or even outwith the Football League. with the manager choosing carefully, for certain characteristics not reputations. One was a Scot, Bob Wright, although he was signed from Horden Colliery, a County Durham team. And it was a methodology that clearly worked. In the three full seasons before the outbreak of the Second World War the somewhat lowly South-West London club would finish second, fourth and third.

Moreover, when football restarted in 1946 the policy seems to have continued but with a gradual twist. Welsh was still there as was Wright, albeit both briefly. Never the less it was enough for Welsh to captain the team to the 1946 FA Cup Final, a 4-1 defeat to Derby County, and be back again the following year for a 1-0 win after extra time over Burnley. Chris Duffy, born in Methil and signed from Leith Athletic, was the scorer. And in the squad on both occasions was Jock Campbell signed directly from the Scottish junior game once more, the young Scot Jimmy Walls, about who little is known, and a name for the future, Malcolm Allison, about whom much is known but one thing is rarely mentioned. It is that he was was also a Diasporan. Born in Kent as was his mother Malcolm Alexander's father, Archibald, was born either in Dumbarton or Clydebank but certainly North of the Border.

It meant that in 1947 the Charlton squad, in contrast to pre-War, included four Scots and two Diasporans. The following season number was the same but with tweaks. Bob Wright was still at the club but now assistant to Jimmy Seed. Don Welsh had turned to management at Brighton & Hove Albion. And Charlton had somewhat stepped out of its comfort zone, recruiting in Scotland but this time experience in the form of Whitburn-born Alex McCrae of Hearts.

McRae would in 1947-8 play forty-three games for the Addicks but nevertheless did not settle. The following season he moved on but not yet back to Scotland. He would spend five years at Middlesbrough in the interim. However, Charlton would go into the Scottish market once more or rather to the Isle of Dogs to recruit perhaps on loan Tommy Brown ex. also of Hearts and Glenbuck.