Bradshaw's successor at Fulham was the man who succeeded him at Arsenal, and who was still in charge at the time of Bradshaw's death. Philip Kelso's reign at the Cottage began in May 1909 and lasted until the end of the 1923-4 season, and he is still the manager who has had sole control of team affairs for the longest time, 15 years, with four seasons of League football lost to the Great War.
Like Bradshaw, he was essentially an administrator who never played professionally (although he did once turn out for Fulham in an emergency during the war at the age of 47).
Kelso was a Scot, born in Largs on the Firth of Clyde in 1871, and managed Hibernian before succeeding Bradshaw at Plumstead in 1904. His principal achievements were to take the Gunners to two FA Cup semi finals, but in January 1908, he decided to return to Scotland, to run a hotel in his home town.
On Bradshaw's departure, Kelso was persuaded back into football and back into London. He had to contend with a series of financial problems and an attempt by his former Fulham chairman, Henry Norris, to merge the Cottagers with his former club, Arsenal, where Norris was in charge.
A stern, abrasive Scot, who was a remote figure to the players, Kelso succeeded in keeping Fulham in the old Second Division throughout his term of office, although in his final year it was a very close run thing. It took a 1-0 home win in Kelso's last match to keep the club up.
In spite of the financial constraints, Kelso made some imaginative signings and he built two fine sides, one either side of the war, very much on the lines of his successor, the close-passing Scottish game, but neither came close to promotion. In his management style, Kelso was a disciplinarian, who held strong views on smoking and drinking but in other ways he was very modern.
He expected players to live close to London but wanted them together, away from the capital, on the night before matches. More than one player left as a result of his strict regime.
Without a doubt, Kelso's final years were clouded by the Barney Travers bribery scandal. It was widely believed that the manager knew more than he admitted but it was Travers who paid the price. Kelso was only 53 when he called it a day, but stayed in the area as the landlord of The Grove in Hammersmith and then the Rising Sun in the Fulham Road. A keen golfer and bowls player, Kelso was also chairman of the Football League Managers and Secretaries association. He died, aged 64 in February 1935, and is buried in Sheen Cemetery.
This was the signal for a period of instability that seems to occur at Fulham about once in a generation. It certainly happened in the mid 1960s and then again in the 1990s, but the first occasion was in the aftermath of Kelso's retirement, and it lasted until the appointment of Jack Peart in 1935.
After having had just two managers in 20 years, the Cottagers had five managers in next 11 years, as well as a caretaker manager who held the fort on two occasions. Whether the upheavals that followed each change of manager caused the inconsistent performances on the pitch, or whether the dip in playing form precipitated the changes is a moot point, but these were troubled years down on the banks of the Thames.