Chapman was keen to get Northampton Town into the Football League, but with no automatic promotion or relegation rules at the time this proved very difficult. Chapman proposed a new two-division Football Alliance underneath the two divisions of the Football League, with automatic promotion and relegation (a similar system to the four-division League setup introduced in 1921), but this was rejected at the time (and would not come about until 1920). In the 1912 close season, he was offered the chance to manage Second Division Leeds City, and with Northampton's blessing moved north again to join the League side.