During the opening weeks of 1974 there was no escaping the sense of inertia surrounding the England set-up, although it may not have been altogether surprising given The Football Association, responsible for matters relating to the national team, had long been considered inert rather than alert.
Since being held to a 1-1 draw by Poland at Wembley in October 1973, failure to win the final game of Qualification Group 5 meaning England would not qualify for the World Cup whereas the Poles on the strength of their hard-earned point would, team manager Sir Alf Ramsey had remained in post – a 1-0 home defeat against Italy the following month of little help in putting the past into context or facing the future with any clarity.
In the immediate aftermath of England failing to secure a place at the 1974 global gathering taking place in West Germany, there had been press and public clamour for Brian Clough to replace Ramsey as England boss.
Outspoken, yet charismatic, 38 year-old Clough had guided Derby County to the league title in 1972, but was now available to The FA having resigned his Baseball Ground post just 48 hours before Poland had departed Wembley with their necessary share of the spoils.
The more cynically-minded among us would conclude the governing body (or to be precise the Senior Committee of The FA), deferred making any decision in regard to their 1966 World Cup winning manager due to opting for the least challenging of two choices – in other words allowing Sir Alf to continue in post was easier than sacking him and countenance demand for Clough to be appointed his successor.
While there was never any likelihood of Ramsey leaving the job of his own volition and with The FA, outwardly at least, paralyzed by procrastination, a somewhat illogical impasse took hold.
At a meeting of The FA Council held on November 5 (not without its own particular irony), any perspective fireworks were left in their box. In the minutes it states:
‘On behalf of the Committee, Mr Wragg expressed sincere regrets to Sir Alfred Ramsey that the England Team had been eliminated from the World Cup, but he wished to place on record Sir Alfred Ramsey had the unanimous support and confidence of the Senior Committee.’
So that appeared to be that, Sir Alf had received endorsement from his employers to continue in post. Nine days later on Wednesday 14 November 1973, Ramsey recalled World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore (West Ham) and Chelsea striker Peter Osgood to the team who were defeated by Italy, 53 year old Ramsey making overdue, according to his critics, acknowledgement of how European football was progressing by playing Moore in a defined sweeper role. Elsewhere, however, slight modifications to established tactics failed to gel as the hosts’ produced a disjointed performance.
Even then the England manager had a more combative opponent to overcome before the month was out. Closing in on a place among The FA hierarchy was Sir Harold Thompson, whose reputation for belligerence had already extended to crossing swords with Ramsey. On November 26 at the next FA Council meeting, Thompson stated the minute taken on November 5:
‘Did not represent the feeling of all members of the Council and whilst the Senior Committee were perfectly within their rights in recording the view expressed in the minute, it should not preclude a wider discussion by the Council or some other select group at a later date.’
If Ramsey now had fears his job was under threat they would not have been assuaged when in February 1974 The FA announced formation of a sub-committee whose remit was ‘to consider our future policy in respect of the promotion of international football.’ One more talking shop within an institution of plenty was hardly a major development, but few missed the irony of Thompson, as chairman of the group, being asked for his input, while pointedly the England team manager was not.
In response Ramsey drafted his own blueprint for the future, his recommendations consisting of a three day preparation period for friendlies, a week in the case of competitive fixtures and one international a month through the season. He also addressed the long-standing bone of contention in players withdrawing from the squad through injury only to play a few days later for their clubs – making clear assertion those selected but not reporting for international duty should not be permitted to play club football the following Saturday.
The latter became more premonition than suggestion when viewed in regard to a friendly England had down in the diary against Portugal on Wednesday 3 April 1974 – this Lisbon fixture remarkable as a curiosity and ultimately in significance.
What selection plans Sir Alf had for the match were thrown into disarray when Leicester City and Liverpool drew their FA Cup semi-final played the previous Saturday, Ramsey now unable to call upon players from the two clubs (Peter Shilton, Keith Weller/Ray Clemence, Alec Lindsay, Emlyn Hughes, Kevin Keegan), due to the replay being scheduled for the same night.
But in another example of their disregard for the fortunes of the England team, the Football League (who had rejected overtures to postpone affected Division One games the Saturday prior to the Wembley visit of Poland in allowing Ramsey additional preparation time with the players), sanctioned three top flight games for Wednesday 3 April. Yet they were not alone in paying no heed to the match as neither the BBC or ITV appear to have sent personnel to Lisbon, making it one of the few England games of the 70s of which there are no highlights available.
Given that his hand had been forced, Ramsey named six debutants in the starting XI, the most he had ever selected for a single game in this the 113th game of his eleven year reign.
While some managers refused to release players for a contest now deemed unimportant as England would not be present in West Germany nine weeks later, (ostensibly, the fixture had been arranged eight months before as a World Cup warm-up game), others, notably old-school English bosses Jimmy Adamson (Burnley), Tony Waddington (Stoke City) and Bill Nicholson (Tottenham Hotspur) gave permission for their players to play despite the clashing fixtures of club and country.
Such compliance allowed World Cup winner Martin Peters to captain the team and give Martin Dobson and Mike Pejic the opportunity of winning their first full England cap, the pair joining other debutants, Phil Parkes, Dave Watson, Stan Bowles and Trevor Brooking in a team where technical ability compensated for an overall lack of international experience.
England (v Portugal 3/4/1974): Parkes (QPR); Nish (Derby County), Pejic (Stoke City), Dobson (Burnley), Watson (Sunderland), Todd (Derby), Bowles (QPR), Channon (Southampton), Macdonald (Newcastle), Brooking (West Ham), Peters (Spurs).
On taking the field Ramsey saw this experimental line-up, (of the sort some of his detractors thought should have been picked 12 months earlier), create few clear-cut openings despite enjoying the greater share of possession. There was a nod to the past when substitute Alan Ball replaced the injured Macdonald with quarter of an hour remaining, thus doubling the ’66 World Cup winning contingent, but England were denied in their efforts to score and had to be content with a goalless draw.
The performance, however, did receive a modicum of praise. Brian Glanville of The Sunday Times, one of the few English football scribes present, who overtime had become a critic of Ramsey, wrote: ‘It was pleasing to see that the Portuguese critics gave great credit to our players’ individual technique, as well as physique. Times may indeed be changing.’
On the field England had an unfamiliar look yet in the confines of the dressing room Ramsey still commended the utmost respect from his charges no matter how old or new they were to the international scene. Southampton striker Mike Channon, who won his twelfth cap in Lisbon, told writer Dave Bowler for his excellent 1998 ‘Winning Isn’t Everything‘ Ramsey biography:
‘It never entered my head that he’d get the sack until it happened. He’d been so successful. It was an exciting time because it was the start of a new England team.’
But the uneasy truce between Ramsey and his most dangerous adversary was about to end in tragi-comic circumstances, the developments to shortly ensue warranting The FA charge themselves with bringing not the game but human decency into disrepute.
On 19 April 1974, twenty four hours after Sir Alf had publicly named his squad for the end of season Home Internationals, Thompson delivered the report of his steering group to Football Association headquarters at Lancaster Gate, this document containing the line:
‘A unanimous recommendation that Sir Alf Ramsey be replaced as England team manager.‘
Ramsey, who was in the building overseeing arrangements for a three-match early summer tour behind the Iron Curtain, was summoned to a meeting with FA Chairman Sir Andrew Stephen. But on entering the room he found not only Stephen but also the committee who had decided his fate – the chairman, gripped by nervous trepidation, informing Sir Alf his contract, due to expire on April 30, would not be renewed and therefore he was sacked.
Years later Ramsey recalled the scene in sorrowful manner:
‘It was the most devastating half hour of my life. I stood in a room full of staring committee men. It was just like I was on trial. I thought I was going to be hanged. Typically I was never given a reason for the sack.’
Ramsey asked the decision remain secret until he was away on holiday to avoid the press attention that would follow (The FA were at least chivalrous in this respect, not making a formal announcement until 1 May). He was given a reported pay off of £8,000 and meagre £1,200 pension per year, although further down the road The FA would embarrass themselves again, Ramsey telling friends he would often have to contact them in ensuring payment was made.
By not qualifying for the World Cup few disagreed it was time for England to change manager and had Ramsey departed in the wake of drawing against Poland with The FA having a clear succession plan, there would have been little dissent. Failure to reach the finals in West Germany had been a blow to prestige not to mention commercial possibilities, FA secretary Ted Croker, with whom Ramsey had also clashed, estimating the lost revenue on failing to secure qualification in the region of £500,000.
During the eight years since he guided England to the summit of world football Ramsey had been criticised for adopting conservative methods at the expense of attacking intent. Of late the press, with whom his relationship was rarely less than strained, had taken to pointing out how England were being left behind by the leading football nations of Europe in their embrace of greater tactical flexibility.
True, with England not advancing to the 1974 World Cup and in being made to look outdated by West Germany two years earlier in the European Championship quarter-finals, there was supporting evidence. But that does not excuse The FA for the cack-handed manner of his dismissal, waiting six months to pass since the Poland game unnecessarily cruel to a man who had led England to their towering achievement. By the autumn of 1973 Sir Alf may not have been the right man to manage the team, but with his integrity and modesty was too good for The FA.
As time went by members of the posse who fired him broke rank and admitted wielding the axe had not been a ‘unanimous’ decision. Chelsea chairman of the time Brian Mears, a member of the committee, revealed to 2007 Ramsey biographer Leo McKinstry:
‘Three voted for Sir Alf, three against. Sir Harold Thompson was adamant that Alf had to go and I’m afraid I got carried away with the tide but I felt, when I came away from that meeting, a sense of shame. Here was a man who had won that coveted trophy for the first time in our history and I had been part of a committee that had decided he should go. It should never have happened.’
In his admirable work on the life of Sir Alf, McKinstry is highly critical of the way Thompson acted in events leading up to Ramsey being sacked. Len Shipman, President of the Football League, who also served on the advisory panel, made allusion to the power Thompson wielded over his colleagues in saying, ‘What can you do when your hand is forced?’
Derby County central defender Roy McFarland, who won 22 caps under Ramsey was even more explicit in his recollections:
‘Sir Harold Thompson wanted him out, that was the feeling we had, the whispers we heard. Even though football was changing, I felt it was a grave mistake because Alf’s knowledge, his dogmatic approach would still have succeeded.’
Indeed, despite the time spent compiling the report there was no mention of any possible successors in the event of Ramsey receiving the sack, Thompson interested only in dismissing Sir Alf not replacing him – the upshot being current Coventry City boss and former Manchester City manager Joe Mercer was installed as caretaker-manager for the forthcoming matches, placed in charge of a squad Ramsey had selected.
As a postscript to the dispiriting time Ramsey had recently been through, on July 30 1974, sports journalists Norman Giller and Peter Lorenzo (note, not The FA), arranged a testimonial dinner for Sir Alf at the Cafe Royal, London, eight years to the day after England had won the World Cup.
Of the 101 players Ramsey awarded caps to through his reign, 92 turned up to pay tribute. Testimony no doubt to the esteem in which he was held – and perhaps the last time an England group had complete faith in the manager.
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