If drawing an analogy between the 1972 Education Act and where English football stood at the time, it could be said the domestic game, in respect of excitement and drama, was top of the class.
As it reached a gripping climax the 1971-72 season produced a rumbustious FA Cup Final, the first division championship was not decided until virtually the last kick of the campaign and two Division One clubs contested a closely fought two-leg UEFA Cup Final. With all this dramatic football taking place within a fortnight at the start of May 1972 many agreed with Manchester City manager Malcolm Allison, his team one of a group pipped at the league title post, when he claimed football in England was at its best since the war.
But if the game at club level, on the field at least, was earning top marks, the national team had come to resemble classroom bullies. Since the turn of the decade England had lost just one of nine end of season Home International fixtures but were less assured when coming up against the big lads, losing to Brazil and West Germany at the 1970 Mexico World Cup, (a last eight defeat to the Germans ending their reign as World Champions), while more recently the Spring of 1972 had served notice how far from the top of the form England had fallen.
In terms of learning, a two-leg European Championship exit at the hands of West Germany showed the eventual European Champions were operating with science and slide-rules while their English counterparts scratched around for answers with chalk and slate.
Having led England to World Cup glory in the summer of 1966, manager Sir Alf Ramsey, nine years into his reign as the 1972-73 season dawned, now faced a new challenge – namely, securing qualification for the finals of the World Cup, (England participating as hosts in 1966 and holders four years later), the next global gathering being the 1974 competition taking place in West Germany.
In creating his team of world-beaters, Ramsey, a shrewd purveyor of football pragmatism, harnessed a number of sublime individual talents into a side of great purpose and drive. His square peg/square hole approach to team selection and somewhat conservative tactics had made England devilishly difficult to beat while not exactly endearing them to the purists.
That said, the celebrating thousands in Trafalgar Square on the night of July 30th, 1966, gave not one jot, rather like Ramsey himself, for claims the World Cup triumph had been a victory for regimented, functional football.
But six years on, as West Germany had shown when recording their 3-1 European Championship win in London (if anything, England received sharper criticism for their negative display in the Berlin second leg where they eked out a pyrrhic goalless draw), the 1970s were giving rise to more flexible formations than the 4-4-2 Ramsey continued to adopt.
Individual talents, exemplified by West German midfielder Gunter Netzer (who had led England a merry dance at Wembley) thrived in a role free of positional restraint – thinking in direct contrast to the collective rigidity in which the England boss still placed his faith.
It was not as if Sir Alf had his hands tied by the fact there were no such free-spirited players available to him. During the past few seasons highly skilled cavaliers such as Tony Currie (Sheffield United), Alan Hudson (Chelsea), Rodney Marsh (QPR/Manchester City) and Charlie George (Arsenal) had come to prominence, their virtuoso, off the cuff mode of playing embraced by the continentals but finding little empathy with the England manager.
By the autumn of 1972, with thoughts turning toward qualifying for the World Cup, Ramsey, by and large, appeared to have settled upon a dependable group of players in whom he would entrust the fortunes of the national team for the next twelve months – the end result of heading to West Germany justified by the means.
As if to appease critics becoming increasingly hostile to what they saw as a one-dimensional method of play, Ramsey had given Marsh, playing for second division QPR at the time, a seven-minute debut against Switzerland in November 1971. He continued to be involved through the two European Championship matches with West Germany and 1972 Home Internationals, only now as a Manchester City player.
With his skillful flamboyance and rock star haircut, Marsh emphasised the generational gap between this new breed of footballer and Ramsey, a man seemingly staid in both his personal and professional outlook – these differences most apparent when England were defending a 1-0 May 1972 lead at Hampden Park against Scotland.
When Marsh attempted a cheeky back-heeled pass that failed to find a team-mate it was seen by the England manager as more than enough smart-arsery for one afternoon – Ramsey, in a fixture above all others he hated to lose, instructing trainer Harold Shepherdson to ‘get that clown off.’
If anything, Ramsey’s attitude toward incorporating these individual talents into the team was more revealing in the Home International against Northern Ireland four days before the Scotland encounter. Currie was substituted on the night of his first cap after 58 minutes by World Cup winner Martin Peters, the 54-cap Spurs man as reliable an international footballer as it was as possible to have, although on the night of his debut Currie had a right to feel dismayed at being replaced before the hour mark.
Indeed, the reluctance of Ramsey to look far beyond his recognised group was also evident in Newcastle United striker Malcolm MacDonald being replaced 70 minutes into his second cap by established Tottenham centre-forward Martin Chivers, the changes unable to affect the outcome of a game Northern Ireland would win 1-0.
By the time England came to play their first match of the 1972-73 season, an October 1972 Wembley friendly against Yugoslavia, (the team not having played since victory in Glasgow five months before), the long and short of reaching the 1974 World Cup Finals was known – England drawn in UEFA Qualifying Group Five with Wales and Poland, from which one would go forth to West Germany.
In facing the Yugoslavs, Ramsey, denied players from Leeds, Liverpool, Stoke, Derby and Spurs due to a clash with League Cup third round replays, gave first caps to full-backs Mick Mills (Ipswich Town) and Frank Lampard (West Ham), Arsenal centre-back Jeff Blockley and Southampton forward Mike Channon, the most debuts the England boss had so far awarded in one match.
Making no substitutions on a night his side played out an uninspired 1-1 draw (the visitors cancelling out a first-half goal from Everton striker Joe Royle five minutes after the break), Ramsey bucked his recent trend by making orthodox selections at full-back. But when England took their first step on the qualifying road four weeks later with a midweek visit to Cardiff, he went back to his tried and tested brigade in filling the berths – even if it meant selecting Peter Storey (Arsenal) and Emlyn Hughes (Liverpool) out of their natural club positions.
Normal circumstances would have seen Gordon Banks (Stoke) return in goal to face Wales, but injuries sustained in a recent car accident, including the loss of sight in one eye, ended the career of the World Cup winner and reigning Footballer of the Year. In Peter Shilton (Leicester City) and Ray Clemence (Liverpool) England had able replacements, but neither had the experience of Banks, whose assured presence would be missed as much as his acrobatic saves.
In the event his place went to Clemence, who along with Anfield team-mate, dynamic forward Kevin Keegan, were awarded their first caps, the duo part of an England team whose long suit was their physicality (Leeds combative central defender Norman Hunter deployed in a defensive midfield role). Sir Alf was rewarded for his caution with a 1-0 win over Wales, the points secured by a 35th minute goal from Manchester City midfield man Colin Bell.
While an away victory represented a solid start to the qualification process, a stuttering performance in the late-January return was evidence aplenty England desperately needed finesse to go with their brute force. Unchanged from the Cardiff meeting, for their ponderous second-half showing the home side were subjected to slow handclapping from an unimpressed crowd, both goals in a dour 1-1 draw scored before half-time – a long range strike from Hunter cancelling out a 23rd minute John Toshack effort for a Welsh side who included three players from Division Two clubs and one with a third division side.
If handing out a 5-0 drubbing to Scotland the following month in a Hampden Park fixture marking the centenary of the Scottish FA went someway to silencing malcontents in Fleet Street, the result which most improved the Spring outlook for Ramsey occurred on 28th March – Poland receiving an immediate set-back to their qualifying bid with a 2-0 defeat in Cardiff.
Victory in June behind the Iron Curtain would therefore take England to the brink of safe passage from Group Five, in light of Wales and Poland having to meet again and home match against the Poles to come.
The three Home International fixtures of 1973 began an unusually hectic sequence of seven matches in 32 days, England defeating Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland within a week to take the Championship with performances that at best were perfunctory.
After an excellent season at club level in which he had scored 27 league goals, Wolves striker John Richards made the team which beat Northern Ireland at Everton (the match switched to Merseyside from Belfast due to escalating sectarian violence in the city) and although retained in the squad for forthcoming friendlies in Czechoslovakia, Russia and Italy and World Cup meeting with Poland, was not used again.
The lack of further opportunities for Richards, a player in peak form, was testament to the faith Ramsey had in his preferred attackers (who now included Channon), even though Chivers was the only one scoring regularly for England. On target with both goals in the 2-1 Goodison Park victory, he also made the score sheet against Wales with Channon and Peters – the latter netting the only goal in a hard-fought Wembley win over Scotland.
Indeed, worries that England were becoming all too predictable in their attacking play surfaced again following a fitful 1-1 draw in Prague, an equaliser 90 seconds from time by Allan Clarke (Leeds United) sparing their blushes in a game Czechoslovakia largely controlled – the late leveler at least extending their unbeaten run to nine matches with the crucial World Cup qualifying clash next on the summer itinerary.
Flying into the industrial city of Katowice in the southwest of Poland, England were met by miserable weather for early June and stormy atmosphere between manager Ramsey and a section of the English football press, their antipathy toward each other increasing on a match-by-match basis. Aware anything bar defeat would put England firmly in command of the group, Ramsey selected his most experienced players, a reluctance to pick recognised full-backs evident in the selection of Hughes and Leeds United utility man Paul Madeley at right and left back.
Yet with Storey in his customary Arsenal role of midfield enforcer England were unlikely to be intimidated in the middle of the field, even if there was little scope to spread the play as nobody in middle four of Ball, Storey, Bell and Peters would provide natural width, with neither Madeley or Hughes selected for their overlapping prowess.
With the starting XI geared toward the draw England would have been confident in achieving, ultimately their plans went awry due to unforeseen circumstances. Through a combination of Poland (football gold medal winners at the 1972 Olympic Games), proving a much better side than their recent Ninian Park reversal suggested and England producing a thoroughly disjointed display, the home side, immersing fine individual talents such as Kazimierz Deyna, Jan Bonas, Wlodzimierz Lubanski and Robert Gadocha into a competitive unit, play in a progressive manner – even if the two goals which gave them victory came from unlikely sources.
Before a raucous crowd of almost 75,000, (prior to kick-off BBC match commentator David Coleman voices concern at overcrowding in a stadium built to hold far less), only seven minutes had been played when Gadocha fired a free-kick to the near post where it finds an unmarked Bonas who nudges the ball home – this untidy affair the sort of goal England rarely conceded when Banks and World Cup winning skipper Bobby Moore were at their prime.
But with Banks gone even Moore, that epitome of unruffled defending and composed captaincy, had begun to falter – and when he was robbed of possession sixty seconds after the break, Lubanski races away to beat Shilton with a low drive that is well struck, although on hitting the back of the net it generates a look of ‘Banksy would have saved that‘ from several English players.
The 2-0 scoreline did not become any worse in the 44 minutes that followed, but in their attempts to retrieve the situation England produce little the Polish rearguard cannot cope with. Despite the lack of penetration Sir Alf chooses not to make any substitutions, the outcome put beyond all doubt not by a third Polish goal but the visitors being reduced to ten men in the closing stages, frustration taking hold of Ball who is sent off following a midfield melee.
The fact it was their first defeat in any away fixture since the 1970 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico cut no ice with the media, most of whom focused their ire on the England boss.
‘Ramsey picked the wrong players in the squad and from that chose the wrong team,’ wrote Brian James in the Daily Mail, twisting the knife further in adding: ‘Ramsey instructed his players badly and failed to reinforce them with substitutions when he needed to do.’
With defeat in Katowice casting a cloud over the rest of the tour England travelled on to Moscow where by most accounts they played reasonably well in defeating Russia 2-1. Showing little inclination to make wholesale changes, Ramsey put Channon and Currie into the team who faced the Russians, where a strike from Chivers and an own goal saw England to victory – but four days later on June 14, an unchanged side were well-beaten by Italy in Rome whose second in a 2-0 triumph was scored by future England coach Fabio Capello.
On the domestic front the 1973-74 season began with Leeds United quickly rising to top spot in Division One, yet in the wider scheme of things it was how England fared in the October return with Poland that would determine the mood of the English football public for the coming months.
‘The match is the thundercloud hanging over the new season,’ wrote Mike Langley in the People, ‘failure would bring the sort of cataclysm not seen since Ramsey’s last match as an international full-back, the 6-3 slaughter by Hungary 20 years ago.’
But not everybody saw it that way. Football League secretary Alan Hardaker, in a statement that was both narrow-minded and indicative of the factionalism rife in those governing English football, asserted:
‘If England do lose against Poland the game is not going to die. It will be a terrible thing for six weeks then everybody will forget about it.’ Needless to say, the Football League rejected a request to postpone first division fixtures involving England players on the Saturday prior to the Poles visit to Wembley………
What they needed to achieve in that game was made clear when Poland beat Wales 3-0 on September 26 to top Group Five – victory now the only outcome that would see England progress.
On the same night a woeful Austria were hammered 7-0 at Wembley, the home side finally creating (and converting) a hat-full of chances with the goals shared between Channon (2), Clarke (2), Chivers, Currie and Bell.
The fixture was notable not just for producing their biggest win in nine years, but Ramsey naming a side not including Moore who was among the substitutes – Hunter and Roy McFarland chosen in the centre of defence with the team captained by Peters, the only other World Cup winner still in the ranks.
After such a handsome victory last time out most observers felt confident in predicting an England victory for Wednesday 17 October, David Lacey of The Guardian believing they would prevail if the front three of Channon, Clarke and Chivers, ‘snap up the fleeting chances that come their way.’
In actual fact the opportunities came in droves, the Polish goal – and in particular goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski – living a charmed life as the hosts put the Polish defence under intense pressure in their efforts to secure a breakthrough. After the break Tomaszewski continued to be agile and unorthodox in equal measure, but all the time England were kept at bay – their task suddenly made more onerous when first Hunter and then Shilton made errors in a rare counterattack from the Poles that resulted in Domarski scoring in the 55th minute.
They were ahead only eight minutes before Clarke levelled from the penalty spot, leaving with England with just less than half an hour to secure their World Cup place. In continuing to attack relentlessly they carved out more openings and, on another night, with different breaks of the ball, would have won convincingly – yet in watching the match again, admittedly from a distance of almost 50 years, there comes a feeling of England having Plan A in attacking down the middle, but nothing up their sleeve as an alternative.
With the game entering its final throes and England growing in desperation, events on the bench swing between anxiety and realms of the inexplicable. Many years later in his excellent biography of Ramsey, Leo McKinstry describes circumstances, recounted to him by a journalist, of how Sir Alf did not notice his watch had stopped, the consequence of which was not making a substitution until the 90 minutes were almost up.
The change when it came also became shrouded in mystery – one biography of Moore making the claim he leaned over to Ramsey and suggested they ‘get Kevin on‘ meaning unleashing the industrious Liverpool forward against a tiring defence.
Instead, Ramsey sent on Derby striker (Kevin) Hector with two minutes remaining as a replacement for Chivers, who on the night had long ceased being a threat. But no matter what the conjecture England were unable to prevail and seconds after Hector failed to convert a last-gasp chance, referee Loraux of Belgium blew the final whistle.
Amid great celebrations centred on Tomaszewski (who high above the pitch in a TV studio had been called a ‘clown‘ by pundit Brian Clough), Polish players embraced with joy on securing their place in West Germany, as England pondered being absent from the World Cup Finals for the first time in the post-war era.
If the tears of a clown were those of joy, in the England dressing room plenty were shed in disappointment. Hunter and Shilton admonished themselves for their part in the goal England conceded and Clarke described it as the most one-sided international he had played in, but Ramsey, as he always did when England lost or under-performed, absolved the players of any blame.
Despite their despondency, to the immense credit of the players and manager they stayed put to attend a presentation being made to long-serving trainer Harold Shepherdson, the wait of over an hour for FA officials to arrive proving forlorn as nobody appeared. It was later said the dignitaries could not find a way through to the dressing room area due to the crowd of people milling about – not that such things proved a hindrance when there was reflected glory to be had on the last Saturday of July in 1966.
In the weeks that followed 54-year-old Ramsey heard supportive noises from certain quarters of the FA hierarchy, but noticeably Professor Sir Harold Thompson, with whom he shared an apparent mutual loathing, stayed silent, the influential vice-chairman known to be harbouring all manner of grudges against the England manager. Rumours abounded the former Oxford Blue was livid Sir Alf had been knighted before him and on occasion felt undermined on foreign trips with the England team by Ramsey – who for his part stated there was plenty he still had to offer.
But even without the plotting of Thompson there appeared little prospect his contract as England manager would be extended when it came up for renewal in June 1974, the form of his exit needing to reflect his overall achievements.
Sir Alf remained in charge for a 1-0 home defeat against Italy in November 1973 and April 1974 goalless draw with Portugal in Lisbon. Ramsey, in what proved the last of his 113 games in charge, fielded six new caps (the most he selected for a single match through 11 years in charge), his hand forced to a large extent by FA Cup replays and rearranged league matches taking place at the same time. This occurrence was one he surely recognised – even if unaware the decision to sack him had been taken at a meeting of the FA International Committee six weeks before.
If there was any notion on the part of his employers to spare the dignity of the best manager they were ever likely to appoint, it did not come across in the way his departure was handled – the FA firing squad, led by the vengeful Thompson, seemingly intent on showing how despicable rather than dignified they could be.
Few doubted it was time for Sir Alf to go but leaking the news to a handful of favoured journalists was shoddy and shameful. By the time of a formal announcement from the FA on May 1, 1974, even football writers who had been critical of Ramsey as a manager were remarking on the ‘brutal insensitivity‘ surrounding the episode – and over thirty years later biographer McKinstry was still moved to write:
“England’s most successful manager would have had a legacy fit for a hero had it not been for the malevolence of the FA chief Harold Thompson.“
To compound his hurt Ramsey was forced to haggle for the severance pay he was owed and although granted a pittance of a pension, based on a yearly salary equivalent to that of a mid-70s lower league manager, it was later reported the amount never increased at any time before his death at the age of 79 in April 1999.
Between Sir Alf being sacked and arrival of the next full-time incumbent, the FA asked former Manchester City manager Joe Mercer to take charge of team affairs for the 1974 Home Internationals and early summer friendlies.
The 2-0 defeat in Glasgow against a Scotland side primed to compete at the forthcoming World Cup was for many the worst England display they could remember – and even if toward the end of his reign there had been dispiriting performances and baffling tactics, it is hard to imagine them being so listless under Sir Alf, who, if still in charge would have picked Moore, Ball and Storey and sent England out at Hampden, of all places, to play with some attitude and anger.
Like Sir Matt Busby, his great contemporary at club level, Sir Alf Ramsey was a defining manager of the era, a man of strong convictions, (stubborn in the eyes of many) someone capable of inspiring belief and loyalty in those deemed suitable to carry out his plans. It is hard to imagine England winning the World Cup without the strength of purpose he instilled into the team, yet in the final analysis it was, perhaps, such attributes that brought about his downfall.
In truth, Ramsey put over-extended faith in players whose effectiveness on the international stage was in decline while persisting with tactics which were right for 1966 but shown as antiquated six years later – thus creating the impression that while football moved on, Sir Alf steadfastly stayed the same.
Given Ramsey the player was an international class full-back, his aversion to picking natural full-backs from 1971 onward is hard to fathom. Injury cost him the services of Terry Cooper (Leeds United) for much of that time, but amongst Chris Lawler, Alec Lindsay, Paul Reaney, Trevor Cherry, Mick Mills and David Nish, there should have been a pairing to combine defensive duties while offering a threat on the overlap, this at a time when England in their forward play struggled to create danger out wide.
His reticence in selecting the more flamboyant talents of the day is somewhat easier to understand. Placing the collective strength of the team above all else, Ramsey was not prepared to indulge an individual who might provide flashes of inspiration, but otherwise make a scant contribution. He would not be the last England manager to wrestle with that conundrum, although it is worth noting Tony Currie was in five of the last six sides Ramsey picked and would have played in the final one had it not been for a Sheffield United fixture.
When he looked around the Wembley dressing room on July 30 1966 where his charges had returned with the World Cup, Ramsey saw good players (great in several cases), but more than that strong characters, a team with unswerving mental strength.
It was natural for him to have an affinity with Ray Wilson, George Cohen and the Charlton brothers, whose playing careers at the start overlapped with the end of his – their football, maybe even moral values, shaped in the maximum wage, austerity years of post-war England, rather than the strum and swagger of 60s London.
In the end it might have come down to a simple belief on the part of Sir Alf that playing for England was an accolade afforded those with application as well as ability – and not a platform created for the benefit of show-offs.
In July 1974 the FA finally landed their chosen man, the worst kept secret in football coming to pass when Leeds United released Don Revie to become manager of England. After negotiating a salary of £25,000 – over three times that of his predecessor – he and FA secretary Ted Croker entered discussions with sportswear company Admiral for the kit to advertise the name of the manufacturer, the England shirt so sacrosanct to Ramsey (who would have been appalled by such rampant commercialism) now to be festooned with logos and flashes.
To slightly misquote a famous rock lyric of the early 70s:
‘Meet the new boss, nothing like the old boss.’
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.