Alf Ramsey

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Sir Alfred Ernest Ramsey (born January 22, 1920 in Dagenham, England; died April 28, 1999) was a footballer and manager of the English national football team from 1963 to 1974. His greatest achievement was winning the 1966 World Cup with England on July 30, 1966. They also came third in the 1968 European Championship and reached the quarter-final stage of the 1970 World Cup under his management. He was knighted in 1967.

Contents 1 Early life and playing career 2 Ipswich Manager 3 England manager 3.1 Tactics 3.2 The 1966 World Cup 3.3 1966-1970 3.4 1970 4 Later life and death 5 Legacy 6 Quotes 7 External link

[edit] Early life and playing career

Having been a gifted amateur as a pupil and as a player for his army regiment, he quoted it as brilliant. He played for Portsmouth in the London War League in 1942 before moving to Southampton from 1943 to 1949 (since 1944 as a professional), and Tottenham Hotspur after that. He was very successful with Spurs, playing as a right-back in more than 250 cup and league games, and in 1948 made his England debut against Switzerland; he went on to captain his country three times. His last game for England was the 6-3 defeat by Hungary in 1953, in which he scored a penalty. As a player Ramsey was considered slow, but had excellent positional sense, read the game better than most, had awareness, strength, and excellent distribution for a defender. He was also a specialist penalty kick taker. His coolness and capability for analysis earned him the nickname The General of Penalties.

[edit] Ipswich Manager

He retired from playing in 1955 to become manager of Ipswich Town, which he managed very successfully, taking the team from the Third Division South to First Division champions in 1962. This was arguably the most remarkable League Championship win in its history, as Ipswich were all but condemned to relegation by virtually all football pundits and journalists at that time. But Alf Ramsey's tactical astuteness, working with a squad of solid but not outstanding players, baffled and astonished the illustrious football clubs involved to produce the would be impossible task of actually winning the league title in Ipswich's first ever season in the top flight.

[edit] England manager

He was appointed England manager in 1963 and immediately caused a stir when he predicted England would win the next World Cup which was to be held in England in 1966. This was a bold statement to make as England's performance on the international stage was poor until that. The world cup was started in the 1930's but England refused to participate until the 1950's where they would suffer embarrassing defeats at the hands of the USA and most of all Hungary. When Ramsey took over in 1963 he demanded complete control over squad selections. Before Ramsey, Walter Winterbottom had been manager but selections and other decisions were often carried out by board committees and so forth, when Ramsey took over all these duties it lead to him being referred to as 'England's first proper manager'.

Ramsey was a firm but fair manager and was often conceived as difficult by the press. He ran a strict regime with his players and made sure nobody felt special and depended upon in the team. After a number of players failed to show up at the right time for a meeting in a hotel about a forthcoming tour, they eventually returned to their rooms to discover their passports left on their beds. His strict regime didn’t suit everyone but the players with real talent and respect for the game responded well to them and had great respect for Ramsey. In preparations for the World Cup Ramsey made sure no player was confident of a place in the final 22 for the World Cup which resulted in players performing at their highest level. His decision to appoint a young Bobby Moore as captain also showed Ramsey's ability to see great potential in young players. Another one of his abilities was that he was a master tactician, showing this with his reading of the game as a player; when it came to tactics Ramsey had revolutionary ideas.

[edit] Tactics

During his time at Ipswich, Ramsey began experimenting with a new style of play that would eventually lead to England's success in the 1966 World Cup and being branded the wingless wonders. As natural wingers were not always known for their defensive qualities Ramsey started dropping them in favour of attacking midfielders who could also drop back strong in defensive roles. This system proved revolutionary as it often baffled opposing fullbacks who would naturally expect to see a winger coming down the flank at them once the ball was kicked off; instead the attacking midfielders and strikers were taking the ball through the middle of the defence and scoring. This style of play proved successful at Ipswich but really showed its worth when England traveled to Spain to play a friendly with them before the World Cup. As Bobby Charlton remarked 'The Spanish fullbacks were just looking at each other while we were going in droves through the middle'. To go to Spain and win easily was a rare thing for England before that so it proved Ramsey's techniques worth.

[edit] The 1966 World Cup

With his final team chosen Ramsey set about winning the world cup for England. The first group game was against Uruguay and despite a array of attacking talent upfront including Jimmy Greaves and Roger Hunt, England were held to a 0-0 draw. Ramsey's statement made three years earlier was looking in doubt now but he remained calm and still experimenting with his side faced Mexico in the next game. Ramsey was using the 4-3-3 system and for each of the group games used a winger, John Connelly against Uruguay, Terry Paine against Mexico and Ian Callaghan against France.

Ramsey dropped Alan Ball and John Connelly and brought in Martin Peters, whose advanced style of play as a midfielder matched just the qualities Ramsey looked for in his system, and Terry Paine. England beat Mexico 2-0 and faced France in their last group match. England went on to beat France 2-0 with Ian Callaghan replacing Terry Paine securing qualification to the knockout rounds. Two difficult situations arose from the final group match however, after making a vicious tackle and being cautioned Midfielder Nobby Stiles came under flack from the top FIFA officials who called for Ramsey to drop him from his side, however Ramsey had none of it and firmly informed the FA to tell FIFA that Stiles would either remain in his team or he himself would leave. Another bad tackle was committed during that match and resulting in Tottenham striker and one of England’s most prolific goal-scorers Jimmy Greaves being injured and sidelined for the next few matches. Despite having more experienced strikers in his side Ramsey selected young Geoff Hurst as Greave's replacement once again seeing potential in the young West Ham forward. The France match also marked Ramsey's final game with a winger and dropping Ian Callaghan from his side Ramsey brought back in Alan Ball to strengthen the Midfield.

For the knockout stages England's first opponents were a notorious Argentinean side. Ramsey once again showed his tactical awareness and now he was no longer using wingers he decided to switch from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2. With Ball and Peters operating on the flank the midfield now boasted Nobby Stiles and Bobby Charlton in the centre. After a violent quarter final with England scraping a 1-0 win thanks to a Geoff Hurst latching on to a beautiful cross from Martin Peters and heading home a goal Ramsey came under flack when he stopped his players swapping shirts with the Argentineans and was then misquoted in branding the Argentineans animals.

In the semi-final England faced a fluent skilful Portuguese side containing the tournament’s top goal-scorer Eusébio. However England won with a 2-1 victory in a memorable semi-final which saw England concede its first goal from the penalty spot. Ramsey had found the perfect defensive formula that went unchanged throughout the entire tournament.

On the 30 July 1966 Ramsey's promise was fulfilled as England became the world champions beating West Germany in a thrilling final. A lot of Ramsey's tactics and decisions proved their worth in this final. Ramsey came under pressure to restore the fit-again Jimmy Greaves to the side. But he stuck to his guns and kept faith with Greaves' replacement, Geoff Hurst, who was to thoroughly vindicate Ramsey's judgement by scoring a hat-trick in a 4-2 win (after extra time) at Wembley. Filling his side with a good balance of experience and youth proved vital when the gruelling final went to extra time. The youth in the team powered England through extra time; most memorably Alan Ball who, at the time was 21 and the youngest player in the England side, never showed signs of tiredness and never stopped running famously setting up Hurst's controversial second goal as well as having a few chances himself. Even as the match ended with Geoff Hurst scoring England’s fourth, just off camera Ball was still running down the pitch in case Hurst needed assistance; rather than a cross from Hurst, Ball was greeted by a number of England fans running onto the pitch who, thinking that the game was already over, had already started celebrating England’s victory.

Ramsey remained his usual self during the celebrations not joining in but rather opting to let his players soak up their achievement. With his promise fulfilled Ramsey had proved that the 4-4-2 system could work and had assembled an England team that could compete on the highest level due to physical fitness and good tactics. He remains exemplary as to this day he is the only England manager to have ever won the World Cup.

[edit] 1966-1970

Despite famously losing to Scotland 3-2 at home in qualifying, England still qualified for the 1968 European Championship, but lost narrowly 1-0 to Yugoslavia in the semi-finals, and had to settle for third place after beating the Soviet Union.

[edit] 1970

However, England gradually declined in the 1970s; they lost to the Germans 3-2 in the quarter-finals of the 1970 World Cup, after having led 2-0 with twenty minutes remaining. Part of the blame was put on Sir Alf's cautious tactics, but also on the stand-in England goalkeeper, Peter Bonetti. Ramsey was sacked in 1974, after England failed to qualify for the World Cup tournament of that year; again while Ramsey's tactics were partly to blame (his inappropriate, mistimed substitutions, for example), England had also been spectacularly denied a win over Poland that would have secured qualification, by the Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski.

[edit] Later life and death

The later stages of his career were as a Board director and caretaker manager of Birmingham City and then technical advisor to Panathinaikos between 1979 and 1980. He also appeared, in illustrated form, in the Roy of the Rovers comic, when he took over as caretaker manager of Melchester Rovers while Roy himself was in a coma.

He suffered a stroke during the 1998 World Cup and died from Alzheimer's disease at a nursing home in Ipswich on 28 April 1999, aged 79.

[edit] Legacy

Ramsey was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a manager.

Sir Alf Ramsey Way, formally Portman Walk, is a street in Ipswich named after Ramsey shortly after his death in honour of his achievements as Ipswich Town manager. There is also a life size statue of Ramsey by the stadium itself[1].

[edit] Quotes

• "Never change a winning team."
• "Our best football will come against the right type of opposition - a team who come to play football, and not act as animals." - Ramsey's indignant opinion of Argentina after England beat them 1-0 in a bruising quarter final in the 1966 World Cup.
• "You've won it once. Now you'll have to go out there and win it again." - Ramsey's brief team talk prior to the extra-time period in the 1966 final.

[edit] External link

• English Football Hall of Fame Profile

Preceded by Aymoré Moreira	FIFA World Cup winning managers 1966	Succeeded by Mário Zagallo
Preceded by Walter Winterbottom	England national football team manager 1963–1974	Succeeded by Joe Mercer (caretaker)
Preceded by Scott Duncan	Ipswich Town F.C. Manager 1955 - 1963	Succeeded by Jackie Milburn

	England squad - 1966 World Cup Champions (1st Title)
1 Banks | 2 Cohen | 3 Wilson | 4 Stiles | 5 J. Charlton | 6 Moore | 7 Ball | 8 Greaves | 9 B. Charlton | 10 Hurst | 11 Connelly | 12 Springett | 13 Bonetti | 14 Armfield | 15 Byrne | 16 Peters | 17 Flowers | 18 Hunter | 19 Paine | 20 Callaghan | 21 Hunt | 22 Eastham | Coach: Ramsey

	England squad - 1970 World Cup
1 Banks | 2 Newton | 3 Cooper | 4 Mullery | 5 Labone | 6 Moore | 7 Lee | 8 Ball | 9 B. Charlton | 10 Hurst | 11 Peters | 12 Bonetti | 13 Stepney | 14 Wright | 15 Stiles | 16 Hughes | 17 J. Charlton | 18 Hunter | 19 Bell | 20 Osgood | 21 Clarke | 22 Astle | Coach: Ramsey