| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Walter Winterbottom | ||
| Date of birth | 31 January 1913 | ||
| Place of birth | Oldham, England | ||
| Date of death | 16 February 2002 (aged 89) | ||
| Place of death | England | ||
| Playing position | Half back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Manchester United | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1936–1938 | Manchester United | 26 | (0) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1946–1962 | England | ||
| 1952 | Team GB | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Sir Walter Winterbottom CBE (31 January 1913 – 16 February 2002) was the first manager of the England football team, serving from 1946 until 1962.
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Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Winterbottom's first career choice was to be a teacher. He trained at Chester Diocesan Training College (now the University of Chester) and qualified as a physical education instructor in 1933. While teaching he also played amateur football for local teams and was soon signed up to Manchester United as a professional, playing his first game in 1936 and being part of the team that won promotion to the First Division in 1938. He appeared in twenty six first team games before a spinal ailment curtailed his career.
During World War II, Winterbottom served as an officer in the Royal Air Force.[1]
The Football Association (FA) appointed Winterbottom as England's national director of coaching and first manager of the national team in 1946.[2] Winterbottom is the only England manager to have had no prior managerial experience in professional football. His duties included not only managing the national team but also developing the overall standard of coaching in England. David Goldblatt writes: "That a single post could be responsible for such a massive workload suggests either naivety of lack of interest on the part of the FA".[2] Walterbottom did not, however, have the power to pick the England squad: that remained with the FA's selection committee.[2] His first game was a 7-2 victory over Ireland in September 1946.
Winterbottom managed the England team (and arranged travel, accommodation and meals) for its first four World Cup competitions, in 1950, 1954, 1958 and 1962. He remains the only manager to have taken England to more than two World Cup Finals, and one of only two managers in the world to have managed the same national team at four consecutive World Cup Finals tournaments (the other one being Helmut Schön of West Germany).
England qualified for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil by winning the 1950 British Home Championship. At the Finals, England won the first match against Chile. Winterbottom was then responsible for leaving Stanley Matthews out of the England team that lost 1-0 to the USA: the manager had hoped to rest the team's star player so that he would be fresh for later, supposedly more demanding games.[3] England lost the last group match against Spain and failed to progress.
Walterbottom again led England to successful qualification for the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland by winning the 1953-1954 British Home Championship. A 4-4 draw against Belgium and a victory against Switzerland were enough to place England top of the first-round group and qualify for the quarter-finals, where they were beaten 4-2 by defending champions Uruguay.
For the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, England qualified ahead of the Republic of Ireland and Denmark. At the tournament, England drew all three games against Brazil, the USSR and Austria in the group stage, before losing a play-off against the USSR for the right to progress to the next round. As of 2010, this remains the only World Cup finals from which England has been eliminated without winning a match.
Winterbottom again led England to qualification for the 1962 World Cup in Chile by topping a group containing Portugal and Luxembourg. At the Finals, England lost to Hungary, beat Argentina and drew with Bulgaria in the first round, progressing over Argentina because of superior goal average. In the quarter-finals England lost 3-1 to defending champions and eventual winners Brazil.
In total, of the fourteen games England played in World Cup finals under Winterbottom, England won three, drew five and lost six.
England achieved some success under Winterbottom in the British Home Championship. England won the first post-war competition in 1947, and followed up with victories in 1948, 1950, 1953–1958 and 1961. In total, Winterbottom won ten out of the 16 Home Championships in which he led England. As already noted, the 1950 and 1954 tournaments also served as qualifying groups for the World Cup final competitions of the same year, and Winterbottom led England to victory in each.
Winterbottom presided over the 6-3 loss to Hungary in 1953, England's first ever home loss against non-British opposition, and also over the 7-1 defeat to the same opposition the following year: England's worst ever international result.
In assessing Winterbottom's tenure as England manager, Goldblatt writes that "[Winterbottom] introduced a measure of tactical thinking and discussion to the England squad, though his inability to anticipate or learn significantly from the Hungarian debacle suggests that his grasp of tactics and communication with the players was limited".[2] William Baker writes that Winterbottom, because of his "upper-class origins", could not "effectively instruct, much less inspire, working-class footballers".[1]
Immediately after the 1962 World Cup he resigned, as was succeeded by Alf Ramsey as England manager.
He was created an OBE in 1963 and a CBE in 1972, and was awarded a knighthood in 1978.
He died, aged 89, in February 2002.
Winterbottom was posthumously inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his contribution as a manager to the English game on a national level.
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| England | September 1946 | July 1962 | 139 | 78 | 33 | 28 | 56.12 | |
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