Who’s Sir Alf Ramsey?
(Sir) Alf Ramsey (22 January 1920 - 28 April 1999) was an
English footballer and football manager. He was born in 1920 and played for
Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. He also played for the England 32 times
and scored three goals. Alf Ramsey was in charge of Ipswich Town F.C. for
nearly ten years, Ipswich is the only team to win the First Division title in
their first season in the top division. Ramsey then became manager of the
England team. He was manager when England beat Germany 4–2 in the World Cup
final at Wembley Stadium. He is the only England manager to win a World Cup.
In recognition of his achievement in leading England to
victory in the World Cup Alf Ramsey was knighted in 1967.
He died of a heart attack.
In tribute to Ramsey, Ipswich Town F.C. commissioned a
life-size statue of him which is positioned directly in front of Portman Road
(home ground of Ipswich Town F.C.).
Managerial style
During his time at Ipswich, Ramsey began experimenting with
a new style of play that would eventually lead to success in the World Cup and
led to his England team being styled, "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 into 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 travelled 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 win in Spain, who were the reigning European Champions, was rare for an
English team and was evidence that Ramsey's techniques were working.
A firm but fair manager, Ramsey was often regarded as
difficult by the press. He ran a strict regime with his players and made sure
that no-one felt that they enjoyed special status, star player or not. In May
1964, after a number of players failed to show up for a meeting in a hotel
about a forthcoming tour, amongst them Bobby Moore, Jimmy Greaves and Bobby
Charlton, 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. Very few of those who played for Ramsey spoke ill of him.
In the preparations for the 1966 World Cup, Ramsey made sure that no player was
confident of a place in the final 22, 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 as a master tactician: a quality that he had first
shown with his reading of the game as a player. When it came to tactics, Ramsey
had revolutionary ideas.
Ramsey earned the respect of his players. He strongly
supported Nobby Stiles when the FA leaned on Ramsey to drop Stiles from the
1966 World Cup quarter-final following a tackle on Frenchman Jacky Simon in the
previous game. After the final, at the banquet, with the players in one room
and their wives forced to sit in an adjoining room, he excused his players
early from the banquet to allow the players to join their wives after nearly
four weeks apart. In his manner with the players, he was "usually equable",
but when his 1978 Birmingham City team produced a poor defensive display,
"he blew his top"; the next game was a "historic victory”
Retirement and death
He retired to live in Ipswich, where he lived a reclusive
life with occasional forays into journalism He concentrated on his golf game
and watching his Westerns. A quiet
retirement followed. He remained a regular visitor to Wembley for major
occasions and in 1991 he was reunited with some of his World Cup-winning team
before the FA Cup Final.
Ramsey suffered a stroke on 9 June 1998, during the 1998
World Cup. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease and prostate cancer, Ramsey spent
three months in a general ward in Ipswich Hospital. He died less than a year
later, in a nursing home, on 28 April 1999, at the age of 79 from a heart
attack
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