SIR ALF Ramsey was criticized by many journalists for being too loyal to the core of his 1966 World Cup-winning team, but much of the 22-man squad was more or less discarded after England’s 4–2 win at Wembley in July 1966.
Following their triumph, England played 39 matches as champions, eventually losing their crown on 14 June 1970 against West Germany, the team they defeated in 1966. In that time, England lost just six times, all by an odd goal, but they also failed to solve the killer matches: the 1968 European Championship semi-final against Yugoslavia and the disaster that was the 1970 World Cup quarter-final against the Germans. The only knockout matches won in this period were the two legs of the quarter-final of the “Nations Cup”, the old name for the European Championship, against Spain. In one-off relationships they were found wanting.
The 39 matches consisted of 19 real friendlies, 12 British Championship matches, six of which served as qualifiers for the 1968 European Championship, four matches in the final of the same competition (including a third/fourth place play-off) and four World Cup matches in Mexico 1970. England played 21 different countries between 1966 and 1970, but there were no minnows on their fixture list. The weakest sides were perhaps Colombia and Ecuador during the pre-World Cup warm-up, and France. After all, this was before the collapse of the Soviet Union and other parts of Europe. Despite including players from Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus, the Soviet Union was often referred to simply as ‘Russia’.
England were extremely difficult to beat under Ramsey, but for a long time they were also difficult to watch. In the years after the World Cup, the crowd at Wembley occasionally broke out in disapprovingly slow clapping. The 1966 team was a unit that was carefully built for a purpose and was successful. No one could deny that Ramsey’s methods worked, but as in 1962 when his Ipswich Town team surprisingly won the league title, the construct had a limited shelf life and would prove less effective once opponents became familiar with the concept and developed ways to counter their approach. Would England have won the World Cup if the tournament had taken place anywhere other than their own backyard? Had it taken place in Italy, West Germany or Spain, for example, it is unlikely they would have emerged as winners. The same argument could easily be applied to Argentina in 1978.
There were a number of times when England’s position as champions was questioned, the first being in 1967 when Scotland joyfully lowered their colors at Wembley, winning 3-2. This was a case of a highly motivated opponent, inspired by the talismanic figures of Denis Law and Jim Baxter, desperate to beat the world champions.
England lost two members of their winning line-up quite early in the aftermath of July 1966; Ray Wilson and George Cohen, Ramsey’s trusted full-backs, were both prone to injuries and dropped out of England’s contention. Cohen’s last game was in November 1967, while Wilson, the oldest member of the team, bowed out in the Nations Cup play-off in June 1968. There was no shortage of decent full-backs and Ramsey made brief use of Spurs’ Cyril Knowles, Arsenal’s Bob McNab and was also able to call on Blackburn Rovers’ Keith Newton, Leeds United’s Paul Reaney and Terry Cooper and Everton’s Tommy Wright. Liverpool’s Chris Lawler, who was in Ramsey’s original 40 in 1966, would eventually be called up in 1971.
Interestingly, many of Ramsey’s final squad of 22 played little role in the future of the England team; after 1966 the total number of appearances of the 11 who did not play in the final was 35, with 24 of those caps going to Leeds United’s Norman Hunter and six to Chelsea’s Peter Bonetti. Even the former golden boy of English football, Jimmy Greaves, who never had ‘his’ World Cup and was heartbreakingly injured in the latter stages of 1966 and could no longer play, was only selected three times. Seven of the ‘other eleven’ were apparently no longer part of the international scene. Similarly, of the 18 who missed the 40 cut, only eight played for England after 1966 with an average of fewer than six caps.
The next blow to the English government came in Italy during the 1968 European Championship. It was in Florence where they came up against Yugoslavia in the semi-finals, a team little known to most people in Britain and somewhat of a mystery due to their links with the Soviet Union. The assumption was that England would be too strong and skilful for their opponents, but they came second in a nail-biting encounter and even had Alan Mullery sent off, the first England player to receive his marching orders. Mullery was one of the new faces, a more refined addition than the popular but limited Nobby Stiles. Brian Labone, no stranger to the England squad, was also seen as a short-term replacement for Jack Charlton. England lost 1-0 despite being favourites, and even a 2-0 win against the USSR in the third/fourth match could not disguise their disappointment at not reaching the final. Before losing to Yugoslavia, Ramsey’s team were defeated 1–0 by West Germany in a friendly match in Hannover, the first time the Germans had beaten England, so they had to deal with losing two consecutive games without scoring a single goal.
In 1968-69 England had a number of frustrating draws against Bulgaria and Romania but showed good form in the British Championship, culminating in a sublime performance against Scotland in which the old firm of Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters scored two each. It was claimed to be the best display since the World Cup final, but what was really on Ramsey’s mind was the 1970 World Cup, which was a year away. England went to South America in the summer of 1969 after they had begun to reshape their squad with the addition of Newton, Cooper, Mullery, Labone and Francis Lee from Manchester City, joining Banks, Moore, Ball, Bobby Charlton, Hurst and Peters. Only Moore (and Banks) survived the defense that won the title in 1966.
The big concern for Mexico was the altitude, but England came across so-called “slow sodium” pills to combat the effects of playing so high above sea level. In addition to a fact-finding mission and PR exercise, their summer tour saw them play matches in Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil, winning in Montevideo and losing 2-1 to Brazil. In 1970, Ramsey tried out a series of younger strikers in preparation for Mexico ’70, including Chelsea’s in-form Peter Osgood – never a favorite of the England boss – Burnley’s Ralph Coates, West Bromwich Albion favorite Jeff Astle, Leeds United’s Allan Clarke, Nottingham Forest’s Ian Storey-Moore and Manchester United’s Brian Kidd. Despite some of these players having very productive 1969-70 seasons, Ramsey was still fixated on Bobby Charlton, Hurst and Peters, as well as the little battleship that was Lee.
Before England went to South America, they had a mixed start to 1970 with a 0-0 draw at home to the Netherlands and a dull goalless game with Scotland. Their best performance came against Belgium, who had qualified for Mexico, a 3–1 win that marked Osgood’s introduction to the senior squad. Nevertheless, many pundits expected England to be among the serious World Cup contenders even though they had Brazil in their group. The preparations were overshadowed by the infamous ‘Bogota affair’ in which Bobby Moore fell victim to an attempt to frame him as a jewel thief.
With the exception of the group decider with Pelé and co. the other games, against Romania and Czechoslovakia, were fairly pedestrian affairs. England scored two goals in three games, but two wins from three were enough to send them through to the last eight. The match against Brazil was a titanic match, remembered by Gordon Banks’ beautiful save from Pelé’s header and a successful performance by Moore.
June 14, 1970 marked the end of the road for England and, sadly, for stand-in goalkeeper Peter Bonetti. Banks was suffering from food poisoning and Bonetti, who had just had an excellent season at Chelsea, was called up to take his place against West Germany, who had been the most entertaining team in Europe. England were 2-0 up through Mullery and Peters, but then it all went wrong. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was Bonetti’s lack of playing time in Mexico, but it could also have been that West Germany were simply a better team. They came back with goals from Franz Beckenbauer, Uwe Seeler and, inevitably, Gerd Müller, to win 3–2. Bonetti never played for England again, but neither did Brian Labone, Bobby Charlton and Keith Newton.
It was all over. The walls were closing in on Ramsey and there were suggestions that wholesale changes were needed within the English structure. And yet the record wasn’t bad, a 59% win rate between 1966 and 1970 and six defeats in 39. Goals were sometimes a problem, with an average of 1.69 per game. But somehow it felt like England weren’t a great, inspiring team, but rather more functional and, above all, more reliable. They didn’t have someone who was a genius, a virtuoso who could lift the backs of chairs. In Mexico, Brazil and West Germany had both shown excellence, so England had to go back to the drawing board.
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