Jimmy Armfield - England's other 1966 World Cup Captain

It wasn't totally unexpected - he had been suffering from cancer for some time - but I was still saddened by the news today of Jimmy Armfield's death at 82.

Without playing even a part of a single game (no substitutes at all back then), he made a meaningful contribution as a member of England's 22 man squad to our winning the '66 World Cup. Manager Ramsey acknowledged the importance of the entire squad when he later said, ''Without the assistance and loyalty of those who were not selected to play, the men who were on the field would not have gone on to win the World Cup.''

However, Armfield's role was more than that of a squad man. Ramsey relied on Armfield's experience (a veteran of 43 international games, 17 as captain) and calm temperament to look after the other reserves, both on and off the training pitch, and to get their buy in. He was very much the leader of the reserves with Ramsey referring to him as ''my other captain''. Their respect for him was shown when a largely England reserve team led by Armfield beat Arsenal in a practice game during the tournament and he was carried shoulder high from the pitch.

A loyal one club man, he played as right-back for Blackpool over a seventeen year period from 1954 to 1971. Thereafter, management spells with Bolton and Leeds (in which he took the latter to the European Cup Final) in the '70s were followed by a distinguished broadcasting career in which his knowledge and love of the game gelled so well with his quiet authority.

Thanks guildford,

This interview with Jimmy Armfield last year is well worth 80 minutes of anyone's time, almost as much a cultural perspective as much as a uniquely qualified view of 60+ years of the beautiful game:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05vpwq6


We've lost a few good players this month, but not many will ever represent their era better than Armfield - literally from Matthews to Messi. Saw him play a few times, sad to see him go.

Quite a pair of England full-backs to leave the field, Jimmy Armfield of course, and now Ray Wilson, such an unassuming but indispensible part of England's World Cup winners - the best English left-back, relative to the world competition, that I've seen.

Sorry to see that Stan Anderson died a couple of weeks ago, a vastly underrated player, principally for Sunderland and a member of the 1962 World Cup squad in Chile (for whom Armfield and Wilson, see above!, were starters).


And now the great Alan Gilzean has gone to the white hart lane in the sky.
Imagine Sir Fred Perry will have some happy memories, but Gilzean was quite the stalwart of some great Tottenham teams from the mid/late sixties, primarily in partnership with Jimmy Greaves, and then until 1973 with Martin Chivers.
Gilzean reached a European Cup semi-final with Dundee, then won the UEFA Cup with Spurs.
Figures prominently in Hunter Davies's brilliant account of the 1972 Spurs season, The Glory Game, a must read for anyone remotely interested in pre-galactico football.

"Eleven Pauls": The versatile Paul Madeley has found a new position in the sky. He won't play a celestial goalie, but pulled on every other shirt during a football lifetime at Elland Road.

All he ever wanted was to play for Leeds United, whatever the position, and he clocked up 700+ total appearances plus 20-odd more for England, ending his international career in 1977 in a Wembley friendly vs Holland which I was at.

Could well have played more but p1ssed Alf Ramsey off by turning down an opportunity to go to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.

RIP to Don Revie's "Rolls Royce".

kwinigolfer wrote:Quite a pair of England full-backs to leave the field, Jimmy Armfield of course, and now Ray Wilson, such an unassuming but indispensible part of England's World Cup winners - the best English left-back, relative to the world competition, that I've seen.

And: Of course, both made the team playing in the team of GB&I stalwarts who entered the dressing room in the sky during 2018:

Tommy Lawrence

Jimmy Armfield
Ray Wilson

Bill Slater
Paul Madeley
Kevin Beattie

Ray Wilkins
Cyrille Regis
Alan Gilzean
Jimmy McIlroy
Peter Thompson


As this is a Cup weekend, one or two of the above might get a rest and some squad players have a run out:

Nigel Sims or David Stewart

Ken Shelitto
Stan Anderson

Ernie Hunt
Liam Miller

Neale Cooper
Ted Phillips
Colin Barlow
Vic Keeble
Roy Bentley - who should really be in the first XI but who would you leave out? Stan Anderson too.

Hope they beat the 2019 team.

And here is the 2019 team, somewhat weaker in most positions, and certainly in terms of depth, than 2018's.
AND THAT'S A GOOD THING:

Gordon Banks

Eric Caldow (started his career at rb, then switched. Full backs have kept healthy apparently.)
Justin Edinburgh

Tommy Smith
Billy McNeill
Ian Ross

Steve Chalmers
Ivor Broadis
Fred Pickering
Martin Peters
Billy Hughes


Subs bench pretty thin too:
Lawrie Leslie

Bert Mozley (3 England caps at rb, almost 300 games for Derby County, but had never heard of him until he died. How can that be?)
Duncan Welbourne

Alan Harrington
Duncan Forbes
Barry Hole

Alan Skirton
Martin Harvey
Ron Saunders
Harry Hood
Johnny Wheeler

Hi Kwini - some fine posts there. I had missed Billy Hughes' transfer to the other side (and I don't mean Newcastle!) just before Christmas. His name won't be known to many on these threads but he was a good and busy player. Best known for his key part in Division Two Sunderland overturning the odds and Dirty Leeds to win the FA Cup in '73 when it really meant something.