England and International Football: A Lesson from History

In the world of international football many things have changed in the past 44 years.

The ball has changed colour, and no longer becomes so heavy with water that it strikes with the force of a cannonball. Gravity has apparently become stronger, causing players to fall to the ground much more often. Players no longer wear stout boots, but promenade in ballet slippers giving no foot protection whatsoever.

The change of which I write today, however, is that England's football standing has fallen most markedly.

Now, I am well aware that no universal law makes England a special nation, automatically deserving of international football success. Other countries are equally desirous of tournament triumphs, as they periodically remind us. Even so, it's been an awfully long time since we added to our trophy cabinet.

Why is that?

It seems unlikely that there is just one reason, and that squashing a single flaw in our endeavours would ensure our emergence as a global football super-power. Football is more complicated than that, everything is more complicated than that.

But there is one matter I would like to draw attention to, and that is team selection. You may think I am merely stating the obvious, but please stick with me while I develop the theme.

In 1966 England's manager was Alf Ramsey. You know that, even if you were born long after that date. What you may not know is that in that long-lost era, and prior to the triumph over West Germany at Wembley, Ramsey was derided by the 'experts' in the media, and England were judged to have no chance of winning the world cup.

Ramsey was, believe it or not, the first England manager to be given total control of team selection. He adopted the principle of picking players on how they performed in an England shirt, ignoring their club form. This often meant not picking the obvious choices for team positions, and thus gave sports journalists a line of attack they used against him relentlessly.

Perhaps the best example of a Ramsey selection antagonising the press is the case of Jimmy Greaves.

Greaves was the superstar of English football in the 1960's, and is still the third highest England goal-scorer. But he was injured early in the 1966 tournament, and his replacement Geoff Hurst fit very well into the team so was kept in. When Ramsey declined to restore the great Greaves to the squad for the final the press wanted his head on a pole, but had to eat a large slice of humble pie when Hurst became England's hero by scoring a hat-trick.

There is the lesson I would hope England's current regime would learn from our footballing history. Games and tournaments are won by teams of players that work well together, not by simply throwing shirts at the premiership's current big names. There is a need to recognise that certain players have shown time and time again that they just do not justify national selection with their performances on the pitch.

Ramsey had the courage to recognise that an individual of Greaves' enormous talent could be left out of the England side. Could we hope that Capello and his successors might be able to turn away from automatically selecting the stars of our national game, and instead pursue team excellence?

I want to close with an Alf Ramsey quote: "Never change a winning team." Makes sense, doesn't it? But it certainly doesn't apply to the motley crew we've got now.