Duncan Hamilton’s readable and fascinating book concentrates on the period 1963-1974 when Alf Ramsey was the England football team manager, with the most notable triumph, winning the World Cup in 1966, the only occasion that England have achieved this. Through copious interviews and his own memories, research through books, newspapers, magazines, television recordings and films, he brings alive the period when football was very different from the current day. Hamilton describes Ramsey’s background as a player and then a club manager which gave him the experience and knowledge to take on the England role. His dislike of and shortness with the press meant that there was always a tension between them and Ramsey’s prediction shortly after his appointment that England would win the World Cup added to this pressure. Ramsey also faced criticism from the Football Association’s hierarchy who felt that he was weakening their power and privileges. They also had a miserly attitude towards the players and staff, which was highlighted by the lack of recognition that they gave them after the win and how in the long term they treated the players and staff. This makes for a sobering contrast with today and means that the euphoria and memories of the win will always be tinged with a certain sadness for what happened afterwards.

Duncan Hamilton takes us back to an almost unrecognisable age of British football, where players were lucky to earn the average manual weekly wage, travelled with supporters to the games on the bus (I fear Im old enough to remember this personally!) and was ruled by characters straight out of the nineteenth century, yet alone the 20th. Yet through all of this the steely determination of Alf Ramsey to win the world cup shines through and the story revolves around him and his devotion to that cause. Quite rightly the author devotes only a few pages to the actual final itself - this is a book about the dynamics of what happened before and after 1966 set against the pace of change that the country was going through at the time (its hilarious to read that quite a few newspapers didnt even have England winning the world cup as their main headline the following day!). Great writing. I wish the photos had been properly printed on gloss sections instead of the muddy print type as they definitely deserved better, but I suspect penny pinching out of the author's control. A must read book for any football fan. ( )