Revelation from biographer Grant Bage
1966 World Cup legend Geoff Hurst has just learned for the first time how he was spotted as a potential England player by manager Sir Alf Ramsey. The revelation came from Ramsey's biographer Grant Bage, who spent six years researching and writing his biography The Unseen Sir Alf.
Incredibly, it was during a League Cup second round game for West Ham against Division Three minnows Mansfield Town on October 13, 1965, in front of just 11,590 people. Hurst said he was "completely unaware" that Ramsey was even at the game.
Ramsey's observations
Ramsey told one of his closest friends, respected amateur team manager Charlie Phillips, how he was impressed by how Hurst handled long balls from Bobby Moore that night. Two of Hurst's goals at Wembley in the 4-2 win over West Germany came from long passes from Moore.
The match was played five months before Hurst made his England debut, and later that year he became the first man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, exactly 60 years ago.
Hurst's reaction
After being informed by Bage, Hurst replied: "I was completely unaware that this happened, which completely changed not only my football life, but my life. October 13th was obviously a very lucky day as I got married on that day 64 years ago. Thank you again."
Bage's findings
Bage said: "Even sixty years on, we keep unearthing new information about Sir Alf Ramsey and the 1966 World Cup. It’s incredible that these ‘nuggets’ are coming out so many years later. It’s amazing that, on an October night at Upton Park at a League cup match against Mansfield, that Alf formulated his thoughts and plans for the World Cup.
"Football was rarely filmed in the 1960s, so the England manager slogged his way round watching hundreds of games, just to work out who the best English players were. And Hurst wasn’t even the player he was going to watch. But now we know that what he saw that night sowed the seeds of World Cup glory.
"Alf Ramsey conquered world football through hard work and attention to detail. Just imagine if he hadn’t bothered to go to that game. Geoff Hurst didn’t even know about it which makes it all the remarkable."
Information from Graham Phillips
Bage found the new information after meeting Graham Phillips, son of Charlie Phillips, the manager of East London non-league side Eton Manor. Hurst, who played 499 games for West Ham, has little memory of the match which was played almost 61 years ago. Ramsey was coaching them at the time and Charlie became a great friend and trusted confidante.
Bage said: "I can’t thank Graham enough for coming forward with all this detailed extra information. It helps us learn more about how Alf slotted together the only England team to ever win the World Cup."
Graham's account
Graham said: "Alf and my dad Charlie had two long telephone conversations, both instigated by Alf, in the immediate aftermath of the 1966 triumph. It was in these telephone discussions that Alf conveyed stories about the World Cup to Charlie.
"There were other conversations, but these were the main ones. But you have to understand that Charlie didn't sit us down after his chats with Alf and brief us on what had been said. The information came out from him gradually, on different occasions, like when we were sitting watching TV, or some relevant story had been in the paper.
"What I recall above all else is my father describing how Alf had, under the Upton Park floodlights, told me that he had witnessed ‘the second coming of Tommy Taylor’. That was a deeply significant comparison, which needs explaining for a modern audience.
"In March 1953 Tommy Taylor had signed for Manchester United, aged just 21. His 112 league goals, in a total of 166 league appearances, helped United win successive league championships in 1955-56, and 1956-57. In 19 senior appearances for England, he also scored 16 goals. Tragically, Tommy Taylor was then one of eight Manchester United players killed in the Munich air disaster of February 6, 1958, his 26th birthday having been reached the week before he died.
"Alf Ramsey was not prone to hyperbole, so for him to compare Geoff Hurst to Tommy Taylor was amazing: especially as Hurst was not even the main reason Ramsey had gone to watch this particular game. Alf told Charlie that Ronnie Boyce was the ‘intended’ prime target, and perhaps to take another look at Johnny Byrne.
"What must also be remembered by modern football fans, to make sense of this, is that in the mid-1960s there was very little filming of football. Most league games were also played either at 3pm on a Saturday, or on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings early in the season, before cup competitions had got going.
"Consequently, if Alf Ramsey wanted to review any promising English player, he needed to attend hundreds of games himself: which is why the England manager undertook this particular scouting mission to West Ham’s unpromising midweek, early-stage league cup game against lower-league opposition.
"Alf told his friend Charlie that, as it happened, Alf had phoned West Ham out of courtesy to tell them he would be attending. Unfortunately, he did not manage to speak to their manager, Ron Greenwood, so did not know whether his message had got through. Ironically, HAD Ramsey talked to Greenwood, he may not even have made the trip! As things turned out, neither Ronnie Boyce nor Johnny Byrne would play that night, against Third Division Mansfield Town, in round three of the League Cup. Luckily though, Alf went anyway."
