Ron Greenwood - RIP

[BrianH]

From the Guardian:

Ron Greenwood dies aged 84

Former England manager dies after a long illness

Former England and West Ham manager Ron Greenwood has died at the age of 84 after a long illness. He died peacefully at his home in Suffolk yesterday evening.

Greenwood was West Ham manager from 1961 to 1974, and continued as general manager until 1977, during which time the club won the FA Cup for the first time in 1964. The following year the Hammers also won the European Cup Winners Cup, beating TSV Munich 2-0 at Wembley.

In 1977, after Don Revie's shock move to the Middle East, Greenwood took over as England manager and held the post for five years. He led the team to the European Championship finals in 1980 and the World Cup finals in Spain in 1982.
As a player Greenwood had spells at Chelsea, Bradford Park Avenue, Brentford, Fulham and Chelsea again, during which time he played in Ted Drake's league-winning side of 1955.

Former West Ham and England hero Sir Geoff Hurst led the tributes to Greenwood, saying: "I am really sad to hear this. It would not be overstating the case to say that Ron Greenwood was the single most influential figure in my career. I considered it a privilege to play for him. He opened the door to the world of modern football."

Legendary England goalkeeper Peter Shilton hailed Greenwood as one of football's revolutionaries. "It's very sad news. Ron was a real football man in the sense he loved to play the right way," he said. "I think he was a bit ahead of his time in the 1960s and 70s when he was in charge of West Ham, when he had Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters because the way they played the game, they were really ahead of their time - it was great football to watch.

"I was very lucky to be associated with the England team when Ron was in charge. He ended up picking me for the World Cup of 1982 in Spain, which was a very successful tournament and we were very close to getting to the semi-finals. He had a great knowledge of football. He appreciated quality players and skill which is what you need at international level. Don Howe and him made a very good partnership, Don was very good at the defensive side and motivating players while Ron had the other things. They made a very good team.

"I've always felt the players respected Ron. I found him to be a nice person but in no way soft. He had the strength to make decisions in 1982 and I was very pleased to be selected. I had tremendous respect for him as a football man and as a person."

He leaves a widow, Lucy, two children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A minute's silence will be held ahead of West Ham's Premiership clash against Birmingham on Monday night in tribute to the east London club's former manager.

 

[BrianH]

And Ron Greenwood's obituary by Brian Glanville:

Ron Greenwood

Brian Glanville
Thursday February 9, 2006

When the teenage Ron Greenwood worked on the ground staff at Wembley Stadium before the second world war, he could hardly have expected to return as England's team manager. But that he did, in 1977, when Don Revie abruptly deserted his position. Oxford don Professor Sir Harold Thompson, looking for an equivalent of the white hen who never laid a stray, turned to Greenwood who, having been unexpectedly brought out of retirement, remained in the post until 1982.

His apprenticeship was served at West Ham, where between 1961 and 1977 he served as manager, coach and later general manager. He brought the FA Cup to Upton Park in 1964 and 1975, and in May 1965 Alan Sealey's two goals against 1860 Munich saw Bobby Moore hold the European Cup Winners Cup aloft. Under Greenwood's shrewd, perfectionist rule, West Ham had become the crucible of skilfull football. It was perhaps an irony that Greenwood probably did far more for the England team that won the 1966 World Cup, by helping the development of Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, than he did as England manager in the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

Born in Burnley, Greenwood's family moved to London, where he was educated at Alperton School. He showed precocious promise, playing inside-left for the district school side when he was only eight years old. In 1937 he was apprenticed as a signwriter but in 1940 Greenwood, playing minor football around Wembley, was spotted by Chelsea, the club with whom he would go on to win a league championship medal in 1955.

But 1940 also saw him begin five years in the Royal Air Force, and with peace in 1945 came a move to then second division outfit Bradford Park Avenue. The by-now blond, solidly built, strong-tackling centre-half was made captain. Chelsea pocketed a large free from the transfer and when Greenwood was sold on again in the 1948-49 season, Bradford made sure they also banked a substantial sum from Brentford.

Greenwood went on to play more than 300 matches for Brentford before being sold back to Chelsea in 1952. He made 21 appearances in the 1954-55 season that saw Chelsea lift the first championship in their history. Early in 1955 Greenwood moved a few miles south to Fulham, where he ended an honourable if not exceptional playing career.

The holder of a Football Association full coaching badge, Greenwood had long been interested in coaching and coached the Oxford University football team for three years - a stint that would be a crucial factor when, in 1977, he became England manager. Sir Harold Thompson, the dominating figure in Oxford football, had become an equally powerful figure in the counsels of the FA.

In the mid-1950s, Greenwood coached the Arsenal team as assistant manager under George Swindin. Their philosophies were very different: Greenwood was essentially a purist who believed in the arts and skills of the game. He was also an idealist - which accounted largely for his later resignation as West Ham United's team manager. He was distressed by the way the professional game seemed to be going.

He had a spell managing amateur club, Eastbourne United - and the England youth team, but the watershed of his career came when he was appointed manager of West Ham United in April, 1961. "The crowds at West Ham haven't been rewarded by results," he observed in 1977, "but they keep turning up because of the good football they see. Other clubs will suffer from the old bugbear that results count more than anything. This has been the ruination of English soccer." But of course, under his aegis, West Ham, had their triumphs.

Moore, Hurst and Peters all owed much to him. Moore was initially a centre-back, not especially strong in the air and certainly not quick. It was his cool temperament which seemed remarkable. When Greenwood transformed him into a second stopper, playing on the left of the centre-half, he quickly emerged as an outstanding defender; a regular England player at 21, when he played in his first World Cup, and outstanding captain in the 1966 and 1970 tournaments.

Of Peters, who came into the England team during the 1966 tournament to make a great contribution, Greenwood remarked that he was 10 years ahead of his time. Hurst was a workaday wing-half whom Greenwood almost transferred to Southend United. Then he changed his mind, turned Hurst into a striker - a striker who went on to score a hat-trick for England in the 1966 World Cup final.

Always didactic, Greenwood liked to give small, selective press conferences after West Ham's home games. He emphasised what he called "good habits," habits which benefited not only the World Cup three, but successors such as the talented inside-left, Trevor Brooking.

Whether it was wise to make him England manager is a moot point. He seemed to have retired not only in body but in spirit, disillusioned with the game, and curiously unfaithful to his precepts. Never so much as when, almost unbelievably, he left his protégé Trevor Brooking out of a Wembley international, in preference to a clutch of far less gifted Liverpool players. Later, when the hugely gifted Glenn Hoddle made his debut for England at Wembley against Bulgaria, and crowned a fine performance with a spectacular right-footed goal, Greenwood dropped him for the next international match with the remark, "Disappointment is part of football".

By contrast, he seemed overindulgent to a Kevin Keegan plainly no longer the force he had been. An indulgence which met its nemesis when, in England's vital last game against Spain, in the second stage of the 1982 world cup in Madrid, Keegan was brought on as substitute despite a very recent operation that had been secretively carried out and missed the simplest of heading chances. England drew 0-0 and were eliminated.

Next day, Greenwood surprised the press when he insisted that England's achievement was in stopping Manny Kaltz, the German right-back, getting any crosses in. A far cry indeed from his old days as the guiding spirit of Upton Park's academy of football. It was in 1978 that he memorably remarked, "Football is a simple game. The hard part is making it look simple."

In 1984 he published Yours Sincerely. He is survived by his wife Lucy and his son and daughter.

Ronald Greenwood, football manager: born November 11 1921; died February 9 2006.