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Chapter 1: Why was England written off before the 1966 World Cup?
Welcome to It Was What It Was.
Chapter 2: What were the consequences of England's defeat to Austria?
I'm Rob Draper. I'm the co-host of the Football History Podcast with Jonathan Wilson. And with the World Cup underway, we've got a special four-part series on England's 1966 World Cup win.
Chapter 3: How did Alf Ramsey rethink England's tactics after setbacks?
Yes, 60 years of hurt we're going into.
the origin story of that we go into proper depth into a story you might have heard before but hopefully it's going to be a load more detail and if you enjoy it please do head over to it was what it was and if you sign up to our patreon channel you'll get everything all four episodes straight away on demand you won't have to wait for them but if you want to wait for them just head over to it was what it was listen to them on there
If you go on to our It Was What It Was feed, there's almost 200 episodes now of all sorts of histories from Colombia's 1994 World Cup to Arsenal-Liverpool 1989 title climax.
Chapter 4: What impact did Jimmy Greaves' injury have on the team?
Everything you could think of is on there. But also, if you go on to our Patreon, there's a whole history of the World Cup on there from 1930 to 2022 and lots of bonus episodes on football hooliganism. on why Brazil are not doing well in the 21st century, all sorts for you to enjoy.
Chapter 5: How did England's wingless formation emerge during the tournament?
So do check those out and we hope you enjoy this episode. We won't win the World Cup, but don't blame Alfa Ramsey. No one would win it with this lot. Welcome to It Was What It Was. I'm Rob Draper. I'm here with Jonathan Wilson. The World Cup is upon us.
We're all very excited and we're so excited that we thought we'd look back 60 years to, well, for us as a significant moment and hopefully for our foreign listeners and even some of our Celtic listeners might appreciate a little bit of... Looking back at England's 1966 World Cup win, we're in part two. We're coming up to the World Cup.
You gave us some great background on Sir Alf Ramsey and England's run up to the World Cup. We're now going to get into the immediate year before and the actual start of the finals.
Chapter 6: What happened in England's opening match against Uruguay?
And Jonathan, that was a great Jimmy Hill, one of your footballing heroes at the time. He's manager of Coventry City, a visionary in every way in football, a really good man, I think we can all agree.
Chapter 7: What were the reactions to England's stalemate with Uruguay?
But on a rare occasion, he's completely wrong about something.
Yeah, I mean, or one of the most despicable men ever to work in football who gets things wrong, as he always did, and was tolerated for far too long on British TV and British newspapers and should have been drummed out of the game far earlier.
There are all tons of views on Jimmy Hill anyway. I know you're not a big fan of him, but he's a big football figure.
Making an idiot of himself, as he would do so often after this.
Well, I think the point is that it's quite representative of the chattering class of football at the time, but England are not rated. People think they're a poor side and Ramsey's making maybe the best of a bad job. I mean, he's not blaming Ramsey for that, but they don't think the players are much good.
Yes, exactly that. So we left it after a 2-2 draw against Scotland in the April of 1965, which was Jack Charlton's international debut. The basis of the team is there. You've got Gordon Banks in goal. You've got the back four of Cohen, Moore, Jack Charlton and Ray Wilson. You've got Nobby Stiles in midfield, also his debut that game.
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Chapter 8: How did the team adapt their strategy leading up to the quarterfinals?
Bobby Charlton there, so they're reprising their partnership with Manchester United. So you can see the World Cup side just beginning to come into focus. They then, that autumn, there's a 2-2 draw with Scotland, as we said in the last episode. England play really well. They go 2-0 up, then they get two injuries, they've got nine men, and that's why Scotland get back into it.
So people think, yeah, this 2-2 draw is pretty good. But then that autumn, they draw 0-0 with Wales. And then they pick the same team for a game against Austria. And this is the game that prompts Jimmy Hill's comment that we opened with. So this is Barry Bridges of Chelsea's partner with Jimmy Greaves up front. It's a 4-2-4. You've got Terry Payne and John Connolly on the wings.
And then you've got Bobby Charlton playing in the middle of midfield. And they're a little bit unlucky, but they lose 3-2 to Austria at Wembley. And this prompts this outcry. Now, look, it's only the third time England have ever lost to non-British or Irish opposition at Wembley. So people weren't... Any defeat at Wembley was a bad thing.
But this Austria side had lost 4-1 to West Germany 10 days earlier. But this is the sun. A night of shame. There's boos and jeers from the stands. When the final whistle blows with a slow hand clap. And Donald Saunders in the Telegraph writes, England's World Cup plans, thought to be progressing steadily only a few months ago, stuttered to an untimely halt. So this is the October of 1965.
So we're talking, what, nine, ten months before the World Cup. And it looks like England have no chance.
And I'm very heartened to see that even in The Guardian, Albert Byram is talking about a sorry lack of spirit. And people allude to the fact that there's an absence of passion. So even in the 60s, I guess forever, it's been a standard go-to that when your team's playing, It's because they don't care. They're overpaid. You know, if only they had the passion for it, then they would be better.
But Ramsay is... I mean, I think this is the strength of Ramsay. We talked about his character in the first episode, quite disconnected, doesn't really bother about other people. He's kind of unconcerned.
Yeah, he says he's disappointed, but not very disappointed. Then this next line... I just think it's incredibly modern. This is something that, you know, Liam Messina could have, actually not Liam Messina, that's a bad example. He'd addressed it in weird managerial jargon. But it's something that sort of Pep Guardiola could say. I think I've heard him say something very similar to this.
We played some brilliant football in midfield. The work rate was high, but we failed where it mattered most in the two penalty areas. Do you think that's a weirdly sort of modern thing to say?
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