Stewart telling him to change gear at the next bend,’ claimed Max Marquis, always on the lookout for anything to drag down Alf. But to Ramsey himself, he was just being realistic; he had found another player who preferred thoughtful, constructive defence rather than the meaty hump into the crowd. ‘I was in a better position than Stanley to see the situation so naturally I advised him,’ Alf explained to England’s captain Billy Wright. Indeed, Matthews soon became an admirer of Ramsey. In an article in 1950, he praised the way Alf relied ‘on positional play, interception and brainwork to beat his winger. I know which type I would rather face. The man who rushes the tackles is easier to slip than the calculating opponent who forces you to make mistakes.’
What was so impressive about Alf on his debut was his calmness, even under severe pressure. ‘Ramsey looked as suave and cool as a city businessman – particularly when he headed from under the bar in the second minute,’ thought the Daily Mail. It was a view shared by Alf’s captain Billy Wright:
I must admit I found it a little disconcerting at first to have a full-back behind me who was always as cool as an ice-soda. Ramsey’s expressed aim was to play constructive football: I soon learned that nothing could disturb this footballer with the perfect balance and poise, no situation, however desperate, could force him into abandoning his immaculate style.
But then, just as Ramsey’s fortunes appeared to be taking off, disaster struck. On 15 January 1949, Southampton visited Home Park to play a friendly against Plymouth, both teams having been knocked out of the FA Cup. ‘One minute before half-time, I slipped on the damp turf when going into a tackle with Paddy Blatchford, the Plymouth Argyle outside left. A terrible searing pain went through my left-knee…the most agonizing I have ever experienced,’ wrote Alf. In fact, as he was carried from the field, Ramsey feared that his professional career was over. Fortunately, an X-ray showed that he only had badly strained ligaments and should be able to play again before the end of the season.
Whether he would return to the Southampton side was another matter. For Alf’s position was immediately filled to great effect by Bill Ellerington, who had waited patiently in the reserves after recovering from his bout of pneumonia, playing just 12 League games in the previous two years. Just as Alf had done in January 1947, so Bill now seized his chance, producing such solid performances at the back that he was to win two England caps before the end of the season. But Ellerington’s success spelt problems for Ramsey, particularly because Southampton were pressing hard for promotion. In March 1949, while Alf was still limping badly, manager Bill Dodgin came up to him at the Dell and warned him that he was ‘going to find it very hard’ to regain his place in the first team. Alf was appalled at this comment, regarding it as a calculated insult. The sensitive side of his nature led him to brood obsessively about it, as he sunk into a period of mental anguish. ‘The world did indeed appear a dark and unfriendly place. For one fleeting moment I seriously contemplated quitting football,’ said Ramsey later.
He certainly wanted to quit Southampton, now that Bill Ellerington appeared to be the favoured son. More ambitious than ever, Alf – unlike Bill – was not content to wait months in the reserves. Despairing of his future at the Dell, Alf wrote to the club’s chairman J.R. Jukes requesting a transfer. Initially Jukes tried to dissuade Alf, but to no avail. As Jukes reported to a special board meeting on 8 March, ‘Ramsey was adamant in his desire to be transferred to some other club, his stated reason being that he felt he was lowering his chances of becoming an international player by being played in the reserve side’. The entire board then called Ramsey into the meeting and told him that ‘it would be far more to his advantage and future reputation if he remained at the club and went up with them, as we all hoped would be the case, into the First Division’. But Ramsey would not budge and told the directors that he was ‘willing to go anywhere’.
Ramsey’s opinion of Bill Dodgin had plummeted during the row. He felt that the Southampton boss should have shown ‘more understanding of my personal feelings’. Even if Ramsey appeared excessively touchy, his criticism of Dodgin was mirrored by a few of his colleagues at the Dell. Known to some as ‘Daddy’, Dodgin was a former lumbering centre-half who spent four years at the Dell as coach and manager, but, despite a strong team, failed to win promotion. He was generally liked by the players, especially for his decency and sense of humour, but some felt he lacked sufficient authority, especially on the tactical side. ‘Technically, he was not a good manager,’ says Eric Day. ‘We did not have much in the way of team talks. I never found him good on motivating. I doubt if Alf ever learnt much from Bill. If anything, it would have been the other way round.’ Ted Ballard largely agrees:
Bill Dodgin was a decent bloke, but he wasn’t perfect. His weak point was his knowledge of the game. He could not really put his views across in those vital moments, like the ten minutes before half-time. I think he suffered a bit from lack of confidence. Players like Bill Rochford were stronger than he was.
But Alf’s view that Dodgin had done him a cruel injustice was not shared in the Southampton dressing-room, where there was strong admiration for Bill Ellerington. Another of the Saints’ full-backs Albie Roles, who appeared briefly in the 1948-49 season, was inclined to think that Bill was the better player in comparison to Alf: ‘He tackled harder. He was more direct, more decisive with his tackling. And he could hit the ball right up along the ground. He didn’t have to lob it. Alf Ramsey may have been the better positional player, but Bill was a good footballer.’ Joe Mallet had this analysis:
Bill Ellerington had things that Alf didn’t have and vice-versa. Bill used to clear his lines whereas Alf used to try and play the ball out of danger – which sometimes wasn’t the right thing to do. Bill’s all-round defensive game was better than Alf’s. Alf Ramsey was always beaten by speed and by players who took the ball up to him – tricky players, quick players. But he was a brilliant user of the ball. That’s how he got his name, on the usage of the ball: good passing, very good passing; but sometimes he used to take chances with short ones, in the danger area around the goal.
In fact, Mallet believed that Alf’s incautious approach, allied to his lack of pace, which was a central reason why Dodgin did not fight to keep him. Just a week before Ramsey had incurred his knee injury at Plymouth, Southampton had travelled to Hillsborough for an FA Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday. As the Saints came under fire in the first half, they reverted to using the offside trap. But according to Mallet, Ramsey wrecked this tactic through his over-reliance on captain Bill Rochford. Over the years, said Mallett, Ramsey had grown so used to the effectiveness of Rochford’s sense of timing, moving forward on the left flank at just the right moment to catch any attack offside, that Alf was inclined to ‘take liberties’. Even when Alf was beaten on his own right flank, he had got into the habit of shouting ‘offside’, because he presumed Rochford would have moved into an advanced position to thwart the opposition. In this particular match at Hillsborough, according to Mallet:
Sheffield Wednesday had an outside left who was a quick small player. Alf went up, ‘Offside!’ They broke away. They scored. And at half-time in the dressing-room there was a row – between Alf and Bill Rochford, who said, ‘You’ve to keep playing the man. You’ve got to run. Even if you think it’s offside, you’ve still got to go with him.’ So this was the reason that Alf Ramsey took umbrage and left the club.
Alf always took offence easily, as his later tetchy relationship with the press testifies, and there can be little doubt that the row at Hillsborough contributed to his desire to go. Several clubs, amongst them Burnley, Luton and Liverpool, expressed an initial interest in buying him but there was now the additional pressure of the looming transfer deadline for the season, which fell on 16 March, just eight days after the board had accepted Ramsey’s demand for a move. By the morning of the 16th, however, only Sheffield Wednesday had come up with a definite offer. Ramsey, as a southerner, did not want to move north, fearing that he ‘might never settle down in the provinces’. Moreover, Wednesday, despite a richer pedigree, were less successful in the 1948-49 season than Southampton, finishing five places lower in the second division table. What Alf did not know was that, by the late afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur had suddenly also come forward with an offer. At half past four, he was sitting in his digs, contemplating his failure to get away from the Dell, when the trainer Sam Warhurst turned up in his car and immediately rushed Alf back to the ground,