Football mourns death of Jimmy Armfield, 82
Highly regarded Blackpool and England captain who became a BBC pundit of warmth and insight
Jimmy Armfield, the former England football captain, died at the age of 82 yesterday. Tributes flooded in from those hailing the loss of a “true gentleman” and “national hero”. Armfield played 627 matches for Blackpool, his only club, and was in the victorious 1966 World Cup squad. He was one of two Blackpool players, along with Alan Ball, in the squad, although injury denied him an appearance. Sir Bobby Charlton said: “He was, without doubt, one of the most honest and genuine gentlemen I had the good fortune to meet.”
JIMMY ARMFIELD, who has died aged 82, gave a lifetime of service to football; he spent his entire playing career at Blackpool, captained England in the years when he was regarded as the best full-back in the world, and later managed Leeds to the European Cup Final before becoming a much-liked commentator with the BBC.
He joined the Seasiders in the early Fifties, glory days in which they featured in three Cup Finals in quick succession, culminating in Stanley Matthews’s triumph of 1953. Armfield had gone to a rugby-playing school in Blackpool but his real love was for soccer and as a boy he carried a tennis ball with him everywhere, for hitting against a wall.
None the less, he had never played on a proper pitch before having a trial for the club in which, from the left wing, he scored all four goals. A champion sprinter as a youth, Armfield made athleticism the hallmark of his game, becoming arguably the first overlapping attacking full-back seen in English football.
In 1954, aged 19, he made his debut for the club – an inauspicious one in which he was given the runaround by Portsmouth’s Gordon Dale. But he would go on to play another 626 matches for the Tangerines (Blackpool’s alternative nickname, a reference to the colour of their home kit) at right back over the next 17 years, scoring six goals.
Although he won no honours with Blackpool, for the first half of his time at Bloomfield Road they were a fine side. In 1953 they had fielded four of the England team that famously lost to Hungary at Wembley, and in Armfield’s second season finished as runners-up to the champions Manchester United after losing their last four matches.
These were palmy days, in which the club drew the largest away gate of any, as supporters wanted to see Matthews weave his spells on the wing and Ray Charnley scoring for fun. It was an age in which Armfield could smoke a pipe for relaxation and bicycle to home matches through crowds he knew by name. Yet it was also one in which the fans’ money went largely into the pockets of the owners.
As England captain in 1964, Armfield was earning just £40 per week – double what he had made before Jimmy Hill got the maximum wage abolished in 1961 – and driving not a Ferrari (which would have cost him three years’ salary) but a Hillman Minx.
His pay went down to £14 in summer; throughout most of his time as a professional footballer, he had to supplement his income by working as a journalist on the local paper four afternoons a week.
In 1957 United wanted to buy Armfield, but agents did not exist and Blackpool simply vetoed the sale. Two years later, he was voted Young Player of the Year, and in 1966 narrowly came second to Bobby Charlton as Player of the Year.
By then he was captain of Blackpool, a position he held for a decade, although the side were already sliding towards relegation. They came back up in 1970, only to return at once to the second tier. Armfield played his final match for the club against Manchester United in 1971. The club would not return to the top flight for another four decades.
Between 1959 and 1966, Armfield was capped 43 times by England, succeeding Johnny Haynes as captain in 1962. Earlier that year, he went to Chile for the World Cup.
The manager Walter Winterbottom did not believe in fripperies. The squad acclimatised for two weeks in a mining camp. There were no televisions, although Armfield took himself off regularly to a cinema showing French films. Though the side underperformed at the tournament, he was voted its best right back.
Armfield led England for 15 matches but he then lost his place to George Cohen after rupturing his groin. Such was Cohen’s form that he never regained it, although he was in the World Cup squad in 1966 and, following a press campaign, in 2009, like his fellow squad members, he belatedly received a winner’s medal.
James Christopher Armfield was born on September 21 1935 at Denton, Manchester (coincidentally the birthplace of Geoff Hurst). His father managed a local Co-op, but in 1940, with the coming of war, Jimmy and his mother moved for safety to a boarding house in
Blackpool. He lived in the town for the rest of his life.
He had vivid memories of going to Wembley with his father to watch the
1948 Cup Final, which Blackpool lost to Manchester
United. He stood on the biscuit tin which housed their packed lunch, so as to see over the heads of the crowd. This was still the age of austerity and he did not taste chocolate until he was 11.
A bright child, Jimmy passed the 11-plus and went to Arnold School. Shortly before being taken on by Blackpool – then managed by the great Joe Smith – he was accepted by Liverpool University to read Economics.
After hanging up his boots, Armfield went straight into management at Bolton. In 1973 he won them promotion as champions from the Third Division. The feat attracted the attention of Leeds, and the following year he replaced Brian Clough after his ill-starred brief encounter with the club.
Armfield began to rebuild Don Revie’s side – notably signing Tony Currie – and in 1975 guided the team to the final of the European Cup, though Bayern Munich proved too strong for them. He was then offered the job of managing Iran, at three times his salary, but the Revolution intervened.
Instead, he joined the Daily Express newspaper, for which he would work for a dozen years, being remembered by the copytakers for his charm and politeness. He soon become more familiar as a radio commentator for the BBC. His blend of insight, optimism – he was never one to want anything but the best for players – and warmth endeared him to successive generations of armchair fans over the next 35 years, latterly on Radio 5 Live.
Armfield was also a consultant to the FA and helped to secure the appointments as England manager of Terry Venables and Glenn Hoddle. He regretted the premature departure of both. In 2012 he was invited to present the FA Cup at Wembley.
He was much involved, too, in life along the Lancashire coast, giving his time to numerous local institutions and causes. Armfield was the county’s High Sheriff in 2006. He was appointed OBE in 2000 and advanced to CBE 10 years later.
A keen gardener and organ player (among the instruments he played was the Wurlitzer in Blackpool Tower), he was immortalised in a statue at Bloomfield Road in 2011. Four years earlier, he had survived a bout with throat cancer, and this returned in 2016. He published a memoir, Right Back to the Beginning, in 2004.
Jimmy Armfield is survived by his wife Anne, whom he married in 1958, and by two sons.
Jimmy Armfield, born September 21 1935, died January 22 2018