Ex-england goalkeeper Ray Clemence dies
Goalkeeper whose ferocious concentration between the posts helped Liverpool to dominate the 1970s
FORMER England goalkeeper Ray Clemence has died at the age 72.
Clemence won 61 caps for England between 1972 and 1983 and became goalkeeper coach for the squad in 1996. He stayed with the FA for another 17 years until his retirement.
In 2005, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
His family announced his death yesterday in a statement which read: “With great sadness, we write to let you know that Ray Clemence passed away peacefully today, surrounded by his loving family.” The cause of death is not yet known.
The FA has said it will pay tribute to him at Wembley before England’s UEFA Nations League game against Iceland on Wednesday. “Our deepest condolences are with his family, friends and former clubs at this difficult time,” it said in a statement.
Clemence joined Liverpool in 1967 and stayed with the club for 14 years.
The club said: “We’re deeply saddened by the passing of one of the greatestever goalkeepers, Ray Clemence.”
In 1981 he joined Tottenham Hotspur, and played more than 300 appearances for the London club.
He is survived by his wife Veronica and three children Sarah, Julie and Stephen.
RAY CLEMENCE, who has died aged 72, was the goalkeeper in the all-conquering Liverpool team of the 1970s, with whom he won five league titles and the European Cup three times; he subsequently played for Spurs, and but for having to share international duties with Peter Shilton he would probably be England’s record cap-holder.
If, in the 1970s, the pitches were muddier and the ball heavier, football was a simpler game and Clemence, in his green jersey, was one of the indelible images of the era. Had one chanced upon a kickabout between a group of boys at the time, each might have had his own hero. Yet, transcending partisanship, the shout acknowledging every save would have been: “Ray Clemence!”
His most formidable ability was an unrelenting concentration. Playing behind a team which was usually dominant, he often had little to do except in rare instances when it mattered, and very rarely made errors. Two celebrated examples of this came in European finals.
In 1973, in the first leg of the Uefa Cup final against Borussia Moenchengladbach, Clemence had to face a penalty from Jupp Heynckes. He had watched him take one a little while before and guessed correctly that he would shoot to the same side. At the time, with Liverpool 3-0 ahead at Anfield, the save did not appear vital, but ultimately it was to prevent the Germans from winning the tie on away goals.
Four years later, the two sides met again in the European Cup final in Rome. Borussia equalised early in the second half. They had the momentum, and soon created another chance when Uli Stielike was set free on goal. The outrushing Clemence spread himself and the shot came off his knee. Two minutes later, Tommy Smith scored for Liverpool, who went on to claim Europe’s premier club trophy for the first time.
Clemence was particularly adept at coming off his line to snuff out danger. Although he owed something to the example of his predecessor at Anfield, Tommy Lawrence, he was arguably the first consistently successful “sweeper keeper” in the English game.
He liked to play at centre-forward in games at the club’s Melwood training ground, and he could slide-tackle as well as kick long, significantly improving his distribution in his first years at Liverpool. At a time when it was rare, he often started attacks with throws to wide players. “He’s quick, he doesn’t want to be beaten. He’s just a great goalkeeper,” said Bill Shankly.
Shankly had signed the 18-year-old Clemence from lowly Scunthorpe in 1967 for £18,000; the jubilant club chairman drove the goalkeeper to Anfield in his Rolls-royce. Clemence had learned about the deal while doing his holiday job, stacking deckchairs on the beach.
Although Shankly had a prejudice about left-footed keepers, and only took Clemence because he was righthanded and therefore “balanced”, he had already seen enough to be convinced of the teenager’s talent. Even so, he was not above a little dissemblance when persuading Clemence to sign.
Showing him around Anfield, he told the youngster that the heftily built Lawrence was in his thirties and that Clemence would soon replace him. In fact, “the Flying Pig” was 27, and while Clemence made his debut in a League Cup match in 1968, he did not become first-choice until 1970, when Shankly had a clear-out following a defeat by Watford. Clemence spent the rest of the season wearing Lawrence’s outsized jersey, which sagged to his knees when wet.
The following season, he kept goal at Wembley in the FA Cup final against Arsenal, only to be beaten by Charlie George’s wondrous strike. It was a rare defeat. With Kevin Keegan also signed from Scunthorpe, and with the team boasting the likes of Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Smith, Terry Mcdermott and Phil Thompson, Liverpool won the League in 1973 and the Uefa Cup the same season. They triumphed in the FA Cup the next year, defeating Newcastle, and by seeing off Bruges claimed the League and Uefa Cup double again in 1976.
In 1977 they lost the Cup final to Manchester United but again won the Championship and that first European Cup. Keegan left for Hamburg, to be replaced by Kenny Dalglish. Clemence sportingly refused to join in the ribbing of the Scot, who shortly before had nutmegged his new team-mate when scoring in an international at Hampden Park.
And Dalglish it was whose goal enabled Liverpool to become the first English club to retain the European Cup when, by beating Bruges again, they won it in 1978. Nottingham Forest, who put one over the Reds in the League Cup final, were starting to challenge their dominance both at home and in Europe, but in 1979 Liverpool responded by taking back the League title. In what was perhaps Clemence’s finest season, he conceded just 16 goals in 42 First Division matches.
In photographs of celebrations after victories, the 6ft-tall Clemence (and his distinctive nose) featured prominently. Another Championship followed the next year, and with victory in 1981 over Real Madrid in Paris came the third European Cup. Yet as the other players drank champagne in the dressing room afterwards, Clemence only felt flat.
His move to White Hart Lane was accompanied by rumours about his private life, but these were never substantiated. He insisted that his only motivation was his desire for a new challenge and to leave the club he loved on his own terms. By then, he had made 665 appearances for Liverpool, more than anyone except Ian Callaghan. When he made his first return to Anfield with Spurs, the Kop rose as one to chant his name.
Raymond Neal Clemence was born in Skegness on August 5 1948. At Lumley Secondary School, he enjoyed mathematics and for a time a career in accountancy beckoned. On the pitch, he played in the outfield until he was 15.
He caught the eye with his performances in goal for a youth club side, Skegness Cosmos, and although a six-game trial with Notts County ended in rejection, at 17 he signed for Scunthorpe. Clemence would appear for them 48 times in the Third Division before his move to Liverpool.
Although he felt that the Tottenham side he joined should have challenged for the title, he nevertheless garnered considerable glory with them. In 1982 they lost the League Cup final to Liverpool but beat QPR to claim the FA Cup. Clemence missed the Uefa Cup final in 1984 through injury – Tony Parks making the vital saves in the shoot-out against Anderlecht – but reached his fifth FA Cup final, against Coventry City in 1987.
He, and Spurs, were beaten, however, by a ball that looped off Gary Mabbutt’s knee. Clemence retired though injury the next year, having become one of the very few footballers to have played more than 1,000 matches.
He won 61 caps for England between 1972 and 1983, a period when the national side regularly failed to qualify for competitions. His chief disappointment was losing out to Shilton for the berth for the 1982 World Cup. The previous year, he had been the first keeper since Frank Swift in 1949 to captain England.
Clemence had a brief spell in management with Barnet, but from the mid-1990s was England’s goalkeeping coach and then the FA’S head of development until he retired in 2013 following treatment for prostate cancer.
Ray Clemence was appointed MBE in 1987.
He married, in 1971, Veronica Gillespie. She survives him with their son, Stephen, the former footballer and now the first-team coach at Newcastle United, and their two daughters, Sarah and Julie.
Ray Clemence, born August 5 1948, died November 15 2020