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Alf Ramsey was ‘an introvert in an extrovert’s job'. A man who loathed publicity, the press and anything that was pretty much not football. And yet in 1963, fresh to the England manager’s job, he boldly stated ‘we will win the World Cup’. A statement thrown back at him frequently until he proved all the doubters wrong.

David Goldblatt takes the measure of this utterly modest, button downed footballing mono-maniac. Ramsey, from deeply humble Essex roots, took on the world and won. He only became a professional footballer at the age of 26, winning his first England caps as the national team repeatedly failed on the world stage. As a neophyte manager he achieved both successive promotions with lowly Ipswich Town and then won the league with them in 1962. And then Ramsey set out to transform the role of the England manager while contending with a pomposity of blazered FA officialdom, a deeply sceptical press and a largely disinterested English public. Slowly his meticulously shaped team took shape and became legendary lions in 1966.

As results and luck began to turn against him, the furies of the press and enemies within the FA brought about his brutal end. From nothing to the global stage back to nothing by his mid 50s. It was a waste of Ramsey’s enormous footballing insight. Every decade since 1966 is a poignant reminder of his team’s achievement.

With the voices of Grant Bage, author of The Unseen Sir Alf; Duncan Hamilton, author of Answered Prayers; Paul Hayward, author of England Football - the Biography; and Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting the Pyramid.

Reading: Talking Football- Ben Crowe
My Way performed by organist Martijn Koetsier.

Producer: Mark Burman

A Tell Tale production for 91¸£ÀûÉç Radio 4