{"id":387285,"date":"2025-08-31T14:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387285\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T14:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:41:18","slug":"legendary-england-manager-sir-alf-ramsey-loved-and-trusted-the-daily-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/387285\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary England manager Sir Alf Ramsey loved and trusted the Daily Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"

Incredible images show old Daily and Sunday Mirrors – the papers that England 1966 legendary manager Sir Alf Ramsey loved and trusted\"19661966 legend Sir Alf Ramsey(Image: Mirrorpix)<\/p>\n

Sir Alf Ramsey loved and trusted the Daily Mirror, a new book reveals.<\/p>\n

Author and historian Grant Bage spent six years researching his book “The Unseen Sir Alf” and he discovered the England <\/a>legend loved dealing with both the Daily and Sunday Mirror<\/a>.Bage spoke to the Mirror about his book and was asked why he wanted the Mirror to tell his story that had taken him so long to research. He said: \u201cAlf gave the Daily and Sunday Mirror nine unique biographical interviews during 1970-72. It felt right to honour that legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we look back at Ramsey\u2019s relationship with the Mirror it was amazing. Back In 1972 we ran a series of highly intimate interviews under the headline: \u201cAlf and Me – by Frank McGhee.”<\/p>\n

\"DailyDaily Mirror from 1972<\/p>\n

McGhee was our highly respected chief sportswriter at the time. The series was introduced with the following words: “Sir Alf Ramsey completes a century of full international matches as England’s team manager when he leads his side out against Wales in a World Cup qualifying tie at Cardiff <\/a>on Wednesday next week. FRANK McGHEE has been with Sir Alf in every one of the previous 99 games.<\/p>\n

\"SundaySunday Mirror Sir Alf splash<\/p>\n

“Between them, they share a thousand memories of triumph, failure, drama and laughter. Today ‘Alf and Me’ starts a fascinating series that takes you behind the England international Soccer scene.”<\/p>\n

\"RespectedRespected author and historian Grant Bage(Image: Ian Vogler \/ Daily Mirror)<\/p>\n

While Ramsey was still England manager he invited McGhee into his Ipswich home for Sunday lunch – cooked by his wife. McGhee described a \u201crelaxed and memorable Sunday I spent at his home – over the roast beef his wife Vick cooked and Alf had carved.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started one of his pieces: \u201cIf life had played a couple of little jokes on Alf Ramsey he might now be working for Ford\u2019s at Dagenham. Or he might be employed by the Co-Op<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"SirSir Alf Ramsey(Image: Popperfoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bage’s book is published tomorrow. He gave an amazing insight into the kindness of Ramsey to an Ipswich Town player, now dead, who was convicted of a “homosexual gross indecency” offence back in the 1950s.<\/a><\/p>\n

He said simply: \u201cAll Ramsey was half a century ahead of his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HistorianHistorian Grant Bage at the Sir Alf Ramsey statue with story in Saturday’s Mirror<\/p>\n

Ramsey demanded that the club\u2019s board, after the player\u2019s enforced exile, ignore the conviction and offer the player a new contract. When they listened to his pleas Ramsey then successfully integrated the player back into the dressing room and into the team. This was just unheard of back in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

Bage explained: \u201cThe way he handled such a sensitive and controversial situation was incredible. Conventional history has got Ramsey wrong: despite appearing conformist he was radically different.”<\/p>\n

\"RespectedRespected author and historian Grant Bage(Image: Ian Vogler \/ Daily Mirror)<\/p>\n

Bage made his discovery after ploughing through thousands of documents in preparation for his book. His work in the archives is set to lead to a dramatic change in the way history judges Ramsey. One of the chapters in his book is entitled: \u201cRamsey\u2019s Rainbow Career Ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SirSir Alf Ramsey(Image: Daily Mirror)<\/p>\n

Another is \u201cLeading the Way, Liberal, Moderniser, Underdog.\u201d Bage\u2019s meticulous research enabled him to uncover \u201ca secret chapter in Alf\u2019s life when he saved a young player\u2019s career following a guilty plea for homosexual behaviour.<\/p>\n

It may have been a different era but the book reveals that the one paper Ramsey always chose to tell his story was the Mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incredible images show old Daily and Sunday Mirrors – the papers that England 1966 legendary manager Sir Alf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[14889,748,393,12632,134244,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-387285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-alf-ramsey","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-england-football-team","12":"tag-football-jokes","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115123905492273170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}