[4] Alfred Ernest Ramsey was born on 22 January 1920 at 6 Parrish Cottages, Halbutt Street in Dagenham, which was then an agrarian village in Essex, about 10 miles (16 km) east of central London.

[5] He was the third of five children, four boys and a girl, born to Herbert Ramsey, a manual labourer who worked a smallholding, kept pigs and drove a horse-drawn dustcart, and his wife Florence (née Bixby).

[5] In his 1952 autobiography Talking Football, Ramsey described "liv[ing] for the open air from the moment I could toddle",[6] spending hours each day in the meadow behind the family cottage, playing ball games with his brothers.

"[18] Military life taught Ramsey about discipline and leadership, and strengthened his social skills: "I have never been very good at mixing with people but you have to in the army or else you are in trouble", the journalist Nigel Clarke recalled him saying.

[20] In late 1940 he was posted to St Austell, on the south coast of Cornwall, where he manned beach defences and became captain of the battalion football team, playing at centre-half or centre-forward as circumstances dictated.

Ramsey's battalion team by this time featured players from a number of Football League clubs, including the Brentford forward Len Townsend and Arsenal's Cyril Hodges.

[20] On 8 October 1943, Colonel Fletcher called Ramsey to his office to inform him that Southampton needed a centre-half for their first-team match away to Luton Town the next day and had enquired about the sergeant's availability.

[25] He played in 13 League South matches before military commitments again intervened—in December 1945 he was deployed to Mandatory Palestine, where he accepted an invitation to captain a football team representing the British garrison.

This side included Arthur Rowley, who later scored hundreds of goals for Leicester City and Shrewsbury Town, and the future Scotland international forward Jimmy Mason.

[29] After five matches, Dodgin and the club trainer Sydney Cann made a decision that changed the course of Ramsey's professional playing career: deciding that neither centre-half nor centre-forward truly suited him, they moved him to right-back.

"[31] Ramsey made his full league debut on 26 October 1946, in a Second Division match against Plymouth Argyle at the Dell, replacing the injured regular right-back Bill Ellerington.

"[43] Southampton failed to win promotion during the 1947–48 season, finishing third behind Birmingham City and Newcastle United, but it was still a successful campaign for them and by its end Ramsey had become one of the club's main players,[44] taking on the captain's role occasionally.

[46] Ramsey was impressed by the South Americans' footballing ability, but not by the conduct of their players, pressmen, administrators or fans; McKinstry considers the experience to have "fed Alf's nascent xenophobia".

Tottenham pioneered the style to good effect—a Spurs player moving forward would lay the ball off to a teammate, then run past the opposing defender to receive an immediate return pass.

[56] Ramsey was an essential part of the team,[57] having made the right-back position his own; he built effective partnerships with several players, including the wing-half Bill Nicholson,[57] the goalkeeper Ted Ditchburn and the inside-right Sonny Walters.

[56] Ramsey greatly appreciated the licence Rowe gave him to move forward and attack and, in November 1949, in an away match against Grimsby Town, he scored what is generally considered the best goal of his career.

[58] In August 1950, shortly before Tottenham embarked on their first top-flight season since they had been relegated at the end of the 1934–35 campaign, Rowe told the club's annual meeting: "As much as anything else, I would rate our good time last year to the acquisition of Alf Ramsey.

[74] The score remained 1–0 at half-time, and it was the same story in the second half: England missed a multitude of easy chances, hit the woodwork numerous times and had one effort that appeared to cross the line not given.

The England captain Billy Wright recalled that "even Alf Ramsey, who used to be expressionless throughout a game, threw up his arms and looked to the sky when a perfect free kick was somehow saved by their unorthodox keeper".

[76] Despite this indifferent performance, the English football establishment made no changes in policy, maintaining that England remained the best in the world and had simply fallen victim to bad luck in Brazil.

[81] His last appearance for England came on 25 November 1953, in what the British press dubbed the "Match of the Century"—England against the 1952 Olympic champions Hungary, the so-called "Golden Team" or "Magical Magyars", at Wembley Stadium.

The unbeaten home record was obliterated, along with any pretence that England had nothing to learn from overseas rivals — they were totally outplayed by the fluid, fast-paced game of the Hungarians, which McKinstry comments was not dissimilar to Tottenham's push-and-run.

[92] A relegated side with a number of players of "mature age", Ipswich were a tricky proposition for a new manager, especially as there was "no money" to improve the squad, so Ramsey worked to make the most of whatever talent he had inherited.

[118] The first group game, on 11 July 1966, was against Uruguay and despite attacking talent including Jimmy Greaves and Roger Hunt, playing against a disciplined Uruguayan defence, England were held to a 0–0 draw.

[126] After a violent quarter-final (where the Argentinian captain Antonio Rattín refused to leave the field after being sent off), England won 1–0 thanks to Hurst latching onto a cross from Martin Peters and heading home a goal.

[139] In the first round, two 1–0 victories over Romania and Czechoslovakia enabled England to progress, despite a loss by the same scoreline to ultimate champions Brazil (a match which also featured a famous save by Gordon Banks from Pelé's header).

At 2–0 up Bonetti, who was playing because regular keeper Gordon Banks had been taken ill, had let a seemingly innocuous shot by Franz Beckenbauer slip under his body and was then caught out of position by a looping header by Uwe Seeler.

[148] Before the qualifier with Poland at Wembley Stadium, the Derby County manager Brian Clough described Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski as a "circus clown in gloves".

In February 1978, star player Trevor Francis was fined for giving newspaper interviews about his desire to leave a club he saw as lacking ambition,[159] and the board accepted Ramsey's recommendation to place him on the transfer list.

[116] The football journalist Ken Jones related that on one occasion, when Ramsey perceived Moore and Greaves to be mocking his accent on the team bus, he said he would "win the World Cup without those two bastards".