He won a bursary to Chester Diocesan Teachers Training College,[2] graduating as the top student in 1933 and took a teaching post at the Alexandra Road School, Oldham.

[2] and 41 Central League appearances, his playing career effectively ended by a spinal disease, later diagnosed as ankylosing spondylitis.

[2] Whilst still playing for Manchester United he left his teaching position to study at Carnegie College of Physical Education, Leeds.

Finally, prior to Alf Ramsey's arrival in 1962, he convinced the FA that the team manager must have sole control of selection.

Also while he was manager, England visited Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, the Soviet Union, United States and Uruguay for the first time.

Winterbottom led England to four consecutive World Cup finals, a record subsequently equalled only by Helmut Schön of West Germany.

England entered the World Cup for the first time in 1950, qualifying for the tournament in Brazil by winning the British Home Championship.

England qualified for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden with wins over the Republic of Ireland and Denmark, with a team that had lost only once in 17 games.

Three months before the tournament began the Munich air disaster robbed the team of key players from Manchester United: Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards died.

England drew against the USSR, Brazil and Austria but lost to the Soviet Union in a playoff for a quarter-final place.

He gathered around him a cadre of young FA staff coaches: men like Bill Nicholson, Don Howe, Alan Brown, Ron Greenwood, Dave Sexton, Malcolm Allison, Joe Mercer, Vic Buckingham, Jimmy Hill and Bobby Robson.

Winterbottom's courses were expanded to include professional players, referees, schoolmasters, club trainers, schoolboys and youth leaders.

Winterbottom was regarded by many as a leading technical thinker and exponent of association football, of his generation, in the world and lectured internationally.

In assessing Winterbottom's tenure as England manager, Goldblatt writes that "[Winterbottom] introduced a measure of tactical thinking and discussion to the England squad, though his inability to anticipate or learn significantly from the Hungarian debacle suggests that his grasp of tactics and communication with the players was limited.

"[8] William Baker writes that Winterbottom, because of his "upper-class origins [sic]", could not "effectively instruct, much less inspire, working-class footballers.

[12] At the Central Council of Physical Education (CCPR) Winterbottom worked to provide coaches and better facilities for sports governing bodies.

He conceived the idea of the Sports Aid Foundation, raising money from industry to back young elite sportsmen and women with Olympic medal winning chances.