 |
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
Ray Wilson
| Category: | Male Player |
| Year Inducted: | 2008 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
Ray Wilson was the senior professional in the England side that won the World Cup in 1966 and an accomplished defender whom Alf Ramsey rated as the finest left-back he had ever seen. An automatic choice for his country during successive World Cup campaigns, the unflappable Wilson gained the respect of colleagues for his calming presence and good sense in the England dressing room and outstanding reliability on the field.
A proud, circumspect Yorkshireman, Wilson chose his words carefully. But when he did speak, others listened, including the manager, as Nobby Stiles would recall. ‘Ray Wilson carried a lot of influence with the players, and although Alf always basically knew what he wanted to do, I did notice that he tended to prick up his ears when Ray had something to say.'
Jack Charlton, the England centre-half, summed up Wilson's qualities as a defender. ‘Ray was built like a whippet, and he was very, very quick,' Charlton said. ‘He was a very precise tackler, but hard with it. If he missed a tackle, he was remarkably quick in his recovery, and the rest of us always had the greatest confidence in him.'
At club level, Wilson enjoyed success relatively late in his career as a member of Everton's FA Cup-winning side in 1966, two years after joining the club from Huddersfield Town for a fee of £40,000, a record for a full-back at the time. And it was at Goodison Park that Wilson, now in his thirties, would team up with England team-mate Alan Ball. ‘Ray is worth double the sum Everton paid for him,' Ball wrote, in the wake of England's World Cup triumph. ‘There wasn't a winger who played against him who could claim to have broken even in the exchange, let alone come out on top.'
A late developer, Wilson struggled in his early days at Huddersfield, the club he signed for after leaving school. In order to become a professional footballer, he accepted a wage which was half that he earned working on the railways. In his first two years at Leeds Road, Wilson failed to make a single appearance in the reserves in his favoured position, wing-half. National Service then took him out of the game completely for two years. On being demobbed from the Army, in 1955, his career prospects looked bleak.
Then came the breakthrough: on Wilson's first day back at training, Andy Beattie, the Huddersfield Town, manager, told him to play left-back. It was the first time he had ever worn the number three shirt. Even then, things did not go smoothly; in each of his first five league games for Town, the winger he was marking scored. But Beattie had spotted something, notably Wilson's remarkable speed of recovery and passing ability. With experience, Wilson improved. Though Huddersfield Town were playing in the second tier of English football in those days, the club's status did not prevent Wilson coming to the attention of the selectors - and several top-flight clubs.
In those days, before the abolition of the retain and transfer system, a club could hold on to a player when his contract expired. And Huddersfield had no intention of letting Wilson leave the club and rejected offers from Sheffield Wednesday, whose manager, Harry Catterick, was a long-time admirer, and Chelsea, among others. Over the years Chelsea came in with a bid on four different occasions, all of them rejected.
After winning his first representative honour in 1959, Wilson was an established international when England travelled to Chile three years later to compete in the World Cup. Though a disappointment for Walter Winterbottom's side, Wilson emerged with his reputation enhanced; at the end of the tournament, the Englishman was voted the world's best left-back by the international press.
Two years later, Huddersfield finally decided to cash in, no doubt thinking that the player's best days were behind him. Harry Catterick, who had been patiently biding his time since leaving Hillsborough to take charge at Everton, moved swiftly. On joining the champions, Wilson prospered under a more rigorous training regime, shedding almost a stone in weight and building his stamina.
Over the next four years, Wilson played in two FA Cup Finals. In the league, Everton, though a consistent presence in the top six, did not seriously challenge for the championship title. By the time Catterick's side did break through, in 1969-70, Wilson had been sidelined prematurely by serious injury.
Over a career spanning more than 400 appearances, Wilson never had his name taken in a Football League match for committing a foul. His first booking, in September 1966, was for dissent. ‘I don't think I ever gave away many fouls away,' Wilson would recall.
He will, of course, be best remembered for his performances with England earlier that summer. After barely putting a foot wrong throughout the tournament, Wilson, the most automatic of choices in Ramsey's side, made a rare mistake in the final when his weak defensive header opened the way for West Germany's opening goal. His reaction to the setback, though, was vital to England's recovery and eventual victory, as Nobby Stiles would recall later.
‘On a rare occasion Ray made a mistake - and I can‘t remember another one he made in 1966 World Cup - he would never hide, and it was the same at Wembley in 1966. ‘Ray had moral courage to burn. He never blinked or flinched at a moment of heavy pressure. He was an inspiration to us all.'