Malcolm Allison, a footballing pioneer died at the age of 83 yesterday. He was a coaching genius, with ideas ahead of his time, and a man whose legacy remains in the heart of the players he coached and inspired to occasional greatness, and in the people who watched and marvelled at the creativity of his teams.
One of the individuals whose heart and mind Allison touched, was the late, and permanently great, Bobby Moore, who said during his career (and also, again, before his untimely death over a decade ago) that he ‘‘really loved Malcolm.’’
The strength of all the great coaches is to be able to extract the most from individuals, and also the group, in order to achieve a successful collective performance. Identifying talent and developing its potential is a special gift. Malcolm Allison had a reputation for having both in abundance, plus a strength of character to implement innovative ideas and creative training practices.
In Bobby Moore’s autobiography, the England legend said :
‘‘ When Malcolm was coaching schoolboys, he took a liking to me when I don’t think anyone else at West Ham saw anything special in me… I looked up to the man. It’s not too strong to say I loved him.”
Others who were part of the same experience at West Ham, recognized that Bobby became a player through Malcolm’s support and deep knowledge. Such wisdom was absorbed during, and after training every day. Regular meetings in Cassetari’s coffee shop around the corner from West Ham’s Boleyn Ground in Upton Park, after a day’s training, were an education for those present. Malcolm Allison’s ideas and charismatic personality tended to dominante, but others held court too. There were other exceptional footballing brains present (such as Noel Cantwell, Dave Sexton, Malcolm Musgrove, Ken Brown, John Bond and John Lyall) who all added to the richness of the complex mix, which inspired the future England football Captain, the young and deeply impressionable Bobby Moore. He would go on to be the best defender in the world and England’s only World Cup winning Captain, while the others present in Cassetari’s, went on to become big names in football management and coaching.
Malcolm Allison’s passion for football knew no bounds. He possessed a rare eye for talent and a rare ability for connecting with his fellow men. Reportedly, he had more than an eye, and a connection with the ladies too. Maybe his flamboyant lifestyle contributed to taking him down, and maybe his coaching greatness was never truly acknowledged because of an inability to sustain his achievement over time, in the manner of a Bob Paisley at Liverpool, or the modern day Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
Yesterday, after the sad news became public, leading international players from the late 1960′s to early 1970’s Manchester City teams, spoke glowingly of his visionary contribution to their Club’s success and to their own individual careers. Former England winger Mike Summerbee was quoted as saying: ‘‘Malcolm Allison was years ahead of his time. He had us doing physical training that some people think they invented today, and his tactics were revolutionary. As one of his players he made you feel special, and a much better player than you actually were.’’
In his first season he won the Division two title (1966) and then won the Division One League title in 1968, the FA Cup in 1969, as well as the League Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1970. All this from a man who believed it took three years to build a team!
He was a man apart, and the anyone who has witnessed Jose Mourinho work today, and is old enough to remember Malcolm Allison, will see the similarity, and recognize many of the same personality traits and coaching intelligence. Nearly 50 years ago he published a book called ‘Football for Thinkers’ – and so much of the content is so relevant to the challenges the game has grappled with for decades since it was published. In 1970 he challenged the ruling body FIFA to ban the back-pass to the goalkeeper because he felt it was ruining the game with its encouragement of defensive tactics. At the time, many people thought Malcolm was mad, but after a dreary FIFA World Cup (in terms of game-style) in Italy 1990, FIFA changed the rules to outlaw the back pass! If only the people would listen to the revolutionaries in life…
Malcolm Allison was a centre half who began his career at Charlton Athletic before being transferred for £7,000 in 1951. He went on to play 238 matches for West Ham United, scoring 10 goals. As Captain, Allison was responsible for the team’s tactics and took over training too. He is credited with implementing the tactics of over-lapping full-backs, one-touch football, and playing from the back with passing through the midfield and then supporting the initial pass with movement from the back. The fans enjoyed the style of football introduced by and credited to Allison. Football journalist of the day, Bernard Joy, remarked: “West Ham’s tradition of playing colourful football was a way of getting away from the drabness of life in the East End.” (ref Spartacus).
When illness took hold of him, and allowed his schoolboy protégé (and my hero) Bobby Moore to take his place in West Ham’s defence, the West Ham Captain never properly recovered from the experience. Moore found this difficult and is quoted in his book saying:
‘‘I’d been a professional for two and a half months and Malcolm had taught me everything I know’’. However, the relationship continued to flourish and both men found their true calling in life in the subsequent years.
When Allison came to terms with the fact that he was unable to recover sufficiently, he devoted himself to coaching the game he loved, and to living life to the full. His recovery from losing a lung, as a consequence of his battle with tuberculosis, never dimmed his internal fire to spread the gospel of how football could be played. His desire to live life to the fullest saw him indulge in champagne, cigars, fedora hats and pretty women. He had a reputation for being one of the most engaging individuals of the era.
I have been fortunate, through my association with West Ham United, to have met a number of people who knew Malcolm well, and have shared some wonderful stories about the man. Listening to Ken Brown, Peter Brabrook, Geoff Hurst, John Lyall and Ernie Gregory talk about Malcolm has been an education for me.
My favorite story about Malcolm was told to me by one of the game’s most respected coaches John Cartwright, the former Arsenal coach and ex England Youth Team Manager. John was a very young player at the Club when Malcolm was Captain. In addition to his playing responsibilities, Malcolm started a tradition where he would also coach the best local schoolboys in the car park at Upton Park three nights a week.
John said he and a number of other youngsters including Bobby Moore were sat in the home dressing room at Upton Park one afternoon, when a bronzed Malcolm Allison appeared in the doorway and filled the entire space. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and white shorts with white short socks on, all of which accentuated his deep suntan. John said he looked like a Greek God, and with the ball under his arm next to his all-white kit, looked like a Real Madrid player. Malcolm then bellowed to the lads: ‘‘Right lads, I am going out to practice because I want to become a great player one day. Anyone want to join me?!’’
Fortunately for West Ham United, following Malcolm’s departure from the club as a player, his legacy was developed further by Ron Greenwood and John Lyall. It has been carried forward to today by Tony Carr, who continues to do a great job with the Academy and produce players for West Ham and for England.
Sadly for Malcolm, after his initial great success at Manchester City , he enjoyed only fleeting success subsequently. Despite a double-winning season with Sporting Lisbon and an exciting partnership with a young Terry Venables at Crystal palace where they took a 3rd Division team to the FA Cup Semi Finals, his frustration grew at not being recognized for his coaching genius other than his appearances as a colourful TV pundit, at which he was superb alongside another footballing pioneer, Jimmy Hill.
I wonder what would have happened if he could have tamed some of his excesses and ‘the establishment’ had been prepared to entrust English Football Coaching and the performance of the England team to one of the coaching geniuses of the game.
Malcolm Allison: the original ‘Special One’, and Jose Mourinho: the modern day ‘Special One’: the best coaches England never had?
