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He's the Godfather! Hodgson hails legend Winterbottom at England statue unveiling



It was the perfect way to celebrate the first St George’s Day at St George’s Park as Roy Hodgson came face to face with Sir Walter Winterbottom, his predecessor by some 66 years.

Winterbottom was England’s first manager but lots more besides. He was also a Manchester United centre half, an RAF officer, a pioneering coach, an influential administrator and a national servant who would have been 100 years old last month.

He died in 2002 and yesterday Hodgson unveiled the FA’s tribute, a striking bronze bust which will stand inside the education department of the national football centre in Staffordshire.

Scroll down to watch an interview with England manager Roy Hodgson



Legend: Former England boss Graham Taylor with the current incumbent Hodgson at the unveiling

It seems an appropriate place for a schoolteacher who turned coach and led England to four World Cups.

‘I’m not sure I would ask him about going to Brazil in 1950,’ said Hodgson. ‘Some of the things he probably had to go through in those days in terms of preparation I’m sure would be like horror stories to my eyes, when you think about how we prepare today.

‘But I would have liked to ask him about his ideas on coaching and leadership and how he dealt with a group of players from different backgrounds and clubs. I’m sure I could listen to him for hours and his wisdom would have been fantastic to tap into.’

In an old interview, played at the unveiling ceremony, Winterbottom recalled how a nine-man selection committee would pick his team. Once, he asked the committee if anyone had seen his goalkeeper play that season. ‘No,’ he was told, they had not.

VIDEO Hodgson on Sir Walter Winterbottom and Sir Alex Ferguson




Hodgson on 'Godfather' of football


WINTERBOTTOM: FACTS AND FIGURES



Years as England manager 1946-1962

P139 W78 D37 L51 F383 A196

Win percentage 56

Players managed 162

Biggest win 10-0 v Portugal, Lisbon, 1947

Biggest defeat 7-1 v Hungary, Budapest, 1954


On another occasion, when the England squad returned from the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, Winterbottom was greeted at Heathrow by tearful son Alan, nine, who begged to know: ‘Why didn’t you pick Bobby Charlton?’

To reach the World Cup finals in 1950 in Brazil, England’s flight lasted 31 hours and they arrived five days before their first game without Stanley Matthews, who had been sent on an FA goodwill trip, and two Manchester United players, on tour with their club in the USA.

The modernisation which enabled Sir Alf Ramsey’s team to win the World Cup was forced through by Winterbottom but the progress made during his 16-year tenure is often eclipsed by the glory of 1966.

Winterbottom took the job at 34 in 1946. His playing days had been ended prematurely by injury and legends like Matthews, Wilf Mannion, Raich Carter, Frank Swift and Tommy Lawton found it hard to understand what they could learn from someone who had never worn the Three Lions.



The Godfather: Hodgson spoke in glowing term about Winterbottom in front of his wife Lady Ann Winterbottom




Until then, these players had organised their own training and tactics at England level but Winterbottom changed the norm.

Hodgson referred to him yesterday as the ‘Godfather of English coaching’. Sportsmail’s Jeff Powell once called him ‘The Father of Modern English Football’, a phrase which was adopted as the title of a biography published this year. It has been written by Graham Morse, who married Winterbottom’s daughter Janet in 1963 and spent three years scouring old files, diaries, letters and books he retrieved from his father-in-law’s study.

Morse regards Hodgson as a ‘kindred spirit’ of Winterbottom, aware of the broader duties of the England manager and the FA to protect the long-term development of English football and to produce better players and coaches.



The Godfather: Sir Walter Winterbottom was hailed as the Godfather of English coaching, and below, talking tactics with his England side





Winterbottom was also the FA’s director of coaching and established the first national coaching programme. The courses he set up at Lilleshall inspired Sir Bobby Robson, Ron Greenwood, Don Howe and Malcolm Allison, who in turn influenced another generation.

Winterbottom saw football advancing at an accelerated rate overseas, producing more technical players and powerful coaches like Italy’s Vittorio Pozzo and Hungary’s Gustav Sebes.

‘He made sure coaching was recognised and appreciated as a profession,’ said Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of football development. ‘When he became England manager he set up a succession structure with coaches like Dave Sexton, Bobby Robson, Don Howe and Terry Venables to be sure young coaches were coming through.’

Hodgson was one of those to benefit, launching his long coaching career in Sweden in 1976, but English coaching has taken a few knocks since and English players are still accused of lacking technique.

This theme reappears if the Champions League climaxes without a Premier League team or Hodgson bemoans an absence of home-grown talent but there is hope of a brighter future at St George’s Park, designed as the home of England’s coaching and where, from now on, tomorrow’s coaches can take inspiration from their Godfather.

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