Jack Charlton was 29 years old when Sir Alf Ramsey gave him his England debut, after identifying him as the ideal defensive partner for Bobby Moore. Image in public domain.
Jack Charlton, the legendary England centre-back, was having a drink at a hotel bar one night. Just then, the England manager, Sir Alf Ramsey, came in through the door. The two began talking and Charlton, who had been given his international debut by Ramsey at the age of 29, asked the manager why he had picked him for England. Charlton had been approaching his 30th birthday when Ramsey called him up and having never been selected internationally till then, had thought he would never have an England career.
“Well, Jack,” said Ramsey, “I have a pattern of play in my mind – and I pick the best players to fit the pattern. I don’t necessarily always pick the best players, Jack.”
Ramsey explained further.
“I’ve watched you play, Jack,” he said, “and you’re quite good. You’re a good tackler and you’re good in the air, and I need those things.
“And,” added Ramsey, “I know you won’t trust Bobby Moore.”
Charlton told Ramsey he didn’t know what he meant, as he thought that Bobby Moore, the England captain and fellow centre-back, was a tremendous player.
“Yes, Jack,” Ramsey replied with a smile, “but you and he are different. If Gordon Banks (the England goalkeeper) gives you the ball on the edge of the box, you’ll give the ball back to him and say, “Keep the bloody thing!” – but if Gordon gives the ball to Bobby, he will play through the midfield, all the way to a forward position if he has to. I’ve watched you play and I know that as soon as Bobby goes, you’ll always fill in behind him. That way, if Bobby makes a mistake, you’re there to cover it.”
“He was absolutely right, of course,” wrote Charlton in his memoir, ‘Jack Charlton: The Autobiography’.
“It was how I used to play with Norman Hunter (an English centre-back) at Leeds.”
England manager Sir Alf Ramsey (left) during a training session involving Jack Charlton (second from right) in 1969. Image in public domain.
The amount of trust a manager places in a footballer can be decisive in the player’s career – sometimes, it can completely change its trajectory.
In this article, we’ll look at two footballers whose path to the top has been helped or hindered by the trust their respective managers –both club and country – placed in them, and how they have responded to that challenge.
If Ramsey had still been alive and watched the European Championships in Germany this summer, he would’ve nodded in quiet approval at the performance of Marc Guehi at the heart of the English defence.
Because Guehi, like Charlton before him, was one of the players most ‘distrustful’ of his teammates in Germany.
Playing on the left of a 3-man defence along with Kyle Walker and John Stones, Guehi usually shored up the backline whenever England’s left wing-back Kieran Trippier or Luke Shaw advanced down the flank and into the opposition half.
Guehi, a two-footed player more talented on the ball than Charlton was, also impressed with his composure under pressure.Guehi was rarely involved in spectacular last-ditch clearances in Germany. This was because the centre-back ensured his positioning was almost always excellent. When an attacker made a run into the England box, the Crystal Palace centre-back was on hand to mark him. If a teammate lost possession near him, Guehi quickly and coolly cleaned up the mess.
Showing exceptional tactical awareness, he was constantly adjusting his position depending on how the game progressed: sometimes a couple of steps to his right; sometimes a short jog to his left; when necessary, a sprint to race back into the England half if the opponent launched a counter. He was seldom caught out of position.
“I think Paolo Maldini said something like: ‘If you have to make a tackle, you weren’t in the right position in the first place,’” said Guehi in an interview to the official website of Crystal Palace last month.
“Obviously there are times when you might have to make a last-minute tackle because of whatever is happening, but if I can avoid being seen in a game, as crazy as it sounds, I am doing my job.”
In Germany, Guehi was often inconspicuous, but proved to be a vital part of England’s journey to the final.
It has been an almost glacial rise to the top for Guehi.
When the Palace centre-back received his first England cap in March 2022, in a 2-1 victory over Switzerland in an international friendly, he had already collected a whopping 59 international youth caps for the Three Lions across age groups. This includes captaining the England Under-17 team to victory in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup held in India in 2017. He was only 3 months short of turning 22, but it looked like he’d been waiting in the wings a long time.
This was probably because the then England manager Gareth Southgate was slow to trust Guehi. After Guehi’s international debut in March 2022, England played 7 matches in the run up to World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Guehi started just 2 of those matches and was named on the bench for 2 others. When the squad for the Qatar World Cup was announced, Guehi was not in it.
Since after the 2022 World Cup, however, Southgate identified Guehi as an important part of the England line-up. Between the aftermath of the 2022 World Cup and the beginning of Euro 2024, England played 14 matches. Guehi missed 2 of those due to injury. Of the remaining 12, he played in 8 matches and started in 7. He remained on the bench on 4 occasions.
Harry Maguire’s failure to recover from a calf injury in the run up to Euro 2024 helped Guehi cement his place in the England playing 11 during the summer. But the centre-back, who’s a far superior player to the waning Maguire, could have become a starter for England much earlier in his career.
If only Chelsea had shown a little more trust in him.
OUT THE DOOR AFTER 14 YEARS – AND 2 CAPS
Marc Guehi (extreme right) in action for Chelsea Under-21 against Wimbledon in the EFL trophy in 2018. Guehi had a stellar Chelsea youth career, captaining the Under-18 teams to a treble and a quadruple in successive seasons, between 2016-18. “Chelsea U21 2 AFC Wimbledon 1” by @cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
When Guehi got his first England cap, he was in his first season at Crystal Palace. He had left Chelsea, where he had spent 14 years after joining the Blues as a 7-year-old boy, in the summer of 2021. In his time at Chelsea’s academy, Guehi was touted by many as a future star and was a mainstay of their youth teams. In the 2016-17 season, Guehi helped the Blues’ Under-18 team to a treble (Under-18 Premier League, Under-18 Premier League South and the FA Youth Cup).
The following 2017-18 season, he helped the Under-18s win a quadruple (Under-18 Premier League, Under-18 Premier League South, the Under-18 Premier League Youth Cup and the FA Youth Cup). He also helped them reach the final of the 2017-18 UEFA Youth League, where they lost to Barcelona in the final.
With the Chelsea first team, however, all Guehi could muster was 2 appearances on the bench – under the management of Maurizio Sarri during the 2019-20 season, and 2 official appearances for the Blues in the 2020-21 season in the EFL Cup, under the management of Frank Lampard.
Guehi never played for Chelsea again.
After spending the second half of the 2020-21 season on loan at Swansea City in the English Championship, the centre-back left Chelsea for good in July 2021.
Chelsea, of course, are notorious for hoovering up young talent and then selling them on before they can establish themselves in the first team. Among the most eminent names they have let go of in the past are Jamal Musiala, Kevin De Bruyne, Declan Rice and Mohamed Salah.
During Guehi’s time at the Chelsea academy, his teammates in the youth team included Mason Mount, Conor Gallagher, Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
While Mount, Hudson-Odoi and Gallagher have already left Chelsea, Chalobah has been transfer listed by the Blues and is expected to leave this summer. Only the injury-prone James, who was named club captain last season, seems to have a future at Stamford Bridge.
Upon joining Crystal Palace, Guehi’s fortunes improved drastically. In contrast to the treatment meted out to him at Chelsea, then Palace manager Patrick Vieira entrusted Guehi with the captain’s armband in his very first season with the Eagles, when the regular captain, Luka Milivojevic, was unavailable.
“Marc at a young age is one of our leaders,” Vieira said in February 2022. “He really impresses me with his maturity and calmness as a centre-back. He’s always open to a discussion, wants to learn and wants to maximise his potential.”
Guehi later recalled his decision to leave his boyhood club. “It wasn’t an easy decision to leave Chelsea,” he said.
“I felt like it was the right decision to move to Palace. I wanted to play regular football at a high level in the Premier League and test myself to see how far I can go.”
Eight years prior to Guehi’s departure from Stamford Bridge, another academy graduate from Chelsea was vacationing in Portugal, when his phone rang.
John Terry was sitting down with his wife, Toni, for a meal and a glass of wine, when he got the phone call.
It was Jose Mourinho.
“JT, I’m coming home,” said Mourinho.
“And you’re my captain.”
At that point, Terry, Chelsea’s long-time captain, was on the verge of being forced out of the club. “I had 2 years left on my contract and negotiations hadn’t started, essentially,” recalled Terry, while speaking on the podcast Up Front With Simon Jordan.
“And for (Mourinho) to pick up the phone and say, ‘JT, you’re my captain, regardless of what anyone says… people in the club tell me you can’t play 2 games a week, (but) you’re my man…’
“I’ve never trained so hard in all my life to go back (for) preseason (to be) as fit as I was for him that year,” reminisced Terry.
That season, a 33-year-old Terry started and completed 49 matches for Chelsea across competitions. This included all 38 of the Blues’ matches in the English Premier League, which Chelsea won for the first time since 2010. Terry also led them to victory in the League Cup, helping beat Tottenham Hotspur in the final.
“I would’ve done absolutely everything for this man,” said Terry on the podcast.
“Everything. I just have so much respect (for) what he’s done for me individually and for us as a team, that I absolutely adore him.”
While Mourinho’s trust near the end of Terry’s career gave the centre-back the drive to lead his team to the Premier League title, the trust shown by another Chelsea manager at the beginning of Terry’s career played a crucial part in the youngster’s life.
It was May 20, 2000. Chelsea were facing Aston Villa in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium in London. Italian striking legend Gianluca Vialli was Chelsea’s manager at the time.
A 19-year-old John Terry had just returned to Stamford Bridge from a loan spell at Nottingham Forest in the second division.
“There were obviously a lot of experienced players around the first team at that time and I’d come back from a loan, but Luca (Vialli) put me, Jody Morris and Jon Harley on the bench for the final,” said Terry later.
Gianluca Vialli was Chelsea’s manager when he gave John Terry his first-team debut in 1998, when Terry was 17 years old. “SM1_2432” by RISE is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“He could have quite easily thought: ‘Oh, they’re young players, I’m going to go with experience.’ But he pulled us in and said: ‘You’re the future of our football club and it’s important that you’re involved today.’ But the key is that he said ‘the future of our football club,’ because that’s how he saw Chelsea.”
Terry did not get to play in that FA Cup final, remaining on the bench as Chelsea won 1-0.
“Even though I didn’t get on, we felt part of that day,” said Terry. “Just being in and around that squad was incredible, especially after the 2 months I’d just had at Forest. It was a really important moment in my career and Luca was a massive part of it. I’m forever in debt to him.”
A BLISTERING RED REVIL FROM GEN Z
The then England manager Gareth Southgate in 2018. Aided perhaps by Kobbie Mainoo’s exploits for Manchester United, Southgate gave him his debut after just 13 youth caps for the Three Lions. “ENG-PAN (22) 2018-6-69 Gareth Southgate” by Антон Зайцев for www.soccer.ru is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Image modified.
If the FA Cup final in May 2000 played a big part in convincing Terry that he was an important part of Chelsea, the FA Cup final in May 2024 convinced everyone watching that Kobbie Mainoo would be a star for Manchester United for years to come.
Not Mainoo, though.
He already knew that. Sort of.
“What’s your biggest strength?” an interviewer from ITV Sport asked Mainoo in June 2024.
“Uhmm….” Mainoo looked down, pondering the answer. “Biggest strength…” he muttered to himself.
“That I want the ball,” he said.
“You’re not afraid of it?”
“No, No,” said Mainoo quickly. “I like to have the ball.”
In Germany, Mainoo was as good as his word.
On July 11, in the 54th minute of England’s Euro 2024 semifinal against The Netherlands, Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders lunged at England Number 10 Jude Bellingham, trying to dispossess him. Bellingham, located near the halfway line inside the Dutch half and barely a foot away from the touchline, just about retained the ball.
The Real Madrid midfielder passed the ball to his right to Mainoo, the only teammate who was nearby.
As soon as Mainoo received the ball, the 19-year-old saw the Dutch full-back Denzel Dumfries close in on him from the right, while Dutch winger Xavi Simons approached him from behind.
With the exception of Bellingham, there was no England player in the vicinity to pass the ball to. Passing it back to Bellingham meant Reijnders may well try and dispossess him again, and may succeed this time.
Mainoo ran at Bellingham.
When he neared Bellingham though, he didn’t pass the ball. He kicked it past the Real Madrid star and raced to reach the ball before it went over the touchline. With Simons rapidly closing in, Mainoo went around Bellingham and thrust the ball to make it roll along the touchline.
Mainoo’s aim was to beat his pursuers Simons and Dumfries, as well as Bellingham’s marker, Reijnders.
It worked.For a moment.
And then the ball, which was streaking away along the touchline, spun too much and rolled out of play. Mainoo had to abandon his chase. His shoulder dropped in disappointment. But he recovered instantly, straightened up and turned to face his markers while chewing the gum in his mouth nonchalantly.
If his name was Steve Rogers, he would’ve said, “I can do this all day.”
‘IF YOU’RE GOOD ENOUGH, YOU’RE OLD ENOUGH’
Erik Ten Hag during his days coaching FC Utrecht. Despite mixed results as Manchester United manager, Ten Hag has continued to back youth, carrying on a habit he followed to splendid effect when managing Ajax. “Erik ten Hag 2017” by Кирилл Венедиктов for www.soccer.ru is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Mainoo had an exhilarating season with Manchester United and England in 2023/24, cementing his place in both teams at just 19 years of age. If his youth makes this achievement astonishing, his quality on the pitch scotches any skepticism over it.
“If you are good enough, you are old enough and he proved that,” said Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag about Mainoo after the teenager’s impressive performance in a 0-0 draw against Liverpool at Anfield in December 2023.
“When he gets used more often to those games, we will get even more joy from it.”
Mainoo proved Ten Hag right, getting better as the season wore on, and capped his club season with a Man of the Match performance in the FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 25.
Ten Hag’s record at United – despite the two trophies he has won – is patchy, with criticism over underperformance in the league, an unattractive playing style and a horrific injury record to first-team players.
But the Dutchman has succeeded in blooding youngsters into his playing 11, whether it is preferring a 19-year-old Alejandro Garnacho over a star like Marcus Rashford on the left wing, or dropping a veteran like Christian Eriksen in favour of an 18-year-old Mainoo.
“The conditions we had to bring Kobbie, in that moment, you (didn’t) know beforehand it will be a success,” said Ten Hag in February 2024. “I had that confidence because I saw him performing, I saw him performing in autumn and saw him progressing in the spring and summer… I didn’t have any doubt, but when he is coming into the team, he has to do it.”
If Guehi – who has proven to be one of the Premier League’s best defenders since his move to Palace – had been trusted to show his quality at Chelsea, it is possible that his path to England colours and European football would have been far shorter.
Mainoo, even when shoved off the ball by opponents, does not seem shocked or offended. He understands it’s a contact sport, and does not take it to heart. He seldom goes down to the ground looking for an easy foul after tangling with an opponent.
In contrast to Guehi, Mainoo spent a relatively brief time with the Manchester United youth teams before being selected for the senior team. During the 2021-22 season, a 16-year-old Mainoo starred for the United youth team, helping them win the FA Youth Cup.
He also gained experience in the Under-18 Premier League, the Premier League 2, the EFL Trophy and the EFL Cup, before being named on the senior bench for the first time in October 2022.
In January 2023, a 17-year-old Mainoo made his debut for Manchester United in a 3-0 home win over Charlton Athletic in the EFL Cup.
After giving Mainoo his first few caps, then England manager Gareth Southgate was impressed that the midfielder had managed to replicate his performances for Manchester United at the international level. “Southgate 2023” by Number 10 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
He played 2 more matches for United that season, before his precocity saw him play 32 matches the next season (the 2023/24 one) and start 29 of them.
In March 2024, Mainoo got his first England cap, as a substitute in a 0-1 defeat to Brazil in an international friendly at Wembley.
When Mainoo made his debut for England, he had just 13 youth caps for his country, as opposed to Guehi’s 59. The Manchester United midfielder was 18 years old, just a month short of his 19th birthday. England manager Southgate was effusive in his praise after Mainoo made his full England debut 4 days later, against Belgium in a 2-2 draw.
“Everything that we’ve seen with his club, he reproduced in an England shirt, which isn’t always the case,” said Southgate.Talking about Mainoo’s rapid progression, he said, “There are a lot of steps being taken in a very short period of time, but you saw in the brief cameo the other day (against Brazil) some of the qualities he has. Sometimes, with the really young ones, they are not even thinking about that.”
If Guehi – who has proven to be one of the Premier League’s best defenders since his move to Palace – had been trusted to show his quality at Chelsea, it is possible that his path to England colours and European football would have been far shorter. As such, Mainoo made his England debut much before Guehi did and has already competed in the UEFA Champions League, while Guehi is still trying to play his way into one of the traditional ‘big’ clubs. At the time of writing, the centre-back was being linked to a big-money move to Newcastle United or Liverpool.
During the run up to the 1966 World Cup in England, the Three Lions were staying at England’s rural training venue of Lilleshalle in the West Midlands region, as part of a pre-tournament camp. The camp was meant to help the England manager at the time, Sir Alf Ramsey, whittle down the 27-man squad to 22 ahead of the World Cup to be held in England later that summer.
Ramsey, a strict disciplinarian, had forbidden the players from venturing out of the training centre for the duration of the camp. Ramsey reasoned that the players should spend the days before the start of the World Cup working, and in close proximity to one another to foster a spirit of togetherness.
However, one evening, Alan Ball, Nobby Stiles and John Connelly, 3 probables from the England camp, snuck out of the centre on a trip to a nearby bar.
Stiles recalled the incident in his autobiography, ‘After the Ball.’
“Like schoolboys playing hookey, we sneaked off to the bar, but of course, we had no sooner got there than we started feeling guilty,” wrote Stiles. “We swallowed our pints, turned on our heels and headed back to the training complex and the authority of Ramsey.”
Unfortunately for the trio, Wilf McGuinness, a member of the England coaching staff, was at the door waiting for them.
“Where the hell have you been?” asked McGuiness.
Ball and Stiles confessed to having a pint. “We just drank it down and came straight back,” said Ball.
“You ought to know you’re in deep shit,” said McGuiness. “Alf knows about this. He wants you to go to his room.”
As the trio made their way to Ramsey’s room, the manager came out of his office.
“Bally (Alan Ball) and I looked at our feet” in shame, wrote Stiles.
After a short pause, Ramsey said, “I didn’t say you couldn’t go to the bar. I didn’t say you shouldn’t go. I just expected you wouldn’t go. We are here on serious business and I thought you all understood that. We are going to win the World Cup.”
“He was an intensely loyal man. If you put in the effort for him on the pitch, he would pick you. When we were doing it right, we always said it was harder to get out of his team than get in it.”
Alan Ball
While Ball and Stiles were uttering profuse apologies, promising not to repeat such behaviour ever again, John Connelly spoke up.
“What the fuck are you two talking about?” he asked Stiles and Ball.
“We only had a pint, which isn’t going to do us any harm after all the training we’ve been doing,” he said.
“Get out of here, all of you. Get out!” Ramsey exploded.
Ball, Stiles and Connelly had all been given their England debuts by Ramsey. While Stiles and Connelly were 24 and 27 years old respectively, Ball was the youngest member at the training camp, at 21 years old.
Ball and Stiles spent a sleepless night, wondering if “we had wrecked our chances of making it to the World Cup.” They also made a vow of silence with each other, promising not to speak about the incident to anyone else.
But Ramsey, says Leo McKinstry in his book ‘Sir Alf: A Major Reappraisal of the Life and Times of England’s Greatest Football Manager,’ did not want to derail his carefully laid plans by jettisoning the trio on the eve of the World Cup.
The next morning, Ramsey gave a general warning to all the assembled players.
“We are here for a purpose,” he declared.
“I just want to say that if anyone gets the idea of popping out for a pint, then they will be finished with the squad forever.”
“No one,” writes McKinstry, “tried to put that statement to the test.”
Ball, Stiles and Connelly were all picked as part of the final 22 players who would play the World Cup. Ball and Stiles, in particular, played crucial roles in England’s triumphant campaign.
“He was an intensely loyal man,” Ball wrote in his autobiography, ‘Playing Extra Time.’
“If you put in the effort for him on the pitch, he would pick you. When we were doing it right, we always said it was harder to get out of his team than get in it.”But nobody took anything for granted, wrote Ball.
“Everything I achieved in the game I owe to him,” said Ball later. “I loved Alf to death. He gave me my opportunity.”
Jack Charlton, for his part, said of Ramsey later: “He was responsible for the greatest moment I had as a footballer and I will never forget or be able to thank him enough for that.”
Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park stadium will host Manchester United on September 21, which will see Marc Guehi face off against Kobbie Mainoo. “Selhurst Park Stadium” by Ashley Martin is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
On September 21, Mainoo and Guehi – if Guehi is still at Crystal Palace next season – will lock horns at Selhurst Park stadium on Matchday 5 of the new Premier League season. It will be the first time the two teams will meet since Palace demolished United 4-0 in May 2024. Selhurst Park, without a doubt, will be bouncing.
In an interview Kobbie Mainoo gave in July 2024, he said that he relished big occasions. “Why?” asked the interviewer.
“I want to be a great player and great players are made on those big occasions,” explained Mainoo. “So I have to do my best when they come about.”
“How do you cut out the noise (that is present during big occasions)?” asked the interviewer.
“You don’t,” said Mainoo.
“You embrace it. I mean it’s an amazing atmosphere at the stadium… all the fans are around so you almost have to use it, I guess.”
On September 21, Guehi will try his utmost to ensure that Mainoo doesn’t get to do that.
