Sixty years ago next
year Coventry City, then a struggling Third Division South outfit hit
the back pages of the national newspapers by enticing top English
coaches Jesse Carver and George Raynor from their well-paid positions
as head coaches of AS Roma & Lazio respectively. It was seen as a
massive coup by the City board & its chairman Erle Shanks &
the highly respected men arrived in Coventry to a fanfare of
publicity.
Carver, who had won
Serie A with Juventus & built up a great reputation in Italy,
would only stay at Highfield Road for six months, before being lured
back to Italy with a massive salary but Raynor would stay for almost
eighteen months. After Carver jumped ship George stepped into the
manager's position but in the summer of 1956 he was demoted to coach
again after the arrival of Harry Warren. Raynor was a football purist
who had led Sweden to the Olympic gold medal in the 1948 London
Olympics & third place in the 1950 World Cup. His ideas didn't
sit well with Warren's out-dated & neanderthal tactics & when
Sweden came again, seeking a man to lead them in their home World Cup
in 1958, George was grateful to leave the primitive, up and under
Third Division style of play.
Amazingly for a man who football has largely forgotten about, there
have been two books published this year on George Raynor. Italian
journalist Federico Farcomeni has written a short E-book of 64 pages
entitled 'George Raynor- The Untold Story of English Football's
Forgotten Giant' which makes for interesting reading and is
available in Kindle form for only £1.53. Meanwhile Ashley Hyne has
produced a far more meatier biography of Raynor entitled 'The
Greatest Coach England Never Had'. Hyne's research is excellent, for
instance he interviewed former City player Lol Harvey, one of the few
ex-City men still alive who played under Raynor. Whilst the section
about his time at Coventry are fairly brief the author weaves a story
of a man misunderstood in his own country but revered in Sweden.
Returning to Sweden in 1957 with just a year to prepare a team for
the '58 World Cup he had the job of revitalising a team that had
failed to qualify for the 1954 final stages & had regressed
considerably since he had left them to go to Italy in 1953.
With the help of clever
tactics & his own brand of motivation Raynor prepared his team
with infinite detail & became the first Englishman to coach a
team to the World Cup final. Unbeaten in the group stage, they went
on to defeat USSR & holders West Germany to reach a final against
the odds-on favourites Brazil. Sweden took an early lead but the
silky skills of Garrincha, Didi & 17-year old Pele swept the
hosts away in a 5-2 defeat. Raynor however was a Swedish national
hero but when he returned to England a few months later the only job
he could get was at Midland League Skegness.
One of the best stories
in the book is about Sweden's meeting with the great Hungary side of
the early 1950s. The Magyars were unbeaten in three years when Sweden
arrived in Budapest just a week before Hungary were due to meet
England at Wembley in what would turn out to be a watershed game for
England. Raynor had done his homework & recognised the danger of
Hidegkuti, the deep-lying centre-forward. He played a zonal marking
system to counter Hidegkuti & instructed his forwards to close
down their markers when they were not in possession (in modern
parlance, a pressing game). The plan worked and Sweden got a
creditable 2-2 draw. The arrogant English press saw the result &
said England had little to fear from the Hungarians at Wembley. After
the match Raynor met up with England manager Walter Winterbottom &
gave him advice on how to play the Hungarians. Sadly Winterbottom
ignored the advice, gave Hidegkuti the freedom of the pitch &
England suffered their first home loss to continental opposition in
an embarrassing 6-3 defeat.
George Raynor's death
went unrecorded by the local & national press and he is still a
largely forgotten man in football circles but Ashley Hyne's book does
the man's fascinating life justice.
Today, the league
leaders Bristol City are in town, rejuvenated by Steve Cotterill &
boasting a couple of outstanding strikers in this division in Aaron
Wilbraham & Kieran Agard. City did the double over them last
season but it will take a massive effort to beat the Robins today.
Cotterill's team have an amazing record at the Ricoh, winning four of
the six meetings and drawing one. The only City victory was in the
last meeting on Boxing Day 2011 when a Gary Deegan goal gave the Sky
Blues their first win in 11 games.
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