Special One With So Many Talents

JIMMY Armfield wielded a microphone just as he’d maneuvered a football. With ease, with skill and, above all, a sense of perspective.

- Chris Dunlavy

For Armfield, who died this week aged 82, football was never a matter of life and death.

On the Blackpool beaches, where he’d played as a boy, to the World Cup finals he watched as a BBC pundit, it remained forever a game.

During a 17-year playing career with Blackpool and England, triumph and disappointment were treated as bedfellows.

In 1966, Armfield broke his toe on the eve of the World Cup. A favourite of Alf Ramsey, he’d captained England earlier in the year but watched the entire tournament from the stands.

Asked how it felt to watch Bobby Moore lift the Jules Rimet, Armfield insisted it was better that England had won.

“Too many people rhapsodise about ifs and buts,” he said. “You’re in or you’re out. That’s it.”

As a commentator, criticism was respectful and invariably constructive. Nobody ever squeezed a trite judgement or trashy soundbite from the softly-spoken Lancastrian.

“What I loved about Jimmy was that he’d never say something controversial just to make a name for himself,” said John Murray, his friend and colleague at the BBC. “His was a voice of great authority but also of dignity and respect.”

Armfield personified those qualities. He captained his country 15 times, managed Leeds to a European Cup final and single-handedly chose an England boss. Along the way, he fell out with nobody.

“Jimmy had such a wonderful way about him, whoever he was speaking to,” said former Blackpool boss Ian Holloway, who grew to know Armfield well during his glorious three-year stint at Bloomfield Road.

Engaged

“He could have had a cup of tea with the Queen and fitted right in. Or he could have been down the café with the locals.

“It wouldn’t have mattered with Jimmy. He engaged with everyone.”