British Football Legends: From A-z

By John Harding

In the first of a new series, JH pays tribute to the stars who have made British football what it is today - a sporting spectacular revered throughout the world.

His criteria for selection is as follows: Achievement: medals, championships etc; Dominance: longevity, status in sport; Style: technique, sportsmanship, image; Fortitude: mental toughness, will to win, discipline: Impact: 'X' factor. Charisma. So let's start at the very beginning...

A: Tony Adams

Taking our criteria of achievement, dominance, style, fortitude and impact into account, there can be no better Legend to open our selection with than Captain Fantastic, Tony Adams of Arsenal - he had them all in abundance!
A son of Romford, London, born on 10th October 1966, Tony Adams was a commanding, passionate, and influential figure, a natural leader at the highest level. Extremely solid both on the ground and in the air, he always got forward whenever he could, his height and strength making him very dangerous at set pieces, where he was always likely to score or create goals. His incredible drive and determination helped him to return to fitness time and again towards the end of his long career to continue making an essential contribution to what was one of the soundest defences in Premiership history.

He joined Arsenal as a trainee, making his debut against Sunderland at Highbury in the old Football League Division One in November 1983 just after his 17th birthday. He turned professional the following year and would go on to win four Premiership titles, three FA Cups and a host of other medals with the Gunners along the way.
Between 1983-85 he won 18 England Youth caps, then five Under-21 caps before making his full debut for England in 1987. Wonderfully mature for his years, revealing a centre-half's needful virtues in abundance, he soon became an automatic choice for his country and went on to win 66 England caps, appearing in three European Championships - Germany in 1988, England in 1996 and Holland 2000 - plus the World Cup in France in 1998. In the latter tournament, he was captain.

Frank McLintock and Tony Adams were the only two Arsenal captains ever to lift the Double for the Highbury club, the former in 1971, the latter in 1998 and 2001. But they were linked by much more than that. They were both physical, dominant centre backs and clenched-fist, passionate captains who led by example. McClintock said of Adams: "Tony was a natural leader and, personally, I think they are born, not made. He got better and better throughout his career as centre backs can. He really improved in terms of reading situations, anticipation and having a calm head under pressure. And a player who can carry out the manager's instructions on the field like Tony did is like a godsend. He did that throughout his career."
Tony's playing years spanned the old and the new in English football. With great courage and effort, he transformed himself from an old-style English player, drinking and carousing his way through each season, into a thoroughly modern professional, but not without a great deal of suffering on the way: Tony served time in prison for drink-driving related offences and finally 'came out' as an alcoholic. He then wrote a searing biography revealing all. In many ways he served as a beacon of hope to many other professional players suffering similar problems. In his final season, he had a second testimonial game and donated half the proceeds to the Sporting Chance clinic, a venture he set up following his own battle with alcoholism. PFA Young Player of the Year in1987, MBE in1999, Tony Adams is one of the game's all-time 'greats'.

Ivor Allchurch

Ivor was an elegant, creative stylist who also scored ferociously-struck goals, could pass 30 yards so that a team-mate did not even have to break stride, could swerve elegantly round opponents and who could dribble with the ball while rarely losing possession. Former Swansea Spurs and Wales winger Terry Medwin classed him as one of the top five players in the world: "He was in the same bracket as the likes of Pele, John Charles, Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law. But he was also a loyal Swansea boy. I think that if he had left Swansea before he was 29 he would have won a lot of trophies with one of the big clubs." But Ivor played during a time when professional footballers had yet to be distanced from their communities by income and life-style.

Ivor signed for Swansea as a 17-year-old in 1947, making his debut two years later against Cardiff in front of a Christmas Eve crowd of 27,264. He was an immediate favourite - and remained so although he almost joined Wolves in 1952, the 'Manchester United' of the time. He was persuaded to stay, however, finally leaving the club in 1958 at the age of twenty-nine to join First Division Newcastle for a fee of £25,000. His total of League appearances amounted to almost 700 during which time he scored over 250 goals. He also won a record-breaking 68 Welsh caps. He died in July, 1997 and remains a legend in Swansea to this day.

C.W.Alcock

He played for Forest School and later Harrow School Wanderers. He was a hard-working centre-forward and said to be consistently accurate in shooting. He captained England in his one and only international against the Scots in 1875 and led Wanderers for several years during which time they beat the Royal Engineers 1- 0 at the Oval in front of 2,000 spectators to win the 1872 FA Cup. But it was away from the playing field that he made a permanent place in football history.

The FA's early influence on the game at large was not dramatic or even widespread and was mainly confined to organising inter-county friendlies but all this changed on 20 July 1871 when Alcock, who was F.A. Secretary between 1870 and 1907, proposed that 'a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association, for which all clubs belonging to the Association should be invited to compete'. The F.A. Cup, football's first national tournament, was thus born. Fifteen clubs competed in the first competition in 1871-72. Then, on November 30 1872, again thanks to Charles Alcock, the first formal international between England and Scotland took place in Glasgow.

Alcock was thus one of the games true innovative pioneers, serving variously as FA Secretary, Hon.Treasurer and Vice President until his death in February 1907. He also refereed the 1875 and 1879 FA Cup Finals as well as being a prolific journalist, compiling the first Football Annual (1868) as well as editing the Cricket newspaper for almost 25 years.