If I had to choose between my wife and my putter... well, I’d miss her.
The double and before
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The autobiography, Danny Blanchflower, London, Nicholas Kaye, 1961
The book gives an interesting insight into football in the 1950s and 60s. For example, in those days, training involved mainly developing fitness and stamina often running interminable laps of the pitch. When Blanchflower asked the Barnsley manager if they could train with the ball he got the answer “I don't believe in that sort of practice, if you don't see the ball during the week you'll be more keen to get it on Saturdays”. Blanchflower replied the if he didn't practise with the ball during the week he wouldn't know what to do with it on Saturday!
Tactics is another area in which so much has changed. At a time when all British teams played with two full backs, three half backs and five forwards 2-3-5, Blanchflower expresses his amazement at seeing the Hungarians with their 3-3-4 or the Brazilian 4-2-4 systems and trying to persuade his managers to try them even in training. There are references to revolutionary tactics in the 1950s like sending a tall centre half forward when the team had a corner. Blanchflower on several occasions got into conflict with his manager and indeed the board when he made a switch late in the game with the team losing - remember this was in the days before there were any substitutions.
The account of his transfers highlights how football has changed with no agents involved and the board rather than the manager making the decision. One of his greatest achievements was to captain the Tottenham team to the league and cup double in 1961 - in the days when there were only two trophies at stake. The book reveals him targeting and planning for a double as early as 1957. He describes cup final day with the team having steak for lunch 2 1/2 hours before kick-off although he himself had an omelette and toast - ahead of his time in terms of nutrition.
One of the most interesting sections of the book is his account of arguably the greatest period in Northern Ireland's footballing history - the win at Wembley in 1957 and reaching the World Cup quarter final in 1958. He describes his early experience of playing international football for Northern Ireland as “without plan or purpose”. The team was selected by a committee of selectors but with no manager or organisation - that was left to the captain. By 1958 Peter Doherty had been appointed manager.
There was a religious dimension to the World Cup too. At the time of the 1958 World Cup Northern Ireland had a rule against Sunday football which almost led to them withdrawing from the World Cup - until someone pointed out that if Jews Christians and Muslims refused to play on their holy day, there would be no weekend football.
An interesting aspect of the Irish Football Association’s decision was the strength of churches’ leagues in Northern Ireland, which opposed Sunday football and had several votes within the IFA decision making structure. There was also the issue of the Protestant Sunday lasting all day while Catholics were free to play in the afternoon. The book describes the Northern Ireland team, having decided to play on Sundays, attending church in Sweden prior to both their Sunday games.
There is a very interesting chapter on captaincy. There's a case for Blanchflower being seen as the father of more modern captaincy, wanting to be a real leader and not just a figurehead.
Reading a 1961 book more than 60 years later gives a real insight into how the world of football has changed. Now some of Blanchflower’s predictions appear rather silly - like his view that the future would require less clubs with Manchester United and Manchester City merging, similarly Arsenal and Tottenham Everton and Liverpool etc.
With regard to his own faith he describes himself as “a truant- playing Presbyterian”. In a bizarre and confused paragraph he refers to Sunderland fans celebrating an equaliser by jumping over the fence onto the pitch “like mad Hindus waving their arms to the glory of Allah”.