1950's Football Not Very Good

[wolvesaywe]

70s and 80s football looks terrible to the modern eye and they didn't even have the excuse of terrible balls

The pitches were still something else though

 

[chignalwolf]

Waggy was brilliant and would have played more for England had it not been for Alf Ramsey and his "wingless wonders". That said, he was not in the same class as Best or our own Peter Knowles. To answer your question, I would have thought that Best would be worth at least £150-200m today with Knowles worth at least £100m.

both Best and Knowles ended their careers far to soon aye, all that amazing talent lost.

I remember Knowles saying he would take the headlines off Best before a match with Man U, the headlines that night was " Knowles gets booked" getting booked in those days meant more than now. think we drew 0-0 that day.

Knowles retiring was probably one of the biggest disappointments in all the time i have followed the Wolves,
I still rate Waggy up there with the best tho

 

[Wolvezone]

Thank you. I've ordered the book by Stan Cullis from Amazon and hoping for a quick delivery.

 

[clivewolves]

I've been watching some of the famous, some might say infamous, England vs Hungary match from 1953 in which England lost 6-3. The passing wasn't great at times, at least by modern standards. There were a few interesting things though.

The tackle at 2 min 37 seconds is a great tackle but the ref gave a free kick. Some things never change.

If we score a goal like the one at 51 min 20 seconds this afternoon against Norwich I will be rewatching it all weekend.

What I loved the most was that there was no time-wasting. In fact, the players seemed too eager to get the ball in play as soon as possible.

 

[wolvesaywe]

I remember reading that it was common in those times for the players not to practice with a ball in training to ensure they were more hungry for it on a Saturday

No wonder the passing was atrocious!

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Outstanding skills with a football remain the same though whichever period you choose. In 1958 a 17year old Pele made his entrance on the World Stage for example. He continued to astound throughout the sixties culminating in the 1970 World Cup. A player who took the game to new heights. He was the first to try and score from the half way line, something that was achieved by several players later. Watching Pele and Brazil in those years was a joy. Pele remains as one of the greatest ever. if not the greatest and he played his ;ast game for Brazil in 1971. Still holds the record for goals scored and still the only player to win the World Cup three times. There's footage of him which shows he. and other Brazilian players would be perfectly at home today. The 'nutmeg' was used by Pele as a 'normal way to beat players.

You say that, but…

 

[Wolvezone]

I just wanted thank you again for recommending the book "All for the Wolves" by former great Wolves manager Stan Cullis. While the book was delayed for several months it finally worked it's way to my address and I can tell you all it was certainly worth the wait.

An amazing story
Cullis to me, besides being the strongest of character comes away as honest, innovative, intelligent, open minded, even humble and witty.

The way he talks about the game, about Wolves, the players, scouts and directors and how they managed the organization is not only interesting beyond, but entertaining. How he learns from Major Frank Buckley to become a manager after concussions force him to quit playing.

He tells many stories how they found ways to improve players. Small things have major differences. Correct tactics can enable an average player to make an outstanding contribution.

He says the primary duty of a team is to entertain the public, and for entertainment the people of Wolverhampton demand first of all that Wolves should score at least one more goal than their opponents.

A truly great book about a great manager and how his team, Wolverhampton Wanderers becomes the top club in the world, beating Honved (Hungary), Real Madrid (Spain), Dynamo and Spartak (Russia).

How much he's engage in every game, every kick of the 90 minutes played, even though he doesn't actually play. How much strain his body takes and how he envies Matt Busby, his long time friend and competitor.

How he employed Wing-Commander Charles Reep who had developed a system to record every move of a football match. How's that for analytics and this was in mid 1950's.

And of course Billy Wright was the perfect footballer, loyal, hardworking, talented, consistently great and perfect example for younger players. But he always mentioned his players.

Fantastic book. Can really recommend "All for the Wolves"

 

[MasWolf]

It was great for those that were there watching. Today's game will look like rubbish in 70 years time.

Hopefully by then players will be floating above the pitch and fans will be able to fly to the games on jetpacks.

 

[clivewolves]

I just wanted thank you again for recommending the book "All for the Wolves" by former great Wolves manager Stan Cullis. While the book was delayed for several months it finally worked it's way to my address and I can tell you all it was certainly worth the wait.

An amazing story
Cullis to me, besides being the strongest of character comes away as honest, innovative, intelligent, open minded, even humble and witty.

The way he talks about the game, about Wolves, the players, scouts and directors and how they managed the organization is not only interesting beyond, but entertaining. How he learns from Major Frank Buckley to become a manager after concussions force him to quit playing.

He tells many stories how they found ways to improve players. Small things have major differences. Correct tactics can enable an average player to make an outstanding contribution.

He says the primary duty of a team is to entertain the public, and for entertainment the people of Wolverhampton demand first of all that Wolves should score at least one more goal than their opponents.

A truly great book about a great manager and how his team, Wolverhampton Wanderers becomes the top club in the world, beating Honved (Hungary), Real Madrid (Spain), Dynamo and Spartak (Russia).

How much he's engage in every game, every kick of the 90 minutes played, even though he doesn't actually play. How much strain his body takes and how he envies Matt Busby, his long time friend and competitor.

How he employed Wing-Commander Charles Reep who had developed a system to record every move of a football match. How's that for analytics and this was in mid 1950's.

And of course Billy Wright was the perfect footballer, loyal, hardworking, talented, consistently great and perfect example for younger players. But he always mentioned his players.

Fantastic book. Can really recommend "All for the Wolves"

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was thinking about trying to find out who owns the publishing rights to see if it can be turned into an ebook to make it more accessible to people.

I was just wondering, do you think the book showed how football back then compared to today has much more in common than it does differences. That's what I took from it. Things might be more polished today, or we just use different phrases, but the essence of the game is still the same. Referees, gamesmanship, money, television, analysis, coaching, stadium development, etc. It's all the same things we talk about today.

 

[Big Saft Kid]

i remember Sir Stan Cullis telling his players not to celebrate when scoring as it left the opposition thinking Wolves found it easy to score against them, in the following 5 seasons we scored over a 100 goals in 4 of them, genius. or was it 3 season out of 4..?

We scored over 100 goals in 4 successive league seasons (42 game season): 57-58-59-60-61, finishing 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd