Jimmy Adamson: The Man Who Said No to England

Product Information

He was an ever-present as Burnley won the First Division in 1959–60 and captained the side to the 1962 FA Cup Final which they lost against Tottenham Hotspur. He was also named Footballer of the Year in 1962. [2] Written with the support of his five grandchildren, this is a poignant story of broken dreams, frustrated ambitions and personal family tragedies. In his final years he was totally estranged from the club he had once loved so much. At the very end he was almost reclusive until in 2011 the Jimmy Adamson Suite was opened at the club. With his five grandchildren, Jimmy frail and ill, attended the opening, and received the acclaim of the matchday crowd. It was a healing moment. He died not many months later. An elegant right-half of distinction, Adamson was the heartbeat of Burnley teams through the 50s – and in 1959/60 he was an ever present in the greatest side in the club’s history. Though 1962 was a landmark year for Adamson, he will be best remembered as the ever-present captain of the Burnley team which won the League Championship in the 1959-60 season. This was a tremendous achievement for a small, unfashionable club that lived on its wits, the generosity of its pork butcher chairman, Bob Lord, and the skill of its scouts and coaches.

Winterbottom resigned after the tournament and FA bosses turned to Adamson. He didn’t want the job and instead carried on playing at Burnley while Alf Ramsey became England manager. James Adamson (4 April 1929– 8 November 2011) [1] was an English professional footballer and football manager. He was born in Ashington, Northumberland. [2] He made 486 appearances for Burnley, ranking him sixth in their all-time appearance list. [2] Playing career [ edit ] Burnley were relegated again in 1976, although Adamson had already left that January. In May 1976 he was appointed as manager of Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam, but left the following month. In November 1976 he was made manager of Sunderland, but was unable to prevent them from relegation from the First Division. [2]As a Burnley player, Adamson's closest friend and companion was the gifted Northern Ireland inside-right, the ebullient Jimmy McIlroy. They complemented one another perfectly both on and off the field, Adamson's dry humour a foil for McIlroy's exuberance. He retired in 1964, having played 426 league games, and joined the Burnley coaching staff. He had previously coached the England team in the 1962 World Cup in Chile and was the Football Association's preferred choice of manager ahead of Alf Ramsey but declined the offer. [2] In 1962 Jimmy Adamson had the football world at his feet; a supremely elegant player respected throughout the game, Footballer of the Year and invited to become England manager having been assistant manager in Chile during the World Cup. He turned it down. Appointed Burnley coach in 1965 he oversaw the 1968 Youth Cup Final victory and made a bold prediction that Burnley would become the ‘Team of the Seventies,’ but relegation soon followed. Then came the promotion season of 1972/73 to restore the club and repay the faith that Bob Lord had kept in him. He came so close to his dream but Chairman Lord then sold the best players one by one to pay the bills. After a golden three-year period, his vision faded and died. The team of brilliant young players roared to sixth place in 1974 and also reached the semi-final of the FA Cup – but that day at Hillsborough ended in tears with a defeat at the hands of Newcastle United.

We will never know what may have happened had he said yes but some 486 games on from his debut Adamson retired from playing as one of Burnley’s greatest – and when he became manager in place of Harry Potts in 1970 there was more glory to come. Competing in the European Cup the following season, Burnley were not disgraced. They eliminated Reims, twice previously beaten finalists against the mighty Real Madrid, and looked set for the semi-finals after defeating Hamburg 3-1 in the first leg at Turf Moor. But having reached the semi-finals of both the League and FA Cups, Burnley paid the penalty for their success, being obliged to play five matches in 14 days before the return leg in Hamburg. They went down, and out, 4-1 – to give an aggregate of 5-4 – with Uwe Seeler, Hamburg and West Germany's prolific centre-forward, scoring twice. I only saw him once or twice a year but I never forgot to tell him that he made my career in football. Playing under Jimmy Adamson was an honour. He made me a better player.Having been coach to title-winning Burnley manager Harry Potts, Adamson took over in the hot seat at Turf Moor. Jimmy Adamson was very much an enigma, a great player of the 50s and early 60s, a title winner, man-of-the-match in the 1962 Cup Final, a revered coach whose name is still remembered in the game, but a manager who was sometimes not the easiest to get on with, and whose spirit was shattered by his dismissal as Burnley manager. In 1976 Adamson left Burnley and the Clarets slid out of the top flight – and he went on to have short spells in charge of Sunderland, Leeds, who he led into the UEFA Cup, and Sparta Rotterdam.

verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ On 1 August 2013, his biography, written by Dave Thomas, was published. [4] Honours [ edit ] Burnley Despite finishing on the losing side in the 1962 FA Cup Final, Adamson was named footballer of the year and, at the age of 33, was included in England's World Cup squad for the tournament in Chile that summer. Recruited from youth football in Northumberland, Adamson joined Burnley's groundstaff before signing a first professional contract with the Clarets in 1947, aged 17, although he did not make his senior Clarets debut until 1951.Two years later the Clarets were beaten at Wembley by Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup final – but the brilliant Adamson was still honoured as player of the year. This is a poignant story of broken dreams, failed ambitions and personal tragedy, ending in estrangement from the club he loved. A story of what might have been. Given his distinguished playing and coaching career, it was a surprise that Adamson spent the rest of his life in Burnley without any further involvement in the professional game. He was predeceased by his wife, May, and his daughters, Julie and Jayne. He is survived by three granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jimmy Adamson was a football enigma, revered by some, disliked by others – a supremely elegant player of the ’50s and early ’60s, a title winner and a respected coach, but a manager whose spirit was ultimately shattered. It is a story of the changing relationships between three men: Harry Potts, Bob Lord and Adamson himself, the three of them once the inseparable and on-going heart of the club, but who eventually could not speak to each other. Adamson formed a midfield partnership with inside-forward Jimmy McIlroy, around which much of Burnley's creative play was centred.Adamson was the Burnley captain that season and led them all the way to the Holy Grail of the Football League championship. After retiring, Adamson stayed on with Burnley as a successful coach under Harry Potts as manager. He polished and promoted raw talent, much of which had been scouted by the club in his native north-east. "We don't get the first-class players," Adamson would say, "we get the second-class players," but the quality of Burnley's coaching ensured that many of them became stars. By all accounts a complex and private man, all who knew him would describe him as a marvellous coach but as a manager not everyone’s favourite person. “Not everyone’s cup of tea,” was the nicest way it was put by one of his most loyal disciples. Burnley football club is sad to confirm the passing of a true club legend in Jimmy Adamson," said a statement on www.burnleyfootballclub.com. "Ashington-born Adamson gave three decades of magnificent service to the Clarets."