Queen Elizabeth II's New Year Honours list was published on the first day of 1967. It contained just two names who had led England to the World Cup six months earlier – Bobby Charlton would have to wait until 1969 and Geoff Hurst until 1979, but there was an OBE for Three Lions captain Bobby Moore and a knighthood for the architect of it all: manager Alf Ramsey.
When the England boss received his honour at Buckingham Palace, it was met with widespread public acclaim, but the man himself remained so closed and uncommunicative that newspapers dubbed him ‘The Silent Knight'.
Apart from his wife and mother, people found Ramsey aloof or standoffish, and he had few close friends. It was a natural reticence that had become entrenched during his 11 years tussling with ‘the impossible job' as Three Lions boss from 1963 to 1974. What secrets lay behind this enigma's life and success?
