Harry Catterick: The Untold Story of a Football Great

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As well as being a saucy sod, Mangnall was also a pioneer: he insisted his teams were as fit as fiddles, no small diktat in an era when fags were generally considered a healthy morning repast; he took the team into Europe for the first time, for a tour of Austria and Hungary in 1908, five decades ahead of Busby; and he was instrumental in moving the club from its Bank Street ground to a purpose-built stadium in Old Trafford.

The Catt – as he was known by Evertonians – was too wise and pragmatic to rise to the bait and preferred his team to do his talking on the pitch; something they accomplished with terrific results. The world woke up to Liverpool and he was the face of the city – the ringmaster of the Liverpool Circus, gregarious and often outrageous in his musings. Atherton recalled: “In that title-winning year, I went to Nottingham Forest, a night game; we were 2-0 down early on but went on to win 4-3. Ray Veall had a smashing game.”While Ramsey was often portrayed as the grey, establishment figure there was another hugely successful manager of the time who embraced the role of the straight man with even more vigour. I started my research in the spring of 2013 and worked on the manuscript from the following autumn. I was very fortunate to have the assistance of Harry’s family and John Roberts, who lives near me, was a great help in giving me access to interviews given by Harry and John Moores in 1977.

From Crewe he moved to Rochdale to continue his managerial apprenticeship before earning a tilt at the top job at Sheffield Wednesday in 1958. His impact was dramatic. The Owls were promoted to the top-flight at the first attempt, reached the FA Cup semi-final the following season and then pushed Tottenham Hotspur all the way in the race for the 1960/61 League Championship. The Everton connection would always come in useful: “It put me in good stead wherever I went – people would say, ‘Oh, you played for Everton’ as they were one of the top sides – Everton were the glory side in Liverpool.” Like Shankly and Busby, he won two league titles in the 1960s and the FA Cup once. Nicholson won the FA Cup three times in a decade with Spurs but the title only once. Given Manchester United have just won a record 19th English league championship, the fact that they've had only three title-winning managers comes as quite a surprise. But while two of them are world-famous giants of the game, indelibly etched into the history books, United's other champion boss is a relatively peripheral figure these days. Buttner’s been great because he’s travelled to every away game with us. He’s been involved in every single training session, he’s played three times and been a substitute another 10 times, something like that. So I think that’s a contribution.”Those who saw the 62/63 side remember them as a class act. The 69/70 team were even better, some would say among the finest to grace the English game in the second half of the 20th century. Whether Dixon shared his manager’s enthusiasm for the role is unrecorded, but the following month Dixon left the Blues to succeed Tommy Docherty as assistant manager of Hull City.

It is a shame that people always look at the entertainers (or fools depending on your approach to the player in question) in the game, people like Mario Balotelli, Joey Barton, Steven Gerrard and Ravel Morrison to name a few recent players. Whilst their foolish behaviour is craved by journalists looking for a story and pundits looking to fill air time, there is always players who never get any attention, many of which im sure dont wish to be in the spotlight anyway, especially for the wrong reasons. Early signings set the tone – Bobby Collins, great ball player, top scorer and crowd favourite was gone almost overnight, to be replaced by Dennis Stevens. He passed away watching an Everton side, fashioned by Kendall, that was good enough to stand comparison alongside the best he had created many years before.In this era “ club sources” – usually the manager – fed newspaper journalists with information, but there were no press conferences and the new media of TV, as yet, had no real interest in the game, so the relationship between club and newspaper coverage was on a personal basis. Coincidentally, his first game in charge at Everton was at home to Wednesday, where two goals from Frank Wignall saw a 2-1 win for the Blues. There was Tottenham’s double winning Bill Nicholson – loved and revered by those who played under him.

All of a sudden, the ‘ School of Science‘ had toughened up – Stevens, Scott and Morrissey were no shrinking violets, had a winners’ mentality and the Blues became hard to beat. So, what about those who represent each other’s yin and yang, not as counterparts, but as adversaries? In the modern era we are seeing the rather childish escalation of the rivalry between Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger; although quite which one of them can be steadfastly distinguished as the funny man and which is the stooge is occasionally harder to define. Until Evertonian author Rob Sawyer heard of Veall’s frustration and made representations to the Football League. He is buried in the graveyard of St Anne's Church, St Anne's-on-the-Sea, Lancashire after a funeral held there six days after his death. His gravestone bears the Everton motto, "Nil satis nisi optimum". Everton’s 62/63 title win marked the start of a golden era of Merseyside football. A year later the championship trophy crossed the few yards of Stanley Park to reside at Anfield, where Liverpool’s fortunes had been revived by Bill Shankly.

It didn’t seem so at the time, but 1964-65 was obviously a season of transition with the 1962-63 champions gradually being replaced as he built a new side.