Jack Charlton
John Charlton was an English professional footballer and manager who played as a centre-back for Leeds United. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 1996, taking them to two World Cups and one European Championship. He was given Irish citizenship in 1996. He was the elder brother of Manchester United forward Bobby Charlton and one of his teammates in England's World Cup final victory.
Charlton spent his entire club career with Leeds United from 1950 to 1973, helping the club to the Second Division title, First Division title, FA Cup, League Cup, Charity Shield, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, as well as one other promotion from the Second Division and five second-place finishes in the First Division, two FA Cup final defeats and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final defeat. His 629 league and 762 total competitive appearances are club records. In 2006, Leeds United supporters voted Charlton into the club's greatest XI.
Called up to the England team days before his 30th birthday, Charlton went on to score six goals in 35 international games and to appear in two World Cups and one European Championship. He played in the World Cup final victory over West Germany in 1966 and helped England finish third in Euro 1968 and win four British Home Championship tournaments. He was named FWA Footballer of the Year in 1967.
After retiring as a player, Charlton worked as a manager. He led Middlesbrough to the Second Division title in 1973–74, winning the Manager of the Year award in his first season as a manager. He kept Boro as a stable top-flight club before he resigned in April 1977. He took charge of Sheffield Wednesday in October 1977 and led the club to promotion out of the Third Division in 1979–80. He left the Owls in May 1983 and served Middlesbrough as caretaker-manager at the end of the 1983–84 season. He worked as Newcastle United manager for the 1984–85 season. He took charge of the Republic of Ireland national team in February 1986 and led them to their first World Cup in 1990, where they reached the quarter-finals. He also led the nation to successful qualification to Euro 1988 and the 1994 World Cup. He resigned in January 1996 and retired. He was married to Pat Kemp, and they had three children.
Early life
Born into a footballing family in Ashington, Northumberland, on 8 May 1935, Charlton was initially overshadowed by his younger brother Bobby, who was taken on by Manchester United while Jack was doing his national service with the Household Cavalry. His uncles were Jack Milburn, George Milburn, Jim Milburn and Stan Milburn, and legendary Newcastle United and England footballer Jackie Milburn was his mother's cousin.The economy of the village of Ashington was based entirely on coal mining, and though his family had a strong footballing pedigree, his father was a miner. The eldest of four brothers – Bobby, Gordon and Tommy – the family's tight finances meant that all four siblings shared the same bed. His father, Bob, had no interest in football, but his mother, Cissie, played football with her children and later coached the local school's team. As a teenager, she took them to watch Ashington and Newcastle United play, and Charlton remained a lifelong Newcastle supporter.
At the age of 15, he was offered a trial at Leeds United, where his uncle Jim played at left-back, but turned it down and instead joined his father in the mines. He worked in the mines for a short time but handed in his notice after finding out just how difficult and unpleasant it was to work deep underground. He applied to join the police and reconsidered the offer from Leeds United. His trial game for Leeds clashed with his police interview, and Charlton chose to play in the game; the trial was a success and he joined the ground staff at Elland Road.
Club career
Charlton played for Leeds United's youth team in the Northern Intermediate League and then for the third team in the Yorkshire League; playing in the physically demanding Yorkshire League at the age of 16 impressed the club's management, and he was soon promoted to the reserve team. Charlton was given his first professional contract when he turned 17. He made his debut on 25 April 1953 against Doncaster Rovers, taking John Charles' place at centre-half after Charles was moved up to centre-forward. It was the final Second Division game of the 1952–53 season, and ended in a 1–1 draw. He then had to serve two years' national service with the Household Cavalry and captained the Horse Guards to victory in the Cavalry Cup in Hanover. His national service limited his contribution to Leeds, and he made only one appearance in the 1954–55 season.Charlton returned to the first team in September 1955. He kept his place for the rest of the 1955–56 season, helping Leeds win promotion into the First Division after finishing second to Sheffield Wednesday. He was dropped in the second half of the 1956–57 campaign, partly due to his habit of partying late at night and losing focus on his football. He regained his place in the 1957–58 season. He stopped his partying lifestyle as he settled down to married life. In October 1957 he was picked to represent the English Football League in a game against the League of Ireland.
Leeds struggled after Raich Carter left the club in 1958, and Willis Edwards and then Bill Lambton took charge in the 1958–59 season as Leeds finished nine points above the relegation zone. Jack Taylor was appointed manager and failed to keep Leeds out of the relegation zone by the end of the 1959–60 campaign. During this time, Charlton began taking his coaching badges and took part in the Football Association's coaching courses at Lilleshall.
Leeds finished just five points above the Second Division relegation zone in the 1960–61 season, and Taylor resigned; his replacement, Don Revie, was promoted from the United first team, and initially he was not fond of Charlton. Revie played Charlton up front at the start of the 1961–62 season, but he soon moved him back to centre-half after he proved ineffective as a centre-forward. He became frustrated and difficult to manage, feeling in limbo playing for a club seemingly going nowhere whilst his younger brother was enjoying great success at Manchester United. Revie told Charlton that he was prepared to let him go in 1962, but never actually transfer listed him. Liverpool manager Bill Shankly failed to meet the £30,000 Leeds demanded for Charlton and though Manchester United manager Matt Busby was initially willing to pay the fee he eventually decided to try an untested youngster at centre-half instead. During these discussions, Charlton refused to sign a new contract at Leeds but felt frustrated by Busby's hesitance and so signed a new contract with Leeds whilst making a promise to Revie to be more professional in his approach.
The 1962–63 season began a new era for Leeds United as Revie began to mould the team and the club to his own liking. In a game against Swansea Town in September, Revie dropped many senior players and played Charlton in a young new defensive line-up: Gary Sprake, Paul Reaney, Norman Hunter and Charlton, and Rod Johnson. Except Johnson, this defensive line-up would remain consistent for much of the rest of the decade. Charlton took charge of the defence that day and insisted upon a zonal marking system; Revie agreed to allow Charlton to become the key organiser in defence. Aided by new midfield signing Johnny Giles, Leeds put in a strong promotion challenge and finished fifth before securing promotion as champions in the 1963–64 campaign, topping the table two points ahead of Sunderland. Other players that began to make their mark on the first team included Billy Bremner, Paul Madeley and Peter Lorimer.
Leeds made an immediate impact on their first season back in the top flight. However, the team gained a reputation for rough play, and Charlton said in his autobiography that "the way we achieved that success made me feel uncomfortable". They went 25 games unbeaten before losing to Manchester United at Elland Road – their title race meant that the two clubs built up an intense rivalry. Leeds needed a win in their final game of the season to secure the title but could only manage a 3–3 draw with Birmingham City at St Andrew's – Charlton scored the equalising goal on 86 minutes. Still, they could not push on for a winner. They gained some measure of revenge over Man United by beating them 1–0 in the replay of the FA Cup semi-finals. Leeds met Liverpool in the final at Wembley, and the game went into extra-time after a goalless draw. Roger Hunt opened the scoring three minutes into extra-time, but seven minutes later Charlton headed on a cross for Bremner to volley into the net for the equaliser; with seven minutes left Ian St John scored for Liverpool to win the game 2–1.
United again competed for honours in the 1965–66 season, finishing second to Liverpool in the league and reaching the semi-finals of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. It was the club's first season in European competition, and they beat the Italian side Torino, and the East German club SC Leipzig, Spanish club Valencia and Hungarian outfit Újpest, before they were beaten 3–1 by Spanish side Real Zaragoza at Elland Road in a tiebreaker game following a 2–2 aggregate draw. Charlton caused controversy against Valencia after he and defender Vidagany began fighting after Vidagany kicked Charlton in an off-the-ball incident; Charlton never actually struck the Spaniard, who hid behind his teammates.
The 1966–67 season proved frustrating for United, despite the introduction of another club great in the form of Eddie Gray. Leeds finished fourth, five points behind champions Manchester United, and exited the FA Cup at the semi-finals after defeat to Chelsea. They made progress in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, beating DWS, Valencia, Bologna and Kilmarnock to reach the final, where they were beaten 2–0 on aggregate by Yugoslavian outfit Dinamo Zagreb. At the end of the season he was named as the Footballer of the Year, succeeding his brother who had won the award the previous year. During the award ceremony, he told some amusing stories and won a standing ovation from the crowd; this started him on a successful sideline as an after-dinner speaker.
Charlton developed a new ploy for the 1967–68 season by standing next to the goalkeeper during corners to prevent him from coming out to collect the ball; this created havoc for opposition defences and is still a frequently used tactic in the modern era. However, for the second successive season Leeds finished fourth and exited the FA Cup in the semi-finals, this time losing 1–0 to Everton at Old Trafford. They finally won major honours by beating Arsenal 1–0 in the final of the League Cup; Terry Cooper scored the only goal of the game despite allegations that Charlton pushed goalkeeper Jim Furnell in the build-up to the goal. Leeds then went on to lift the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup after beating CA Spora Luxembourg, FK Partizan, Hibernian, Rangers and Dundee to reach the final with Hungarian club Ferencvárosi. They won 1–0 at Elland Road and drew 0–0 in Budapest to claim their first European trophy.
Charlton helped Leeds to their first ever Football League title in 1968–69, as they lost just two games to finish six points clear of second-place Liverpool. They secured the title with a goalless draw at Anfield on 28 April, and Charlton later recalled the Liverpool supporters affectionately called him "big dirty giraffe", and that manager Bill Shankly went into the Leeds dressing room after the match to tell them they were "worthy champions".
United opened the 1969–70 campaign by winning the Charity Shield with a 2–1 win over Manchester City and went on to face the realistic possibility of winning the treble – the league, FA Cup and European Cup. However they missed out on all three trophies as the games built up towards the end of the season. The league title was the first to slip out of their hands as Everton went on to build an insurmountable lead. They then bowed out of the European Cup after a 3–1 aggregate defeat to Celtic, including a 2–1 loss at Hampden Park in front of a UEFA record crowd of 136,505. They took two replays to overcome Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-finals, but lost 2–1 in the replayed final to Chelsea after the original 2–2 draw, in which Charlton opened the scoring. Charlton took responsibility for Peter Osgood's goal in the replay as he was distracted from marking duties as he was trying to get revenge on a Chelsea player who had kicked him.
Charlton caused controversy early in the 1970–71 season as in an October appearance on the Tyne Tees football programme, he said he'd once had a "little black book" of names of players whom he intended to hurt or exact some form of revenge upon during his playing days. He was tried by the Football Association and was found not guilty of any wrongdoing after arguing that the press had misquoted him. He admitted that though he never actually had a book of names, he had a short list of names in his head of players who had made nasty tackles on him and that he intended to put in a hard but fair challenge on those players if he got the opportunity in the course of a game. Leeds ended the season in second place yet again, as Arsenal overtook them with a late series of 1–0 wins despite Leeds beating Arsenal in the penultimate game of the season after Charlton scored the winning goal. The final tally of 64 points was a record high for a second-placed team. In the last ever season of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup they beat Sarpsborg FK, Dynamo Dresden, Sparta Prague, Vitória and Liverpool to secure a place in the final against Italian club Juventus. They drew 2–2 at the Stadio Olimpico and 1–1 at Elland Road to win the cup on the away goals rule. They had the opportunity to win the cup permanently but lost 2–1 to Barcelona at Camp Nou in the trophy play-off game.
Leeds finished second in the 1971–72 season for the third successive time, this time ending up just one point behind champions Derby County after losing to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on the final day of the season. However, Charlton managed to complete his list of domestic honours as Leeds beat Arsenal 1–0 in the FA Cup final; he kept Charlie George to a very quiet game as Leeds successfully defended their slender lead.
Charlton was limited to 25 appearances in the 1972–73 campaign and suffered an injury in the FA Cup semi-final against Wolves which ended his season. After failing to regain his fitness for the final, he announced his retirement. Madeley played in his place, but Gordon McQueen had been signed as his long-term replacement. He played his testimonial against Celtic, and was given £28,000 of the £40,000 matchday takings.