Jimmy Adamson: The Man Who Said No to England

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verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ 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 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. 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. 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.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 ]

Perhaps he should have stayed. After only a month in charge of Sparta Rotterdam and two years at Sunderland, in 1978 he accepted the challenge to manage Leeds United, a kind of Sargasso Sea for the managers trying to follow in the giant footsteps of Don Revie, who had built such a formidable team in the 1960s and early 70s. 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. Despite living in Burnley, Adamson stayed away from Turf Moor for more than 30 years until he emotionally returned this January for the opening of the Jimmy Adamson suite as peace between the club and former loyal servant was finally made. 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.

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. 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. At Leeds, Adamson seemed to lose his touch. Always at his best out on the training field, he was said to become increasingly and untypically remote, and he left, after considerable vocal encouragement from Leeds fans, in 1980.

On 1 August 2013, his biography, written by Dave Thomas, was published. [4] Honours [ edit ] Burnley 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. 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. 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. 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.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.