Alan Ball is the focus this weekend as two clubs he served with distinction, Everton and Arsenal, meet in the Premier League.
Ball, of course, is famous as one of the players who won the World Cup for England in 1966 and he enjoyed significant success at club level too, especially with Everton where he picked up a League Champions medal in 1970. At one stage his manager, Harry Catterick, had referred to Ball as a “priceless asset”, yet at the end of 1971 Ball was transferred to Arsenal.
Everton fans were shocked by the rapid development, although there were some who thought it a good idea. At the time of Ball’s departure, the team were 16th in the First Division with six wins from 23 matches. Despite two of those wins including a triumph over Liverpool in the Mersey Derby and an 8-0 thumping of Southampton, this was a very disappointing situation for former champions. When Arsenal, the reigning champions, came in with a record-breaking bid of £220,000, Everton accepted it and Alan Ball was on his way south.
Ball and his father were both very candid, if not completely consistent, in their comments to the press. Alan Ball Senior, himself a respected football manager, told the Sunday People that his son had been hoping that Manchester United might come in with a bid, which would have suited someone who was “a northerner through and through”. Dad’ joked that his only worry about the move to Arsenal was that his son might start sounding like a cockney.
Over in the Sunday Mirror, the player himself was saying that “by choice I would have gone to Man City” where Malcolm Allison was the coach and had claimed that he “would have made [Ball] the best player in the world.” Nevertheless, Ball pledged that Arsenal would get full value from him.
Harry Catterick’s side of the story isn’t clear from the immediate press accounts; he wasn’t one to court the press in the way that Bill Shankly across Stanley Park did. It is possible that the sum offered by Arsenal was just too good to refuse and that it was seen as an opportunity to rebuild the side. The stress of football management was clearly illustrated within a few days of the transfer when Catterick was hospitalised with a “mystery illness” according to the papers, which was actually a heart attack. As a man who won the League in 1963 and 1970, plus the FA Cup in 1968, Harry Catterick is under-rated when discussions of the great post-war managers take place.
As is the way of football, Ball’s first home game for Arsenal was against Everton. “I felt as though I had a foot in each dressing room,” was his honest assessment after a 1-1 draw.
Ultimately the transfer didn’t produce what either party would have liked: Everton finished the season in 15th place, having drawn 18 of their 42 league games. They weren’t a force in the English game again until 1984. Arsenal reached the 1972 FA Cup Final, which they lost to Leeds. Frank McLintock, captain of the double-winning side later felt that Ball’s style of play didn’t quite fit in with the methods that had brought Arsenal their success. Nevertheless, Ball gave fine service until 1976, when he was tempted to Southampton by the charismatic Lawrie McMenemy. McMenemy, like many others, regarded Alan Ball as “one of the outstanding players of an outstanding generation.”
SteveTLooksBack 