About A Ball

Yesterdays Carling Cup draw has paired the Young Gunners with this coming Saturday’s Premiership opponents, Everton. The mention of the men from Goodison evokes memories of a man who wore the colours of two of Englands biggest clubs.

Alan Ball enjoyed his finest moment in football at Wembley in July 1966 when he was an integral part of the England side that lifted the World Cup, and during that glorious summer he became the first player to be transferred between English clubs for £100.000 when Everton secured his services from Blackpool.. The highlight of his stay at Goodison was a Championship triumph in 1970.

The following season Arsenal won their first double, and in December 1971 Bertie Mee made Ball his Christmas present to the Highbury faithful, again for a British record fee of £220,000. I remember well the excitement on the old ‘football special’ train as we headed to Nottingham Forest on the day after Boxing Day to watch his debut, which ended in a 1-1 stalemate.

Over the following five years Ball was a prominent character in the Arsenal dressing room, and opinions about his value to the club split the support down the middle. Some saw his partnership with the teenage Liam Brady as pivotal in the Irishman’s rise to prominence. Others heard the many tales of dressing room cliques and disruption to the spirit that had united the double squad.

The closest the Gunners came to success in his stay came at the start. In his first season Leeds United pipped Arsenal by the only goal in the FA Cup Final, and in the following season Liverpool were pushed all the way to the League championship and Ball had to settle for being a runner-up again.

Clearly his last years at Highbury were less fruitful. He was stripped of the captaincy of both club and country in 1975, and when Bertie Mee announced he would be retiring Ball unsuccessfully attempted to lead a dressing room campaign for the appointment of coach Bobby Campbell.

It was no surprise that he did not get on with Mee’s eventual replacement, Terry Neill. When, in December 1976, Ball missed a penalty in a 2-1 League Cup defeat at QPR the writing was on the wall. Second division Southampton bid £60,000 and Ball was on his way. Ironically he would restore his reputation in the autumn of his career on the South Coast.

Everton fans will doubtless remember Ball with more fondness than many Gunners. I think it is fair to say he was a square peg in a round hole at Highbury. Yet England fans will forever recall the little ginger fireball with the magical first touch and his contribution to the greatest day in our footballing history.