Evergreen Sexton still England's global authority

Eriksson looks to the experience of veteran coach who at 72 will attend his 10th finals and assist his sixth national manager

Shortly after Terry Venables was given the England job in January 1994, he astonished officials of the Football Association by asking for Dave Sexton to be brought on board. "Sexton?" one of them said, "Sexton must be 64 years old. Are you sure?" "I don't want him to play," the new manager replied.

Venables held more respect for Sexton than almost anyone he had met in the game. It was Sexton, when he was Chelsea coach under Tommy Docherty in the early Sixties, who had first opened Venables' mind to the game. Later, they would work together with the England Under-21s, playing a critical role in the development as full internationals of Bryan Robson, Glenn Hoddle, Kenny Sansom, Peter Reid, Peter Barnes and Viv Anderson.

In a variety of roles – knowledge-hungry player, coach, observer and scout – Sexton had attended eight World Cups going back to the 1958 finals in Sweden. Venables did not feel the need to set out Sexton's impressive credentials. "I want Dave," he said. Venables wanted and got others; Don Howe, Robson. But Sexton was his main man.

The story of a remarkable football man, now 72, continues because, as Venables says, "Dave's eye for the game is still sharper than people many years his junior."

Sven Goran Eriksson knew about Sexton's reputation and acted on it, giving him the responsibility of organising England's scouting network and analysing opponents just when it seemed that he would have to settle for retirement.

Ignored by Graham Taylor, marginalised under Kevin Keegan, his wise counsel falling on deaf ears when academics invaded the Football Association's coaching structure, Sexton's comeback was complete when he recently set forth for next month's World Cup finals as an important member of Eriksson's staff.

He has served six England coaches: Ron Greenwood, Bobby Robson, Venables, Hoddle, Keegan and now Eriksson, finding virtues in all of them. A self-educated man of high principle who took an Open University degree in philosophy in his fifties, Sexton cancelled the Times newspaper when it took advantage of the indiscreet remarks that led to Hoddle's downfall three years ago. "I saw it as a betrayal," he said, "... unfogivable."

The day after England lost to West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-finals, a group of reporters and one or two members of the England staff, including Howe, sat around discussing the appointment of Taylor as successor to Bobby Robson, whose intention to step down from international football had been announced before the tournament began. Seeing Sexton emerge from a doorway, Howe nodded in his direction. "There's the man who should be in charge of England," he said.

Sportswriters, who qualify as veterans in this day and age if they can remember when David Seaman was not England's goalkeeper, might find that surprising. Yet Sexton's reputation speaks for itself.

As manager of Chelsea, he won the FA Cup in 1970, the European Cup Winners' Cup a year later, before becoming a victim of player power. He led Manchester United to the 1979 FA Cup final and second place in the First Division. Under Sexton's guidance, Queens Park Rangers finished runners-up by just one point to Liverpool in the 1975-76 championship. With Sexton as manager, England won the Uefa Under-21 championships in 1982 and 1984.

He remains as passionate about football coaching as he was in 1958 when, as a Brighton player, he travelled to the 1958 World Cup finals, living in a tent, moving from match to match, from training session to training session, questing for knowledge. "Things were beginning to change in English football," he recently said at his home in Kenilworth, "and I wanted to be a part of it." Sexton has been part of it for more years than he dared to imagine, missing only two World Cups since then. Some record.

Stockholm to Paris: Sexton's Nine World Cups

1958: Sweden

Sexton's £300 bonus for winning the Third Division South Championship with Brighton went on a rough and ready trip to the World Cup finals in Sweden. "I persuaded a couple of playing pals to go and we chipped in and bought an old car. I couldn't drive and they were going to teach me. We couldn't afford hotels. We lived in little tents, eating out of cans. The World Cup wasn't as organised as it is now so we were able to pick up tickets and get into training sessions. I soaked up everything.

"England did pretty well but had lost three key players, Duncan Edwards, Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor in the Munich air disaster. Above all there was Brazil, my first proper glimpse of them. They introduced us to 4-2-4 ­ which was really 4-3-3 because Zagallo worked so hard on the left side. Didi, Vava, the arrival of Pele and Garrincha. Some experience."

1966: England

Sexton had moved on from coaching Chelsea to Fulham and would shortly join Billy Wright's staff at Arsenal. "I'd missed out on the 1962 World Cup in Chile so I was really up for the finals in England. At last we seemed to be making progress at international level. Inspired by Walter Winterbottom, some outstanding coaches like Bill Nicholson at Tottenham and Ron Greenwood at West Ham had made their mark. I wasn't as confident as Alf Ramsey that England would win but I could understand his optimism. He had genuinely world class players, Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, Gordon Banks, Ray Wilson, and the team looked more modern, making a 4-4-2 system work well.

"Watching the other teams I looked for things that were still foreign to our football; combination between the strikers, angles of running, play off the ball. What England lacked, and still lack, in fluency they made for with application. I was thrilled to bits when they won because I felt it would encourage us to go forward."

1970: Mexico

The 1970 finals saw Sexton in Mexico with a group of coaches organised by the Arsenal manager Bertie Mee. "It was a terrific idea and I leaped at it. Brazil's football was breathtaking but not as spontaneous as a lot of people imagined. The way they rotated play, switching positions so that the team never lost its shape, was exceptional. It was the first time I saw players spinning off into space to lose markers.

"England did very well with a team that seemed to be a notch up in class from the 1966 winners and were unfortunate not to reach the final. It wasn't so much a tactical tournament as one that belonged to the great talents Brazil were able to call on. When Alf said he hadn't learned a great deal from Brazil I knew what he meant. How could you hope to emulate such virtuosity?"

1974: Germany

In Sexton's mind a brilliant Dutch team came close to matching the standards Brazil had set four years earlier. "First of all they had Johan Cruyff who ranks as one of the great players in history. Then they had made great strides in collective method. The Dutch rotation utterly confused most of the teams they came up against. With players drawn mainly from two terrific club teams, Ajax and Feyenoord, they had great understanding.

"People spoke about the orange glow of Dutch football but actually that missed the point. It was far too glib a description. The Dutch were able to risk giving the ball away because they had men in midfield, Neeskens (Johan) and Van Hanegem (Wim) who would quickly get it back. I was sad when Holland lost to West Germany in the final because they had opened the door to a more sophisticated form of European football."

1978: Argentina

No England. Don Revie's defection to the Arab Emirates. By the time Sexton accompanied Revie's successor, Greenwood, to the 1978 finals English football was in a parlous state. "I felt that the FA should have given Ron (Greenwood) the job after Alf (Ramsey). For years Ron had been one of our most advanced thinkers. Now he was being asked to clear up a mess. I didn't have to think twice about working with him.

"We both felt that home advantage would probably work for Argentina but privately cheered for Holland. If Cruyff hadn't chosen to drop out I think they might have pulled it off. Argentina won a pretty ordinary World Cup that didn't teach us much."

1982: Spain

Ron Greenwood made full use of Sexton's knowledge and experience, giving him the Under-21 side to coach and calling on his powers of observation for the campaign in Spain. "Ron had brought in a number of people to work with him, Terry (Venables), Bobby (Robson), Don (Howe), so there were plenty of ideas, lots of discussion. Ron had decided to retire after the tournament and the press had made Bobby favourite for the job.

"There were some good teams in Spain that summer but none better than Brazil who looked almost as good as they were in 1970. All they lacked was a centre-forward and that cost them against Italy. I felt sorry for Ron because two of his best players, Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking, were never fit."

1986: Mexico

The reports Sexton sent from Mexico City to Bobby Robson in Monterrey were vivid in their praise for Diego Maradona. "A tremendous player in tremendous form," Robson read. Once again England's eyes in a World Cup finals, Sexton emphasised the threat Maradona carried for every team with a chance of winning the tournament. "Even more than Pele in 1970 he seemed capable of winning matches on his own. The way Maradona twisted his body when running at speed made you imagine that he had a cast-iron crutch. Never has one player so influenced the outcome of a World Cup. I know he cheated England out of a goal but his second was sensational. The Germans chose to mark him man-to-man in the final, using Lothar Matthäus who had kept Maradona quiet in a friendly match, but this was different. In that World Cup the little fella was almost unplayable. You could say that he won the World Cup on his own."

1990: Italy

Sexton had come a long way. More than 40 years in the professional game, more World Cups than he cared to think about, and now England were within one match of reaching their second World Cup final. "Bobby (Robson) had put up with a lot from the media, now here was his chance. We hadn't played well through the tournament, probably should have gone out against Belgium, but we were still there.

"People who had seen a lot of World Cups felt that it was the worst ever and I was inclined to agree with them. No great team, no truly great player. Unquestionably, England gave their best performance against West Germany in the semi-finals. We were the better team, no doubt about it. Sadly, luck wasn't with us."

1998: France

Not for the first time in his long career Sexton found himself working for a coach he had helped to bring forward as an outstanding player. Wisely, Glenn Hoddle had brought Sexton back into the fold. Based in Lyon, he kept a diligent eye on England's group opponents, often making long journeys by car with only a driver for company. Forty years had passed since the adventure in Sweden. "People told me, still do, that I must be mad. But I'll never get this game out of my system. And I'm still learning. I learned things in France. Learned more about players. Learned again not to let prejudice interfere with my judgement." He saw Didier Deschamps lift the trophy.