Emlyn HUGHES

Don Revie's permanent appointment to the England coaching role, ahead of the qualification campaign for the 1976 European Championships, would soon have grave consequences for Emlyn Hughes. He skippered England to a 3-0 win over Czechoslovakia and a goalless draw with Portugal in the first two qualifiers - the last two games of 1974 - before Revie, in a manner which would become typical of his England tenure, dumped Hughes from both the captaincy and the team without warning or explanation. Alan Ball took on the captaincy but was also shunted aside in identical circumstances after just six games and never returned to the fold. Hughes, never slow in airing his opinions, expressed his disappointment with Revie but continued to skipper Liverpool with aplomb and success, while turning up for international duty when Revie called him up, even though in 1975 all he got was a sub appearance against Cyprus and a Home International fixture against Northern Ireland in Belfast. He had won 40 caps by this stage and Revie's subsequent stance of leaving Emlyn out for the rest of 1975 seemed unlikely to see additional appearances for Hughes, especially if England could qualify for the European Championships. They didn't, after a bad defeat in Czechoslovakia at the end of 1975, but only after England's opening qualifier for the 1978 World Cup a whole year later - a 2-1 win against Finland - was Hughes recalled thanks to Revie's wild plan to pack the defence for the massive trip to Italy.

The hosts won 2-0 and Revie's downfall was underway. Hughes was in the team again for the next qualifier - a 5-0 win over Luxembourg at Wembley and earned his place the hard way by convincing a distracted Revie that he was worthy of his place. He played in two of the summer's Home Internationals - briefly regaining the captaincy for the latter against Scotland at Wembley (which England infamously lost 2-1) because Kevin Keegan was rested - before England jetted off for a summer tour of South America. It was one of Revie's great oddities during his England tenure that Emlyn was captain of Liverpool, for whom Keegan played, yet Keegan was Hughes' captain at international level, but such anomalies were acceptable given that Hughes was back in the team.

During the tour, which saw England draw all their games in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and Emlyn start all three, Revie's resignation was confirmed. Ron Greenwood took over and immediately re-installed Hughes as captain while maintaining Keegan's place in the side, but two victories against Luxembourg and Italy - the latter of which brought Emlyn his 50th cap - were not enough to take England to Argentina for the World Cup and Hughes' dream was gone again. Now 30 years of age, it seemed unlikely that he would be around for the next tournament. (Matthew Rudd)

Emlyn Hughes captained England five times in 1978 with mixed success - a friendly defeat to West Germany in Munich was countered by a one hundred per cent success in the Home Internationals and a 4-1 friendly win against Hungary, prior to a tricky qualifying campaign for the 1980 European Championships. This got underway with an absurd but brilliant 4-3 win in Denmark and a 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin (the photo above is during the game). Liverpool were European Cup holders for a second successive year, but the ageing of Hughes was starting to show at Anfield, with his place in the centre of defence proving less and less secure. Greenwood picked him sporadically for England in 1979, giving him the captaincy whenever he was selected, but his selection seemed to have been brought to a halt by club actions when Liverpool sold him to Wolves in the summer of 1979, thereby guaranteeing a lesser standard of football and ambition. Greenwood, though, kept Hughes in his squad, handing him his 60th cap as a substitute in a friendly against Spain following England's successful qualification for the European Championships in Italy.

Emlyn made his final England start in the 1980 Home Internationals, captaining England in a 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland at Wembley, and then earned his 62nd cap as a sub in the next game against the Scots, which England won 2-0. Aware of the need for tournament experience and defensive cover, Greenwood gave him a place in the squad for Italy, making Hughes the only link left with England's last squad for a major finals ten years earlier, and similarly, he didn't get on to the field as England went out in the group stage after three games. Emlyn wound down his eventful career afterwards and became a much-loved public figure, yet few players divided people in football in the way he did. He was either rated highly (Ramsey's early faith; Greenwood's restoration of captaincy) or not at all (Revie's unceremonious abandonment) but 62 caps and a decade in the England team, as well as a wardrobe full of honours at club level, suggested he was something special. (Matthew Rudd)