Kenny SANSOM

For a player who had a monopoly on his position in the England team for most of a decade and ended up with a gigantic 86 caps, the international career of left back Kenny Sansom was largely event-free. But this was exactly what his coaches - Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson both rated him hugely - wanted from their defenders. The no-frills Sansom was consistent and cultured but greatly unfussy, doing the simple things well and relying on great timing in the tackle without ever resorting to brutality or shock tactics to keep wingers in check. Some say Derek Statham's rotten injury record partly contributed to Sansom's unwavering hold on the number 3 shirt; others felt he was head and shoulders above all who came up against him for the slot, even though Kenny's successes at club level consisted of entirely nothing until a League Cup win with Arsenal in 1987 gave him his only domestic honour. His debut came in 1979 when still a precocious talent with Crystal Palace after Ron Greenwood, feeling that his ageing defence needed a spring chicken, called up Sansom for the summer Home Internationals and played him in the middle game against Wales (the photo above is during the game), which ended 0-0.

Kenny managed one more appearance that year - England had qualified for the 1980 European Championships with a game to spare, so Greenwood threw Sansom into the last qualifier against Bulgaria - before he slowly but surely became England's top-rated left back without anyone barely noticing. Greenwood saw something special in the impish Sansom and decided that he should field him as much as possible in the early part of 1980 in order to make him a worthy choice for the finals in Italy. Kenny played in five of the next seven games and was named in the squad for England's first tournament in a decade. True to his beliefs, Greenwood picked him for the first two group games - a 1-1 draw with Belgium and a 1-0 defeat to the hosts - and only removed him for the final game, by which time England were less than likely to make progress anyway. The 2-1 win over Spain did not do enough to take England through, but by now Greenwood had a new youthful element emerging for the World Cup qualifiers, with Sansom joined by the likes of Bryan Robson, Glenn Hoddle and Viv Anderson as the great new hope for the nation's game. (Matthew Rudd)

Kenny Sansom secured a near £1 million move to Arsenal in the summer of 1980 and even more tightly secured his England place thereafter. Occasionally he was dropped for Mick Mills' experience, usually when Greenwood wanted to try somebody more raw on the right side and therefore compensated for the lack of experience by playing the seasoned Mills, but otherwise Sansom was a fixture, arguably the first name on Greenwood's teamsheet in that he had no serious rivals whatsoever. He featured in much of England's topsy-turvy campaign to reach the 1982 World Cup and subsequently won his 20th cap in a Home International game against the Welsh in Cardiff as Greenwood tweaked his squad system to reach his target set-up for Spain. Sansom was a shoo-in as England jetted off and he played his usual immaculate game as England defeated France 3-1 (the photo above is during the game.   G.Herringshaw. ©) and Czechoslovakia 1-0 to guarantee a passage into the second round.

Greenwood rested him for the consequently insignificant game with Kuwait, but Kenny was back for the second phase clashes against West Germany and Spain, both of which ended 0-0 and scuppered England's hopes of a semi-final spot. More senior players fell by the wayside afterwards, and as Bobby Robson took over from the retiring Greenwood, Sansom suddenly found himself as one of the more experienced players in the set-up - despite still only being 23 - and his presence and influence was now important for the whole team. Still there was no long-term rival coming through - Mills had now gone, Statham kept getting crocked, Alan Kennedy got two paltry caps in 1984 but was otherwise not considered - but Sansom kept his focus and refused to be complacent. England failed to reach the 1984 European Championships after a home defeat to Denmark compounded a couple of slipshod draws and so Robson again shipped out some older players and started afresh for the 1986 World Cup campaign. (Matthew Rudd)

Kenny Sansom remained a mainstay in the England side as the 1986 World Cup qualification campaing got underway, scoring his only international goal in the opening 5-0 stuffing of Finland in October 1984 and soon afterwards winning his 50th cap in the goalless draw with Romania (the photo above is during the game) which kept England in command at the top of the group. This was in the middle of an astonishing 37-game unbroken run in the England team which began in May 1984 and lasted for one month short of three years. During this period, England qualified for the World Cup and went to Mexico buoyant, with Sansom winning caps 66 to 70 as ultimately he was one of a number of bamboozled players turned upside down by Diego Maradona for his stunning second goal as Argentina knocked out England in the quarter-final 2-1. Such was the dearth of competition for Sansom that there was no other recognised left back in the England squad, with the versatile - but not naturally left-sided - Gary Stevens of Tottenham Hotspur the singularly likely candidate to step in if Kenny were to be injured.

Only when the 1987 Rous Cup came along did England uncover another left back, when the late-developing but confident Stuart Pearce was called up to play against Brazil, earning himself the bonus of setting up Gary Lineker's goal in the 1-1 draw, and then adding another appearance in the subsequent match with the Scots. But Sansom was still first choice for his country as England resumed their smooth qualification passage for the 1988 European Championships, and Kenny won his 79th cap as England produced a superb performance to win 4-1 in Yugoslavia to rubberstamp their place. Sansom still had the abrasive and well-liked Pearce breathing down his neck in 1988, but a combination of coach loyalty, experience and an unfortunate injury to the Nottingham Forest defender meant that Kenny was again the unquestionable first choice left back as a resurgent England headed off to West Germany for the finals. (Matthew Rudd)

Bobby Robson took the uncapped - and almost unknown - Tony Dorigo as back-up as the ageing Sansom was more prone to injuries by this stage, but again Kenny played every minute of England's tournament, which capped a miserable season for him and sent all ends of his career plunging downwards. Having lost the captaincy of Arsenal to Tony Adams earlier in the campaign after a row with manager George Graham, he then contrived to make one of the most costly mistakes the national side has ever made. A chaotic England defence was struggling to deal with an early set-piece from opponents the Republic of Ireland (the photo above is during the game) in Stuttgart, and as a ball was played across the penalty area Sansom tried to reach it as it bounced, hoping to catch it on the half volley and clear it down the pitch. Instead, the ball hooked high and backwards off his instep, tearing England's defence to shreds, and Ray Houghton headed the Irish goal which won the match.

Sansom played in the remaining two matches - a 3-1 lesson in football from Holland and a rotten-to-the-core defeat by the USSR - before England came home, shellshocked and disgraced. Robson, once he was persuaded by the FA not to resign, took drastic action and completely removed Sansom from his thinking, giving Pearce the No.3 shirt which he would keep hold of with much aplomb and pride, not to mention incident, over the next decade. Sansom, who was then sold by Arsenal to an out-of-sorts Newcastle team, was recalled briefly for one squad as back-up to Pearce in 1989 after Dorigo was injured, but got nowhere near the team and would never do so again. He won 86 caps, played in four major tournaments and never caused a moment's bother for his coaches, on or off the pitch. He should have had more rivals for his place and perhaps he benefitted from the lack of serious contenders for the shirt until Pearce emerged, but the fact that he maintained such high standards even without the pressure of competition suggests he was an excellent professional and an excellent player. (Matthew Rudd)