Very Good with some interesting analysis - Rated 
Sir Alf Ramsey was the most successful manager England ever had but he also created a number of enemies who when things went wrong turned on him viciously. This book deals not only with his time as England manager and the reasons for his fall from grace but also what created the personality of the shy and reserved man who achieved so much. It is a very readable book with some interesting analysis not only on football but also on wider English attitudes to change and the rest of the world in the fifties and sixties.
A thoroughly absorbing read - Rated 
I cannot recommend this wonderful biography highly enough. It is an absorbing, captivating read from the first page to the last, describing a character of such complexity yet such pathos.
As opposed to merely recounting Sir Alf Ramsey's career in football, Leo McKinstry attempts to put Ramsey in his historical and social context. Here was a man whose life spanned a period of huge social change - the break up of the British Empire, the end of the class-ridden ages of deference, the rise of superstar sportsmen and the onset of the permissive society. Through the sharp descriptions of Ramsey. McKinstry shows how his character was deeply affected by these social changes and also the character of the game he devoted all his life to. The author treats his subject with affection but not sycophancy, he describes his faults as well as his talents, and he creates intoxicating pictures of a time and a place.
Times and places long gone. People and attitudes long changed. Sir Alf Ramsey personifies so much of that we no longer know and/or can barely comprehend. For anyone who lived through his career either as a footballer or as England Manager, as I did the latter, this is an absolutely essential book. For anyone else who loves football and its history, it is pretty high on the list too.
The enigma that was Sir Alf Ramsy - Rated
It is said that the quality of sports books is related to the size of the balls. Look at the quality of books on golf and baseball and then compare them to books on football - no competition. However here is a football book that is of exceptional quality. Sir Alf Ramsey, the only manager of the English football team to win the World Cup. A shy. enigmatic and sometimes reclusive man who only liked to talk football, nothing else mattered. His triumph in winning the World Cup in 1966 is the centerpiece of this masterful biography. His sacking by the dinosaurs at the FA is well covered, their treatment of him was shameful right up to his last years. If you have a negative perception of Sir Alf Ramsey and like football, then read this book. It will not disappoint.
Superb - and long overdue - Rated
I just wish this book had come out 25 years earlier - that's when it really SHOULD have been written - for in that period between Ramsey's sacking in 1974 and his death in 1999, the man had either been savaged by the media, or just plain forgotten by the public. This book shows Sir Alf for what he really was - a fabulous manager and a WINNER. So to me this book is certainly long overdue but very welcome.
In deciding to cover Ramsey's lifespan - as opposed to just his time in football - the author has taken on quite a task. But in doing so he has done a great job by unearthing plenty of anecdotes and by reaching some of the man's long-forgotten contemporaries. The result is 500 pages of superb reading.
Quite clearly, Leo McKinstry has aimed to set the record straight, and to redress the imbalance created by a negative, media-led campaign which dogged Ramsey's time in management and beyond. And I think he achieves this aim. I just hope that some of Ramsey's severest critics read this book and have a serious rethink about what they said and wrote about him.
Although the book covers Sir Alf's life, the book really centres on his two finest achievements - that of turning a struggling, unfashionable second division outfit into First Division Champions, and taking his country to the top of world football. Needless to say, that extraordinary double-feat has never been, and probably never will be, emulated.
So, given those fabulous achievements, just why was he so unpopular with the media? Because he was a quite, modest man? Because he appeared cold and reticent at press conferences? If he was snappy on those occasions, who can blame him? Surely it was an entirely justified mistrust of the tabloid press.
Finally, when I read of the FA's decision to commemorate a horse for the new Wembley rather than their finest-ever manager, I was just incredulous. Once again the FA did not exactly cover themselves in glory. This was the final kick in the teeth.
There's just one small criticism I have about his book. The author, I feel, makes too much use of quotes from people who knew Sir Alf. Throughout the book, long after a broad concensus about Sir Alf is reached, McKinstry continues to take quotes - almost exhaustively.
But depite that mere foible, I have no hesitation in giving this book five stars. It's an excellent read - albeit long, long overdue.
An excellent book. - Rated
This is the best football biography I have ever read. An in-depth insight into a truly great Englishman. A fantastic read about a wonderful, dignified man who was shoddily treated but deserved so much better. What a man! What a book! First class.
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