When Ron Greenwood, who has died aged 84, worked as a teenager on the ground staff at Wembley stadium before the second world war, he could hardly have expected to return there as England's team manager. But he did. In 1977, when Don Revie abruptly deserted the position, the Oxford don Sir Harold Thompson, looking for an equivalent of the white hen that never laid a stray egg, turned to the retired Greenwood, who then stayed in the post until 1982.
Before that, Greenwood had been, from 1961 to 1977, manager, coach and general manager of West Ham United. There were FA cups in 1964 and 1975, and the European cup winners' cup in 1965, when West Ham beat Munich 1860. Under Greenwood's shrewd, perfectionist rule, West Ham became the crucible of skillful football. It was an irony that he probably did more for the England team that won the 1966 World Cup by helping the development of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters than he did as manager in the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
Though born in Burnley, Greenwood grew up and was educated in Alperton, north-west London. He showed precocious footballing promise, playing inside-left for the district school side when he was only eight. He became an apprentice signwriter in 1937, but his skill in minor football circles in the Wembley area was spotted, and in 1940 he was signed by Chelsea, the club with which he would, in the 1954-55 season, win a league championship medal.
But also in 1940, war saw him begin five years in the RAF. In December 1945, Chelsea pocketed a large fee when they sold Greenwood, by now a solidly built, strong tackling centre-half, to the second division Bradford Park Avenue, where he was captain. In the 1948-49 season Bradford themselves got a substantial sum by transferring him to Brentford, for whom he played more than 300 matches.
Chelsea bought him back in 1952, and in the 1954-55 season he made 21 appearances, half the total, in an era when they won what would, until the 21st century, be their only championship. Early in 1955 Greenwood moved to Fulham, where he ended an honourable, if not exceptional, playing career.
He had long been interested in coaching, held a full FA coaching badge, and coached the Oxford University football team for three years, which would be a crucial factor when he became England manager - largely because Thompson, the dominating figure in Oxford football, had become equally powerful in the counsels of the FA. In the mid-1950s, Greenwood coached the Arsenal team - he was assistant manager in 1958 under George Swindin, though their philosophies were very different. Greenwood was essentially a purist who believed in the arts and skills of the game. He was also an idealist - which accounted largely for his later resignation as West Ham's team manager. He was distressed by the way the professional game was going.
He had a spell managing amateur Eastbourne United and the England youth team, but the watershed of his career came when he was appointed manager of West Ham. "The crowds at West Ham haven't been rewarded by results," he observed in 1977, "but they keep turning up because of the good football they see. Other clubs will suffer from the old bugbear that results count more than anything. This has been the ruination of English soccer." But, of course, under Greenwood's aegis, West Ham had their triumphs.
Moore, Hurst and Peters all owed much to him. Moore was initially a centre-back, not especially strong in the air and certainly not quick. When Greenwood transformed him into a second stopper, playing on the left of the centre-half, he emerged as an outstanding defender, a regular England player at 21 and outstanding captain in the 1966 and 1970 World Cup tournaments.
Of Peters, who came into the England team during the 1966 tournament, Greenwood said he was 10 years ahead of his time. Hurst was a workaday wing-half whom Greenwood almost transferred to Southend United. Then he changed his mind, turned him into a striker, and Hurst went on to score a hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final.
Always didactic, Greenwood liked to give small, selective press conferences after West Ham's home games. He emphasised what he called "good habits" - the ones that benefited not only the World Cup three, but successors like Trevor Brooking.
Whether it was wise to make Greenwood the England manager is a moot point. He seemed to have retired not only in body but in spirit, disillusioned with the game and curiously unfaithful to his proteges - never so much as when he left Brooking out of a Wembley international, preferring a clutch of less gifted Liverpool players. Later, after the hugely talented Glenn Hoddle crowned a fine debut for England against Bulgaria with a spectacular goal, Greenwood dropped him with the remark that "disappointment is part of football". By contrast, he seemed over-indulgent to a Kevin Keegan plainly no longer the force he once was.
Greenwood memorably remarked in 1978 that "football is a simple game. The hard part is making it look simple." His autobiography, Yours Sincerely, appeared in 1984. He is survived by his wife Lucy and his son and daughter.
Ronald Greenwood, football manager, born November 11 1921; died February 9 2006