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It speaks volumes about the outstanding ability of Ray Clemence, who died at 72 after suffering from prostate cancer, that he was able to rack up 61 games for England during an era in which he was competing for his place against Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton. the two best goalkeepers in England of all time. Succeeding Banks between the posts in 1972, Clemence battled Shilton for the goalie jersey for much of the 1970s until his slightly younger rival made promotion.
However, while Clemence’s years with England brought much praise, it was his career in the domestic game that brought him the glory. As the last line of defense in the great Liverpool teams of the 1970s he won three European Cups, five First Division championships, two UEFA Cups, an FA Cup and a League Cup before moving to Tottenham in early 2000. The 80s added FA Cup and Uefa Cup Winners’ Medals to that account. He then became a member of the Spurs backroom staff and subsequently enjoyed a long tenure as England’s goalkeeping coach.
Born in Skegness, Lincolnshire, the son of Bill and Muriel (nee Scott), Clemence was cornered in the school team at Lumley Modern High School as a reluctant goalkeeper, but turned out to be good enough to sign for Scunthorpe United Third Division when He was a teenager in 1965, making his debut the next year. At the end of the 1966-67 season he was picked up by Bill Shankly’s Liverpool, receiving the news of his transfer to Skegness beach, where he worked in the summer months as a lounger assistant to supplement his football income.
It wasn’t until the 1969-70 season that he was able to completely displace Tommy Lawrence in goal at Liverpool, but thereafter he was impregnable at position, playing 337 games without missing a match from September 1972 to March 1978. Their first honors came in the 1972-73 season with Shankly, when Liverpool took the First Division title and then the UEFA Cup, in which they kept out of a penalty in the opening leg of the final against Borussia Mönchengladbach , calling it the best stop of his career. His first European Cup victory came with Bob Paisley in 1977 against the same team, and he again made a crucial intervention, superbly blocking German international Uli Stielike, who had cleared the score at 1-1. Liverpool went on to win 3-1.
Supremely athletic, graceful, quick and decisive, Clemence also organized his defenders excellently, and with a baseline combination of Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Phil Thompson and Alan Hansen during the 1978-79 season, he conceded just 16 goals in 42 league games, keeping a clean sheet in 28. After excellent performances in the 1-0 European Cup final against Bruges in 1978 and, three years later, in the 1-0 victory against Real Madrid in the same competition, decided to leave Liverpool while at the top. By then, widely regarded as the best goalkeeper in club history, he opted to sign for Tottenham.
At Spurs, Clemence was never going to lift the silverware he was used to at Anfield, but his seven-year tenure was successful in which he won medals for a 1982 FA Cup win against Queens Park Rangers and a Uefa Cup in 1984. Victory against Anderlecht, although they were unable to appear in the latter’s final due to injury. He was named an MBE in 1987 and retired the following year at age 40, having participated in more than 1,000 games for his various teams, which placed him at number 7 on the all-time list of players with the most appearances. .
For England, Clemence had made his debut with Sir Alf Ramsey in a World Cup qualifying match against Wales in 1972, after Banks lost sight of one of his eyes after a car accident. However, Shilton had already won five matches for England at that stage, and over the next few years he and Clemence engaged in a feud to snatch the goalkeeper spot from each other.
In 1975, Clemence appeared to be winning the fight under Don Revie, but Revie’s successor, Ron Greenwood, chose to select the two goalkeepers more or less in rotation for the remainder of the decade. Clemence played in two of England’s three games in the final phase of the 1980 European Championship, but by the 1982 World Cup final he was on the bench, without participating in the entire tournament.
When Bobby Robson became coach soon after, he continued to favor Shilton, and although Clemence was chosen for two low-key matches against Luxembourg, the last of them, in 1983, turned out to be his last international match.
After finishing with the Spurs he went on to the club’s coaching staff, and during the 1992-93 season he was assistant coach to Doug Livermore in the inaugural Premier League season. The Spurs finished eighth, but Clemence returned to a backroom position the following season and left in 1994 to become joint manager (with Gary Phillips) of the Barnet Third Division. He assumed the position alone after six months and remained at the helm for two seasons, occupying the 11th and 9th league positions.
In 1996 he left Barnet to become England’s goalkeeping coach under Glenn Hoddle, continuing in that role until 2012, when he canceled it a day after injuring an Achilles tendon in a warm-up with goalkeeper Joe Hart during the final. of the European Championship. After a year supervising England’s teams, he retired from football entirely in 2013. He was always a popular figure in the sport, known for his approachability, good sense, and sense of humor.
In 1971 he married Veronica Gillespie. She survives him along with her children, Stephen, also a professional footballer, Sarah and Julie.
• Raymond Neal Clemence, footballer, born August 5, 1948; died on November 15, 2020
