Emlyn Hughes - A Watershed Year

A Watershed Year

For Hughes, 1970 was an important year in his career. After Liverpool were humiliated by Second division side Watford in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, Shankly made a decision to clear out much of the ageing playing staff which had won two League Championship titles, an FA Cup and reached a European Cup Winners Cup final and recruit new, younger blood to take Liverpool back to the helm of the English game. Hughes, still not 23, survived the cull – as did the likes of Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith – and a batch of fresh faces which would shape Liverpool's success in the 1970s began to arrive.

Meanwhile, England were about to fly to Mexico and defend the World Cup won four years earlier. Hughes had six caps by the time Ramsey included him in his provisional squad of 27 which flew to South America for altitude-acclimatising friendly games against Colombia and Ecuador. Hughes featured in neither game, but was selected in the final squad of 22. He was the youngest selected by Ramsey, and the only Liverpool player in the squad.

Hughes was one of only two outfield players (along with Nobby Stiles) who did not feature in any game as England progressed to the quarter finals where they were defeated by West Germany. Question marks were raised about Ramsey's substitution decisions during the game, with much attention paid to the decisions to withdraw Bobby Charlton and Martin Peters in the second half, but then to let first choice left back Terry Cooper remain on the pitch for the whole 120 minutes when he was clearly exhausted, rather than allow his natural replacement Hughes to take over. Hughes would ultimately never feature at a World Cup.