JOE MALLETT – AN OBITUARY

Few careers have subtly tracked a century of football like that of Joe Mallett. Born into a Catholic family of nine children in the tough Tyneside community of Gateshead in 1916, he used to recall feeling privileged, as he was one of the few who wore proper shoes to school. But Mallett was obliged to leave behind a promising grammar school education to earn a living in the flour-mills. His father had worked in the mines and on the railways and was a prominent union member and Labour Party activist. Mallett’s passion however was always sport, at which he excelled, his boyhood hero the great Hughie Gallagher, whom Mallett loved to watch play at St. James Park and always maintained to be the finest footballer he ever saw. Spotted playing for his works team by a London scout, Mallett was signed at the age of seventeen by Charlton Athletic. Here he served his apprenticeship under manager Jimmy Seed, as capacity crowds of 70,000 filled The Valley. Here also he met his wife Bertha to whom he was married for over sixty years.

Playing initially at inside-forward, Mallett’s craft and skill earned him a reputation for brain over brawn. Charlton loaned him to Queens Park Rangers to gain experience and, though returning to Charlton, Rangers’ manager Alec Stock eventually persuaded Charlton to sell him. Unfortunately his promising career was prematurely interrupted by the Nazi threat and Mallett was conscripted into the RAF, spending the war years playing mainly for Forces or Representative elevens. The war brought sharp changes in the game and in 1947 Bill Dodgin signed him for Southampton, where teammates included Ted Bates and Alf Ramsay, who later described Mallett as “one of the finest soccer brains of all”.

The pre- and post-war decades were the golden years of English football when bleak winter afternoons were illuminated by the wizardry of the likes of Matthews, Tommy Lawton and Alec James. Nevertheless, Mallett was one of the first to wake up to a new game being played on more distant shores. He had been part of the first English club team to tour Brazil in 1948, where Southampton were shocked to be outplayed and out-thought by the more skilful Brazilians. Back home, Mallett missed virtually no England international or touring foreign club team, strengthening even more his enthusiasm for the continental game. He recognized that the superior technique, athleticism and tactical knowledge of the foreign sides would quickly leave the English game behind. He would ironically recall a famous English manager, whose philosophy was never to allow the players the ball in training, as they would be hungrier for it by match day!

Now in the twilight of his playing career, he applied the continental lessons in tactics and training, first at Southampton where he had become captain, then as player coach at Leyton Orient. Mallett was quickly acquiring a reputation as one of the best judges and shrewdest thinkers in the game. Joining Nottingham Forest as coach under Andy Beattie, he brought on a succession of young players, including Ian Storey Moore and David Pleat, to replace Forest’s ageing 1959 FA Cup winning side.

In 1965 he was appointed Team Manager, and then Assistant Manager under Stan Cullis, at Birmingham City. Mallett invariably left the office work to others, as he was always happiest with his players out on the training field. In his first season, he failed to save a struggling side from relegation but bravely cleared out the old and brought in the new, narrowly missing promotion and reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup, knocking out Arsenal and Chelsea en route on memorable occasions at St.Andrews. But changes in the boardroom led to his departure in 1970, when his knowledge of the European game saw him accepting a challenge as manager of Athens’ club Panionios. Though a minnow in comparison to the “Big Three” Greek sides, Panionios nevertheless disputed the championship lead throughout the season, only losing out in the final games. Still, a first UEFA Cup place was secured where they performed a giant killing act against the aristocrats of Athletico Madrid, before in the next round some hot Greek tempers imploded on an infamous night in Budapest. But his side’s natural talent allied to Mallett’s tactical sophistication continued to make for memorable football in the domestic league, as well as winning a competitive Balkans Cup.

“Mister Joe” had become a legend in Greek football when the club’s financial problems led to a rift. He had barely set foot back on English soil when his experience was in demand again by the emerging American football league at the star-studded New York Cosmos. Here Mallett enjoyed coaching some of the games greats: Pele, Beckenbauer, Johann Cruyff and the mercurial George Best. His many years in the USA also took him to San Jose and Washington, where he continued to coach summer camp youngsters until into his eighties. Even then he was still determined to be involved in the game and there was no shortage of English clubs keen to utilize his talent for weighing up future opposition or spotting raw talent. Until just a few months ago Mallett could be seen two or three times a week at games anywhere from Dover to White Hart Lane.

Sadly the final whistle has now sounded not only on one man’s game but also on a generation and a football era, the like of which we will never see again.