Ex Leeds United and Burnley boss Adamson dies

Adamson made 486 appearances for the Clarets in a playing career spanning 17 years, placing him sixth on the club’s all-time list.

He will be best remembered as the ever-present captain in Burnley’s 1960 League Championship-winning team.

“Burnley Football Club is sad to confirm the passing of a true club legend in Jimmy Adamson,” read a statement on www.burnleyfootballclub.com. “Adamson, a former manager and captain of the club at the peak of its powers, has died at the age of 82.

“Ashington-born Adamson gave three decades of magnificent service to the Clarets.”

Recruited from youth football in Northumberland, Adamson joined Burnley’s groundstaff before signing a first professional contract with the Clarets in 1947, aged 17. However, he did not make his senior Clarets debut until 1951.

Despite finishing on the losing side in the 1962 FA Cup Final, Adamson was named Footballer of the Year and, at the age of 33, included in England’s World Cup squad for the tournament in Chile that summer.

Although he never won a senior international cap, Adamson acted as Walter Winterbottom’s assistant during the competition and was offered the role of England manager, only to turn it down because he felt he lacked experience, leaving Alf Ramsey to take the reigns of the national team,

Following his retirement in 1964, Adamson managed Burnley to promotion from the Second Division in 1973 and Leeds to the 1979 UEFA Cup Final, while he also enjoyed a spell in charge of Sunderland.