http://www.joinmust.org/forum This is the discussion forum for MUST, the independent Manchester United supporters trust en Thu, 17 May 2012 05:42:18 GMT vBulletin 120 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.joinmust.org/forum http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78473&goto=newpost Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:26:07 GMT *MUST response to reports of revived Singapore Flotation of MUFC* In response to reports that the Glazers are to revive their failed attempt to float at least part of their Manchester United shareholding on the Singapore Stock Exchange and that this is a precursor to a full sale, a spokesperson... MUST response to reports of revived Singapore Flotation of MUFC

In response to reports that the Glazers are to revive their failed attempt to float at least part of their Manchester United shareholding on the Singapore Stock Exchange and that this is a precursor to a full sale, a spokesperson for MUST - the Manchester United Supporters Trust said:

"Until we have more detail it is impossible to say with certainty what this will mean for Manchester United or its supporters. However if they are coming back with the same sort of inflated valuation and the same sort of proposal including non-voting shares then they should expect the same negative response from the market as last time.

If instead they have learned their lesson and decide to offer a substantial proportion of full voting shares at a reasonable valuation and this is a pre-cursor to a full sale then this could be enthusiastically welcomed by United supporters worldwide.

Our aim is to provide Manchester United fans with the opportunity for mass supporter participation in ownership of their club so this could well present such an opportunity and we’d urge every Manchester United supporter who cares about the club to register with the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) through our website. We will provide information to supporters as soon as it is available. It is quite possible that shares will not be available to ordinary supporters and that MUST will have to provide a mechanism for supporters to buy shares.

We’d like to see at least a million Manchester United supporters sharing in ownership of their club and it is our role as the official supporters trust to try to make that possible. Supporters can register for free through www.joinmust.org for information." ]]> MUST Announcements TanyaT http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78473 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78417&goto=newpost Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:28:30 GMT MEDIA RELEASE: Manchester United supporters challenge Joel Glazer to cut United ticket prices for loyal fans next season

Manchester United ticket prices for next season are expected to be announced soon. The Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) is challenging Joel Glazer to slash United's ticket prices after seeing huge rises in the early years following their takeover meanwhile revenue has rocketed and yet net transfer spending is lower than major Premier League rivals and even some mid-table Championship teams like Hull, Blackpool and Burnley.

Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of MUST said:

"The Glazers have been responsible for more than £500 million pounds flowing out of Manchester United in fees, charges and other payments relating to their hostile takeover of our club. Meanwhile the club has actually spent less in net transfer fees than not only our main rivals in Europe and the Premier League (City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs) but also had a lower net spend since 2006 than Villa, Sunderland and Stoke.

It's worse than that though - as reported in the Guardian in January this year - in the last three years United's net transfer spend has incredibly been less than Hull City, Blackpool and Burnley. The evidence from the independently produced league table of net transfer spending can't be obscured and this will shock many United fans.

Only the incredible efforts of Sir Alex Ferguson have allowed us to remain competitive in the Premier League - at times it feels like he is dragging the team towards a 20th League title by sheer willpower alone. However even Sir Alex's magical touch couldn't bridge that gap in Europe.

But despite Sir Alex's incredible feats it comes as a huge slap in the face for fans that in spite of the immense revenues flowing into the club there have been huge ticket price hikes for loyal fans since the Glazers' 2005 takeover.

Given this lack of squad investment while huge revenues are coming in and the Glazers have been constantly dipping into the clubs bank account, it is long overdue that the loyal supporters received a cut in their ticket prices. So today we are throwing down a challenge to Joel Glazer to cut United fans Season Ticket prices next season."


NOTES FOR EDITORS:
As confirmed by figures taken from independent site transferleague.co.uk http://bit.ly/HrSrqc Manchester United's net spend since 2006 is less than not only City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs but unbelievably also Villa, Sunderland and Stoke! This for a club which continually boasts about record turnover while extracting huge quantities of cash to cover the Glazers debt interest and bond purchases.

Furthermore as the Guardian reported in Jan 2012 http://bit.ly/HrS9Qi "the Glazers are siphoning money in such staggering quantities that, in the past three years, United's net spend is lower than that of Hull City, Blackpool and Burnley!"

David Conn reported http://bit.ly/ztm4mz in February 2012 that "the Glazer family have been responsible for £500m going out of United."

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ENDS


Contacts:
Duncan Drasdo - MUST CEO
07883070876
--
Duncan Drasdo
Chief Executive
MUST - the Manchester United supporters' trust
177,018 MEMBERS STRONG
www.joinmust.org
http://twitter.com/Drasdo
-- ]]> MUST Announcements TanyaT http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78417 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78249&goto=newpost Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:25:13 GMT This piece is appearing in the latest issue of Red News. “The Magic Sponge” I suppose that when they come to update the written history of football, one of the most significant events of the past twenty years or so, will be the evolvement of the ‘Trainer’s’ terms of reference regarding their... This piece is appearing in the latest issue of Red News.

“The Magic Sponge”

I suppose that when they come to update the written history of football, one of the most significant events of the past twenty years or so, will be the evolvement of the ‘Trainer’s’ terms of reference regarding their job.

The ‘trainer’ has all but disappeared – and rightly so in my opinion. In my younger days he was always referred to as; ‘The man with the magic sponge.’ If a player went down injured during a game, it was the ‘trainer’s’ remit to dash out onto the field and to tend to the said player. It was a sight for sore eyes because the guy running out there was more akin to a window cleaner (and probably was from Monday to Friday) than a football trainer. He would surface from the dug-out wearing his track suit, sprint onto the field as though the injured player’s life depended upon it. With one hand he would carry an enamel white bucket which contained cold water, and with the other, a pig’s bladder which contained ice cubes and a sponge. In his pocket he would have a bottle of the strongest type of smelling salts. Towels would be hanging out from his pockets, and he wore the inevitable white one around his neck. It was a sight to see, and all that was missing was the proverbial push bike, and a set of ladders hanging from his shoulders and he was a dead ringer for that window cleaner.

For the watching crowd it was a scene that produced much merriment, and many a funny riposte. Unfortunately, for the injured player, the site of this demented demon racing towards him was one which nine times out of ten, sent fear coursing through his body. You see, the majority of the guys that filled these posts may well have been knowledgeable about the game of football, but most of them only had a basic St. John’s Ambulance First Aid Certificate when it came to the diagnosis and treatment of injuries. The honest truth was, that most of them knew absolutely nothing about serious injury – they passed their basic certificate exam, and then promptly forgot all that they had been taught! . One guy who I actually know, was the ‘trainer’ at Oldham Athletic for a few years, but he was also a full-time pub landlord, and he did the ‘Latics job on the side, just attending for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon!

Today it is so professional with qualified doctors and certified physio’s doing the business where diagnosis and treatment of injuries are concerned. The players trust them. They know that they know exactly what they are doing. But back then, the ‘trainers’ were clueless most of the time. For a player who would be writhing around in agony, it was nothing to be greeted by the ‘trainer’ with the following;

“Get up, it’s only ******* pain – don’t let them see that you’re hurt.”

It was so common to see these fellows treating injuries with nothing more than that cold sponge and water. It did not matter where the injury was; the first thing applied to the injury was the sponge full of ice cold water.

It is interesting when you look at some of the ‘YouTube’ clips of matches from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Especially the clips which show ‘trainers’ treating the players on the pitch. Bert Trautmann in the 1956 FA Cup Final, broke his neck, but there was the City trainer slapping the cold sponge on his neck and trying to get him to turn his head from side to side! Even dear old Tom Curry, who died at Munich, was guilty in the 1957 Final against Villa. Ray Wood’s cheekbone had been shattered, but there he was pulling and tugging at Wood’s jersey, trying to get it over his face, in an effort to hand the jersey over to Jackie Blanchflower. Wood’s face was being pulled all over the place as this was happening.

Billy Inglis, God bless him, used to look after United’s Reserve team, and he never wore a tracksuit. His attire was a long white doctor’s type coat, and when he ran out onto the field he looked like the local ice-cream man! When these guys were stumped, and saw that the injury was untreatable by them, they would summon to the St. John’s Ambulance crew to run on and attend. This was also such fun to see as you could bet your last penny that one of them would be a rather large, rotund, red-faced female who would be puffing and panting, trying to keep up with her crew, and who always seemed to have my arse upon her chest!

I laugh at some of the antics back in those days. In the lower leagues, Managers and Trainers were ‘Jacks of all trades’ and some were real characters. They not only ran the team, but were expected to do all sorts of other meaningless tasks like helping the groundsman mark and line the pitch; pick out weeds from around the terracing; make sure that balls were blown up; take the kits to the local launderette etc. etc. I actually know of one ‘trainer’ who achieved fame, glamour, and a certain amount of notoriety, at one of the Greater Manchester Area’s local clubs.

During his daily routine, he took a shine to one of the tea ladies who worked at the ground. When she should have been making teas, and he should have been helping to weed the pitch, they were servicing each other in the Director’s toilet – the perfect place to meet as it was empty every day of the week, apart from a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, somebody carelessly locked the door one afternoon and they couldn’t get out, and late into the evening they had to be rescued by the local fire brigade. His excuse was that he had lost his cuff links and that the tea lady had been in there helping him look for them. The local ‘rag’ got hold of the story and lo and behold! … The following Saturday the club was 2000 up on their average gate, with most of the extras trying to work out which tea lady it was!!!

There was a semi-pro team from the Burnley area who played in the old Lancashire Combination League when I was a young lad turning out for Glossop. I don’t know what it is about the East Lancashire area, but for some reason I have never liked it. Bad things have always happened up there. This team had the only (and I believe at the time, the very first) woman trainer in football. She was a feisty bit of stuff and had a face as ugly as a robber’s dog. Ugly? - She abused it, and not only that, she was as frightening as any Regimental Sergeant Major, and could curse just the same. From what I heard, she had only taken the job on because her son was playing centre-forward in the first-team. She had a nickname of ‘Back-Entry Bertha’ – apparently she carried an old mattress around with her in case she met somebody she knew when it was dark!

In this particular match in which I was playing in, one of the opposing team’s wingers got a kick in the area around his married tackle. He went down as though he had suffered a gun-shot wound, and he started to turn a rather whiter shade of white. Enter onto the pitch Bertha - bucket, pig’s bladder, and all the paraphernalia in hand. The winger, by the time she got to him had been helped up by two team mates, and he was held in between them with his arms draped around their shoulders for support. Without much ceremony, Bertha took out the cold sponge, stuck her hand down the winger’s shorts, and applied the ‘magic potion’ to his nether region. It was interesting to watch the goings on, because the winger’s colour began to return again. First a nice shade of pink, then a more ruddy colour. It was then that we noticed that the sponge was lying on the turf after it had slipped out of his shorts, and there was a gentle manipulation going on inside his shorts which seemed to bring a wry smile to his face!

Now back in those days, goalkeepers were fair game for big barnstorming centre-forwards, and if you wore the green woolen jersey, then you had to be able to look after yourself – if not, your tenure in the game amounted to very little. These guys would knock you all over the place in an attempt to dislodge the ball from your hands, so as you gained a little experience, and listened to some of the more mature ‘keepers in the ‘Goalie’s Union’, you worked out how to deal with them, and hold your own. This particular afternoon, Bertha’s son had fancied his chances with me and had put me on the deck more times than I cared for – a situation which I did not for one minute like. Retribution had to be called for if I was going to put an end to this moron trying to inflict grievous bodily harm upon me.
.
At half-time we devised a plan. It worked a treat. The first corner which our opponents got, our centre-half and our left back stood in front and behind this young ruffian. Now I used to carry one of the old flat-caps back then to keep the sun out of my eyes if I needed to. The ‘neb’ (peak) was quite stiff and rigid, and was a handy tool to have. When this corner had been won, I quickly picked up the cap from the back of the net, and tucked into the back of my shorts. We waited for our moment; the referee was unsighted; our centre-half stood on this guy’s toes so that he couldn’t move, and like lightning I took the cap from my shorts and twatted him across the bridge of his nose with the ‘neb’. There was a loud ‘crack’ and his nose seemed to bend somewhat, and a large amount of claret ensued. Mayhem broke out. The centre-forward lay down on the ground clutching his face, moaning, and groaning.

The poor referee didn’t understand what had happened, nor had he seen anything, but Bertha was not having any of it. She had not seen what had actually happened from the dug-out, but nobody was going to hurt her little ‘Sunny Jim’ and she wanted revenge. Like an enraged bull, she charged onto the field, the white enamel bucket in hand. Her face was blood red, and contorted with rage, as she finally charged into our penalty area. Both sets of players realized the imminent danger that they were in, and like a starburst, scattered in all different directions of the ground; me included. The only persons who did not move was the poor Referee, and Bertha’s son who was still writhing about on the ground. I never realized how much damage the human skull could inflict upon a white enamel bucket. Bertha vented her anger on the poor Referee, and she bent the bucket out of shape such was the ferocity of her blows. The poor man was comatose, and this wild woman had to be restrained by a horde of spectators.

The game was obviously abandoned, and before the matter was brought up with the Lancashire County FA, and the FA in London, Bertha was sacked by the club, and also brought before the local Magistrates Court on a charge of Common Assault. She was fined a princely sum, and also had to do 250 hours of Community Service, working those said hours as ‘Bouncer’ and ‘Minder’ at the local Trades and Labour Club!

Yes, ‘trainers’ have all but disappeared from the professional game these days and the set-up is much safer with the many numbers of well qualified medical staff in attendance. However, I do believe that they do not have as much fun these days as we had in my day!

NB: This piece was written just days before the sad and tragic event which almost cost Bolton Wanderer’s player, Patrice Muamba, his life. It brought it home to everybody, just how important it is to have the many well trained medical and support staff in attendance, at every game. ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78249 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77900&goto=newpost Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:10:07 GMT Down Our Street

“Down Our Street
There are married men and ladies fair
Dancing mad in the midnight air
And there’s several jawbones missing, where?
Down our street."

So goes the chorus to a famous old song, but never were those words more apt to describe the street where I lived in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, during the early, formative years of my life. C-on-M as it is commonly known to Mancs, lies just about a mile to the south east of the city centre. These days, when you pass through the area, it bears little resemblance at all to the place where I spent my childhood, and the early part of my adolescence.

Our house back then was no different to thousands of others throughout the inner city. Upstairs there was a front bedroom and a back bedroom; downstairs, a front parlour, and a back utility room that served as a kitchen, dining room, and living room. There was also a cellar, which housed a coal chute, and a room running off it that was supposed to be a laundry room. A stone ‘dolly tub’ was in the far corner of the cellar room for laundry purposes, but few, if any, were ever used.

The toilet was outside in the back yard, and during the night, or through the long winter months, the trip had to be navigated in darkness. For some reason my Dad always had a padlock on the khazi door, and he had a fetish about it. If he was in the house when you were about to take a dump, he would always say; “Don’t you forget to lock that toilet door.” It was a thing that perplexed me for years. Even today I don’t know why he was so obsessed with it. The thing being, that I have never known anybody ever pinch a bucket of **** - yet!

Like the rest of these dwellings, our house had no electricity; gas lamps were the order of the day, but only in the two downstairs rooms. The gas meter was in the cellar, and as I grew older I would have the job of going down and putting a penny into the slot to replenish the gas supply. The upstairs rooms, and the room down in the cellar, had to be lit by candlelight. There was only one water tap in the whole house and that provided cold water only. We had a small gas stove for cooking, and our house was heated throughout by an open coal fire in our utility room downstairs.

Number 14 Royle Street still holds myriad memories, and those memories have remained undimmed with the passage of time. It was, as I said, my home in my formative years – I learned about life there that’s for sure. To show that house to anybody in this modern era would, I am sure, see them recoil in horror, because by today’s standards it would be classed as uninhabitable, and would certainly be condemned by the public health, housing and building inspectors. Most of the inhabitants of those inner city areas were actual immigrants from Ireland, Poland, Ukraine, Italy, and many, like my own family, were descendants of immigrants who had arrived in Manchester before the turn of the century.

The street itself was around 200 yards in length. It was narrow in width, just about25 feet, and with a central road area made up of cobbled stones. It ran between two busy main roads – Rusholme Road, and Grosvenor Street. At the Rusholme Road end – on one side of the street was the local chip shop, and on the other side, the obligatory pub, The City, a Groves & Whitnall’s house. The City pub was notorious throughout the area and all sorts of dealings, as well as supping, went on in the place. At the Grosvenor Street end was two factories. Both were involved in the rag trade. Redfearns on one side employed about 120 women, all machinists, and in the summer months, the bosses would open the doors so that the cool air could circulate and make conditions better for the girls. For me though, it brought out the devil in me and many was the time as a young 5/6 years old, that I would go and stand in the doorway looking into the machine room, then would turn around, bend down, drop my trousers, and show the women my arse. Not content with that, I would then stand up, turn around again and wave my little pecker at them for 30seconds or so. The girls would scream in merriment, but nothing that I had at that age was ever going to worry them.

In between the two sets of commercial premises were 24 run down, single brick houses – 12 on each side. On the pavement outside each house was a coal grid, which was used by the coal merchants to drop bags of coal into. The grids were heavy and made of cast iron. Each house was very uniform with two front steps, a front door, and an upstairs and downstairs window frame. On the roof was a single brick chimney stack which would belch out all the black smoke from the ***** that would be burning in a grate in one of the house’s rooms. It’s no surprise therefore that many was the time that it thick with smog at 1p.m. in the afternoon – even in the summer! We lived at number 14, but in 1954, the council re-housed eight of the families on the opposite side of the street to us, and their depressing abodes were demolished, and the spare ground then became my Wembley.

Redfearn’s wall was the place where I chalked a goal, and at the other end of the croft the goal was chalked on Henry Connell’s wall. Poor Mr. Connell, how much he had to endure with the constant thump, thump, thump, of the ball banging on his parlour wall. He never complained though.

Chorlton-upon-Medlock was quite a notorious area in the 1940s and 1950s, and I certainly witnessed things during my childhood that I would hate for any child to see today. It was a harsh existence for families, and for people as individuals. Prostitutes plied their trade freely, both day and night, and they were not too fussy where they entertained their clients. Mostly it was in the back alleyways between the rows of terraced houses. During the evenings they would congregate in groups on street corners, soliciting for clients. The evenings would see drunks roaming the area, and physical violence was often perpetrated by, and upon, these people. An area with such notoriety attracted a wide range of people, from those that we termed ‘money people’, to the ‘down and outs’.

To say that weekends were lively back then would be an understatement. For all the area’s poverty, the pubs in Chorlton-upon-Medlock were always full at weekends, at lunchtimes, and during the evenings. Pubs licensing hours meant they would open from 11am till 3pm, and then again from 5.30pm till 10.30pm; Sunday hours were from noon till 2pm, and 7pm till 10.30pm. Problems arose after closing time when people were full of ale. It is no exaggeration to say that on a Saturday evening it was commonplace to see two or three fist-fights outside a pub at the same time, and afterwards, especially during the summer months, an impromptu midnight concert would evolve in the streets, with many of the adults who were full of ale, doing their “turn.”

The families tended to be large with anything between 4 and 10 kids being the norm. The poverty didn’t seem to affect us as kids - why should it? We were all in the same boat – chained by the fact that we were the children, and grandchildren of immigrants, and that carried a stigma. We were looked down upon. So the families who lived in those inner city areas would close ranks whenever ‘outsiders’ became involved.

When I look back at those times, I can get very emotional, especially when I think of all the mothers (my own included) who were blessed with such stoicism, fortitude, and strength, in the way that they brought up their kids in such draconian conditions. Their lot was a harsh one, and the sacrifices which those mothers made to ensure the well being of their children, will always be with me.

For us kids, we attended our local secondary modern school, and if truth is known, being the areas that they were in, not too much was expected of us academically. Most of our fathers were nothing more than labourers, dustmen, navies, brickie’s mates, timber carriers, **** house cleaners for the local council, or even ‘tatters’ (rag-and-bone-men). The expectation from the majority of the schoolteachers that taught us in those days was that we would follow our fathers in life. Fortunately, for a lot of us, our mothers rammed the education thing down our throat, and though it was at times a pain in the arse because we wanted to be doing other things (mainly being outside playing football or cricket) for some of us we saw the wisdom and benefit of their goading.

Some of us each year – but not many, managed to pass the 11 Plus exam and were able to go on to Grammar School. Mothers were so proud, and happy to see their kids resplendent in their new uniforms for all to see – a step up in the world. Fathers were not so happy because of the extra costs involved. Sadly, our Mums did not realize the change in our lives that was forced upon us. Kids in Grammar Schools were fair game for the street urchins we were – and whenever these poor unfortunate children had passed through our neighbourhoods on their way to, or from, school, a kicking was the order of the day. When any of us crossed over (as I did), suddenly we were on the other side, and became ‘one of them’. In my own case, once I went to Grammar School, I don’t think that there was a day that passed that I didn’t have to fight for my title either going or coming from school.

But notwithstanding all that is written above (and I could go on for hours) there was so many happy times despite the poverty. The one thing that glued all the local male kids together was football and cricket. We just loved to be outside playing one of those games. Any kind of ball and there was a game – normally it was a tennis ball, and it was amazing just how many gifted young players of both sports came out of those inner city areas and had careers in professional sport. We’d play on all kinds of surfaces, and for all the hours that we could. Our skills were honed in those years and on those many different kinds of surfaces. So much so, that the control of a ball became second nature to us. I wince today when I see highly paid footballers who cannot ‘kill’ a ball, or so called world class batsmen who have no idea how to read a spin bowler and remain ‘wooden legged’ within the crease.

The games in the school yards were always competitive and where football was concerned, it was always City against United. No matter how hard I try to pick the back pocket of my memory though – I can’t remember there ever being enough City fans to make up their team. It is no exaggeration that the ratio of Reds fans to Blues in those days, was roughly 4 or 5/1. It’s why I laugh today when I hear the nonsense about the majority of United’s fans coming from outside of the city boundaries.


Playing those games in schoolyards, in back-streets, on crofts, we would all imagine that we were our favourite player – Tommy Taylor, Johnny Berry, Duncan Edwards etc etc We all longed to see them in the flesh. Many kids in my school were lucky in that their dads could afford to take them to a first team match at Old Trafford. Football was cheap back in those days. An adult could pay two shillings (10 pence) to stand on the terraces, whereas a junior entry would cost just seven pence (two and a half pence). The thrill of attending your very first senior game stays with you all of your life. Match day became part of your life. From the moment that you woke up on Saturday morning only one thing concentrated your mind. What time were you going to leave for Old Trafford.

Back then the game was a game for the working classes, and it was affordable. Saturday was always the day of the week that you looked forward to. Saturday meant football and vice-versa. We took the game for granted in those days, it was all ours back then as there was no form of corporate hospitality, no media saturation, just a stadium full of raucous United fans. Manchester United was the release for both adult and child alike from the week’s drudgery, and for those few hours people forgot their worries and their hardships. They gave us an appreciation that goes beyond mere trophies. They gave us the passion and the pride. The team tied us to its umbilical cord, and that cord, once tied, never comes undone. It’s there until we go to our graves. It’s the team that drives us on, and inspires us to hold on to an ideal that has been handed down to us through generations. It’s the way that they play the game that ultimately counts most -win, lose, or draw.

Over the last 60 years I have seen United as a club, change so much. I’ve ploughed the depths, and risen to the stars, and have been so lucky to witness so many great players performing in our red shirt. I’ve been lucky to see the two best managers in the world produce some of the finest teams you could ever wish to see. And I was really lucky to be able to watch the player who forever in my eyes, will be termed as the greatest football player to have ever put a boot on ….. Duncan.

It saddens me today to see the way that the club is run. There used to be such an affinity between the club and the fan. Yes, we’ll follow the team and support them through thick and thin, but the ordinary fan is now slowly being cleansed from the stadium. Prices have risen so much that families now find it hard to justify spending so much money taking their kids to a game. Large numbers of corps root fans have given up their season tickets, but you reap what you sow. The raucous, vibrant, fanatic who supported and screamed for United through the lean times, is now no longer needed. The club has become so big and so powerful, as the Glazer’s corporate juggernaut bulldozes its way forward. Football wasn’t meant to be like that.

I’m so pleased that I have lived in the era’s that I have – particularly the earlier years. These days I fear for the future of the game. Someday, the Premiership financial bubble will burst, and United will once again see days of mediocrity. I probably won’t be around, but who will the likes of the Premiership, Gill, the Glazers, (although they may well be long gone) look to, to pull them out of the **** then?

Yes, I loved those Saturday match days in the early years. The excitement, the anticipation, the expectation, and the thrill of seeing my heroes – the ‘Babes’ – and all for the princely sum of just Seven Old Pence! Those bloated, ignorant, ****ers in their corporate seats, no matter how much they spend, will never beat that! ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77900 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77712&goto=newpost Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:47:14 GMT In response to the Manchester United Q2 financial results revealed today a
Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) spokesperson said:

"Manchester United revenues continue to grow strongly although costs are
increasing just as quickly so pretty much negating that growth. However the
key figures of interest to supporters show the Glazers have now spent every
penny of the money received from the sale of Ronaldo, and more. That's now
£92.8m spent on buying back their own bond debt that they loaded onto our
club. So statements at the time that all of the Ronaldo money would be made
available for reinvestment were clearly just spin."

"Since the sale of Ronaldo (30th June 2009) net transfers (not including
Ronaldo) have totalled just £90m while they have taken out of the club
£225m to cover their debt payments and interest. What could the club have
done with that extra £225m? Cheaper tickets for loyal fans, investing
massively in the squad and stadium, developing and retaining the best youth
players, competing on an equal basis with the very best teams in Europe.
This is the true cost to Manchester United of the Glazers ownership."

Results available here:
http://mufplc.com/ ]]> MUST Announcements TanyaT http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77712 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77359&goto=newpost Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:36:16 GMT Those who are unable to attend any remembrances in person are welcome to join us on this website for the singing of The Flowers of Manchester (http://www.joinmust.org/forum/../the-flowers-of-manchester.php) on 6 Feb - 15:04 GMT. At that time all traffic to the site will be automatically... Those who are unable to attend any remembrances in person are welcome to join us on this website for the singing of The Flowers of Manchester on 6 Feb - 15:04 GMT. At that time all traffic to the site will be automatically redirected to our online tribute. Simply go to the home page joinMUST.org and we'll take care of the rest.

As has become our custom, we have a special home page with links to stories of the disaster. Just go to http://joinMUST.org. Take some time to read Tom's memories as well. ]]> MUST Announcements J.D. http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77359 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77183&goto=newpost Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:50:33 GMT This is a tribute to the 'Big Fella' that I wrote and the wonderful Pete Martin Put to Music and recorded . Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk0YAmlzlCc ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77183 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77125&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:27:07 GMT Any mention of the name Pearson to most Manchester United fans today, and there is no doubt that they would tell you that you were referring to either Stan Pearson, who played for United from 1937 – 1954, or Stuart ‘Pancho’ Pearson, who played during the period 1974-1978. Both were England... Any mention of the name Pearson to most Manchester United fans today, and there is no doubt that they would tell you that you were referring to either Stan Pearson, who played for United from 1937 – 1954, or Stuart ‘Pancho’ Pearson, who played during the period 1974-1978. Both were England international players. Ask the question ‘how did Stuart Pearson accrue the nickname Pancho?’ and it is my guess that without referring to Google or Wikipedia, that perhaps 1 person in 1000 today would come up with the correct answer.

You see, sandwiched between Stan and Stuart’s careers at Old Trafford, there was another Pearson playing for the club, and that was a young man named Mark Pearson. Mark was born in the Derbyshire village of Ridgeway which lies just south of the South Yorkshire border and is only 5 miles from Sheffield city centre. Back in the 1940’s and 50’s, it was just a little rural village in what was then Sheffield’s green belt area. It was certainly not the sort of place that you would expect to unearth a star schoolboy football player.

However, the wily Joe Armstrong and his team of scouts had spotted the young Mark playing in local schools football, and had then followed his progress into the North East Derbyshire Schools representative team. He had also appeared in the full England Schools trials of 1954. Pearson was an inside forward, small in stature but huge in ability, and he was marked by the Old Trafford staff as ‘one for the future’.

Upon leaving school in 1955 he joined Manchester United at the same time as Welshman Kenny Morgans, and goalkeeper David Gaskell. Mark had an impish personality and was a practical joker and was popular with his young team mates from the first day that he arrived in Manchester. His progress as a player took the same route as all the other youngsters who had signed for United in the previous years. He first played in the Junior team in the Altrincham and District League under the watchful eye of Arthur Powell, but then progressed into the ‘B’ team.

During his first season at Old Trafford, he quickly established himself as a member of the Youth Cup winning team. In April 1956, he played in both legs of the Final against Chesterfield (who had Gordon Banks playing in goal), Amongst his team mates were Joe Carolan, Wilf McGuinness, Kenny Morgans, Alex Dawson and Bobby Charlton. The following season he was again in the victorious youth team which beat West Ham United in the Final when United lifted the trophy for the fifth successive year, and was joined by David Gaskell, and Nobby Lawton. Just 7 years later, Lawton was to play in another final against West Ham, this time when he skippered Preston North End at Wembley in the 1964 FA Cup Final.

Mark Pearson was a very tricky inside left – a schemer. Two good feet, a good passer of the ball, he had an eye for making an opening. Although small, he wasn’t intimidated and was not frightened of the physical aspect of the game. By the end of the 1957 season he had progressed into the United ‘A’ team, but the way ahead for him was looking to be full of challenges. Established as inside forwards in the first team were Billy Whelan and Dennis Viollet. In the reserve team were the likes of Colin Webster, John Doherty, and Bobby Charlton. At just 17 years of age, young Mark was going to have to be patient even to get into the reserve team.

The Easter weekend in 1957 was a red letter weekend for Manchester United. On Good Friday they beat Burnley at Turf Moor by 3-1. The following day, at Old Trafford, they defeated Sunderland by 4-0; a result which clinched the First Division championship for the second successive season. On Easter Monday, they were to play Burnley at Old Trafford, but more importantly, the following Thursday, had to play the most important game in the club’s 79 years history – the second leg of the European Cup semi-final against Real Madrid at Old Trafford.

Having clinched the First Division title and with the importance of the game against Madrid first and foremost in his mind, it was not unpredictable that Matt Busby would make several changes for the home game against Burnley. What could not be envisaged was just how many changes that he would make; the furore that those changes would cause; and the fall-out that would be felt some 11 months later. Busby did make 9 changes for the Burnley game. Of those 9 changes, Dennis Viollet was returning after injury, 7 others all had first team experience behind them, and only 1 (17 years old Alex Dawson) was making his league debut.

Burnley is a little market town nestled into the East Lancashire countryside. It enjoyed its boom years during the period of the Industrial Revolution when it had thriving cotton, wool, mining, and engineering industries. By the turn of the 20th century, Burnley was at the height of its prosperity and the town was inhabited by over 110,000 people. However from 1910 onwards, there began to be a steady downturn in the town’s fortunes. The First World War brought on the early decline of the cotton industry, followed not long after by the great depression and because of this, there began a big decline in population.

Burnley Football Club was founded in 1882 from Burnley Rovers Rugby Union Club. In 1883 they moved to a ground at Turf Moor and are still there today. It is interesting to note that only Preston North End have occupied a football ground for a longer period. It was in 1888 that they became one of the 12 founder members of the Football League. It was not until 1913 that they were to win their first major trophy and this was when they won the FA Cup in the last ever final played at Crystal Palace by beating Liverpool 1-0. This was also the very time first that a reigning monarch (King George V) presented the FA Cup to the winners at an FA Cup final. Their first League Division One title win came in 1920-21, but after that followed 26 years of mediocrity most spent in the Second Division after relegation in 1930.

They were to bounce back immediately after World War II when in 1946/47 they won promotion back to the First Division, and also reached the FA Cup Final where they were beaten 1-0 by Charlton after extra time. In a lot of ways, Burnley were a nondescript type of club who lived in the shadow of their Lancashire neighbours, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, and Blackpool. However, in 1951 a certain Mr. Bob Lord was elected to the Burnley Board and over the next 30 years, would have more impact upon the club than anybody else in its history, including players!

Bob Lord was 43 years old when he was elected onto the Burnley Board. He was a local business man who owned a string of butchers shops throughout East Lancashire. He was an avid supporter of the football club and in 1955, achieved his ambition when he became the club’s chairman. Lord was an autocrat, very much a bully, full of bluster and self importance. He became known as “The Burnley Butcher”. There was only one way of doing things, and that was his. He ran the club in such a belligerent manner that he became arguably the first ever club owner to have a truly national profile. If people argue today about Sir Alex Ferguson’s relationship with the national press and media, then they should go back and look at Bob Lord’s record when dealing with these entities. During the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, at one time or another, he banned reporters, commentators’, television companies, supporters clubs, in fact anybody who dared to criticize Burnley Football Club.

When Matt Busby made it known that he was making several changes for that game against Burnley on Easter Monday 1957, Bob Lord erupted in anger and started making several accusations against Busby, and Manchester United Football Club. Notwithstanding the fact that on the previous Good Friday, United’s almost full strength first team had won a comfortable game at Turf Moor by 3-1 with Liam Whelan scoring a hat-trick, Lord accused United of being disrespectful to his club by not fielding a full strength team. When it became known that there would be 9 changes, Lord’s anger was fueled even more and he threatened to take the matter to the Football League and ask for a points deduction to be imposed.

It is strange to understand why he should have reacted like this. Burnley were on the verge of creating a great team themselves and had some fine international players in their team. Colin McDonald, Jimmy Adamson, Tommy Cummings, Brian Miller, Jimmy McIlroy, Jock Winton, Brian Pilkington, Albert Cheeseborough, and Les Shannon – all experienced wizened First Division players. Surely, it would be to Burnley’s advantage to meet a “weakened” Manchester United team rather than a full strength one?

I was stood behind the scoreboard end goal at Old Trafford that afternoon. When the team changes were announced, I can recall that there was some merriment among the United fans. People quickly looked for their pens and pencils to annotate those changes into their programme team sheet. The thing was, United fans knew that the second team could probably hold its own with most other teams in the First Division. That reserve team had a strong following and scored goals galore in their Central League. As it turned out, Burnley were no match for them that sunny afternoon and they were beaten by 2-0, with young Alex Dawson scoring on his debut, and Colin Webster netting the second. If Bob Lord was angry with United before the game, he was even livid after it, and that defeat at Old Trafford that day was something he was never to forget.

We all know what happened on 6th February 1958. However, as the passage of time has rolled by during these past 53 years, much of what happened and was said in the 13 days immediately afterwards, has been lost and forgotten. What should never be forgotten is the outrageous and uncalled for vitriolic statements made by Bob Lord in an interview with the newspaper the ‘News Chronicle’ on February 17th 1958. This was just two days before Manchester United was to play its first game since the tragedy had occurred. It’s my belief that Bob Lord never forgot the embarrassment of what happened over the Easter period the previous year. His exact words were;

“Manchester United have to fight their way out of trouble and Brian Pilkington (there was never any bid for Pilkington from United, it was just press rumour, and United were linked to everybody and anybody in the days after the tragedy – including Finney, Mathews and Puskas!) will not be joining them. If United want to pick up other club’s best players so that they can win the League, Cup, European Cup, Central League Cup, and FA Youth Cup, then they had better think again.

I am just sick and tired of the whole business. When clubs offered to help it was with players sufficient to keep them ticking over until they could rebuild. Not to supply them with the cream of this country’s best footballers.

If they think that they are coming to Burnley to take any stars, they had better have second thoughts."

Lord went on to say that Blackburn’s then manager, Johnny Carey (who of course had captained United) would not be sending his skipper Ronnie Clayton or his England international winger Bryan Douglas to Old Trafford, but compounded everything with the following gratuitous, callous statement:

"Of course, Carey can’t afford to do that. Football is a business, a competitive one. While one can have sympathy for United, one cannot be guided by emotions.

United went into this with their eyes wide open. I am very sorry for them. They have come unstuck, but they’ll just have to fight their way out of it. If they had been elected to the European Cup by the other clubs in the League to represent them, then it would have been another matter. But they went into it of their own accord."

It was as much like saying that after a colliery disaster which had killed a number of underground workers, that nobody had ever asked them to become miners.

For Mark Pearson he was propelled from the club’s third team and into the hurly burly of first team football in the FA Cup, First Division, and European Cup. On February 19th 1958, 18 years old Mark was included in the first team for his debut in that never to be forgotten FA Cup 5th Round tie against Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford. His was name that was penciled into the tenth place for United in the programme’s team sheet which had been left blank as even up to a few hours before the game was due to begin, Jimmy Murphy still could not say what his team would be.

Young Mark acquitted himself well against the Wednesday that night in an atmosphere that was tense and so full of emotion. He had a hand in two of the three goals scored by United. After that he was ever present in the team including the day when he stepped out at Turf Moor on March 15th 1958 which was his sixth consecutive appearance. Mark was only small, but was combative and could be feisty. He wore long sideburns which had prompted one of the sports journalists to nickname him “Pancho” because he said that he looked like a Mexican bandit. Those sideburns were to have a lot of influence on what was to be said after the game had finished.

The games had come thick and fast for United after they had gotten back to playing and the Burnley game would be their sixth in 24 days. Not taxing by today’s standards - maybe. However, when you take into account the tide of grief and emotion that was felt at this time, and that this team that was sprinkled with a lot of young kids who were trying to uphold the traditions and standards of players who just six weeks before had been their team mates and idols, it’s not surprising that they were affected. They were not used to the regular pressures and hurly-burly of the First Division and the tremendous expectations placed upon their shoulders to help keep the club afloat and in the top echelon.

It is interesting to look at the team that took to the field at Turf Moor that day. It was; Gregg; Foulkes, Greaves; Goodwin, Cope, Crowther; Webster, Harrop, Dawson, Pearson, and Charlton.

Given the comments made by Bob Lord just a few weeks before, it is understandable that there would be more than a little edge to this game. It is also reasonable to believe that Jimmy Murphy would have used some of those words to motivate his young team in his pre-match team talk. He was so good at winding up the players for the task that lay ahead.

There was a lot of ‘niggle’ in the game and tackles were flying in from the start. Harry Gregg made a wonderful save but lost his hold on the ball and was immediately challenged in a robust way by Alan Shackleton the Burnley forward. Harry recovered but went after Shackleton with fists raised. Shackleton went down and Harry tumbled on top of him and it caused a bit of melee before the referee and other players calmed the situation down. The tackles were still tasty and it was no surprise when Newlands of Burnley and Crowther of United had their names taken.

Young Mark Pearson had been on the periphery of it all until the 31st minute when he tackled Les Shannon from behind and brought him down. Shannon leaped up from the ground with fists raised and bundled into Pearson. Amazingly, when the referee got between them, it was Mark Pearson who was ordered off the field. United down to 10 men struggled. The feistiness continued in the second half with Shannon the main provocateur and his main intention seemed to be to take Bobby Charlton out of the game. Despite the number of fouls which he committed, Referee Arthur Oxley deemed his play as not worthy of taking his name.

At one point, the ball ran out of play and into the United dug-out area. As Shannon went to collect the ball it seemed as though it was withheld from him. There was a heated exchange of words between him, Jimmy Murphy, Jack Crompton, Ernie Taylor (who was out injured) and young Pearson. Oxley sprinted over to defuse the situation and warned the United bench. The game finished with Burnley winning by 3-0.

After the game Bob Lord gave an interview to a local reporter. During that interview his anger could not be controlled and he accused Manchester United of being ‘a bunch of bad losers’ and of ‘playing and behaving like a bunch of Teddy Boys.’ Today, that jibe may not sound like much, but back then it was a disgraceful slur to make.

The Teddyboy emerged in the 1950s as Britain was coming to the end of post-war austerity and represented the first face of British youth culture. Working class teenagers could for the first time afford good clothes, a bicycle or motorcycle and entertainment. The clothing that the Teddyboys wore was designed to shock their parents' generation. It consisted of an Edwardian style drape jacket, much too 'camp' for a working class man, suede Gibson shoes with thick crepe soles, narrow 'drainpipe' trousers, a smart shirt and a loud tie - usually of the 'Slim Jim' or bootlace type. The trademark drape jacket was not as impractical as it seems. Not only did it act as a badge of recognition but, as it was made of woollen cloth with lots of pockets, it kept its owner warm as he hung around in the street and was also good at concealing weapons and alcohol. The boys tried a number of experimental hairstyles, the most favourite being the overblown quiff with a DA (ducks arse) at the back.

They formed gangs who sometimes had a common uniform like a particular colour of jacket or socks. For the most part, violence and vandalism was not too serious by modern standards, and exaggerated by the media, but there were instances of serious gang warfare with razors and knives. Some Teddyboys had fascist tendencies and were involved with gangs of youths that attacked the West Indians that emigrated to Britain in the mid Fifties.

So you can see why Bob Lord’s words had upset and were taken seriously by everybody at United. There was a total condemnation of them in the press but Lord when pressed, would not retract a single word. Jimmy Murphy was to say;

"It was a shameful thing to say. I take the strongest exception to these comments. I must defend my boys against such unwarranted and unworthy comments. This was a hard match. There was a spell of 10 minutes when it looked really bad. But I have seen much worse.

The players certainly had no grudges. Our goalkeeper Harry Gregg, and Burnley’s Alan Shackleton, who had a bit of a rough tussle, came off arm in arm. When I heard it was suggested that we became mad because we didn’t like being beaten, I just ignored the talk. Believe me, when I took over at the club I did not expect to win a single game let alone get into a Cup semi-final.

Anyway after the game at Burnley I was concentrating on the Cup game with Fulham. So were the players. I am sure that the match would have been forgotten by both teams had it not been for the unnecessary comments from the Burnley Chairman. After all, we got licked 4-0 by West Bromwich the previous Saturday and I went straight into the West Brom dressing room to shake hands with their players and thank them for three great games.”

Desmond Hackett who was the chief sports writer for the Daily Express at the time wrote in the Monday morning edition;

“Mr. Lord has stated that if Manchester United are allowed to go on as they are doing, it will be the end of organized football, should examine the style of his own team. They are strong, forthright, unyielding performers. But nobody has complained about their dour, direct method.

Remember when Jimmy Murphy took over he had only one plea to make; “let us carry on in the best way we can.”

Do that small thing Mr. Lord. Do not attack kids who are doing a man’s job so magnificently. Do not join those shallow-hearted types who shamefully abuse Manchester United of trading on sympathy.

Attend to the affairs of Burnley Mr. Lord. Attend to them closely, because you have done your players a grave disservice. I am sure that not one of them would support your comments.”

Since that date, the feelings of Manchester United fans towards Burnley Football Club have always been more than a little sour. The story of that Easter Monday match left a sour taste for years afterwards and was handed down to later generations. There is something about Burnley that has never ever sat quite right with United fans ever since.

For Mark Pearson he was to serve a two game suspension for the sending off which he did not deserve. He played in the first game of the semi-final against Fulham the following week after the Burnley game but was suspended for the replay at Highbury. When Dennis Viollet resumed playing again in April 1958, Mark lost his place and unfortunately did not appear in the 1958 FA Cup Final team. However, he did play in the two legs of the European Cup semi-final against AC Milan.

Sadly, although young Mark went on to make some 80 appearances for United and scored 14 goals, he was never able to fulfill his early promise at United. Like so many contemporaries of his time, the effect of those immediate post-Munich years did take their toll on him. Ernie Taylor, Stan Crowther, and Colin Webster left United in the autumn of 1958; Bobby Harrop in 1959; Freddie Goodwin and Ian Greaves in 1960; Ronnie Cope and Alex Dawson in 1961; and finally Mark himself when he was transferred to Sheffield Wednesday in 1963. Only Gregg, Foulkes and Charlton stayed at the club from the team that played at Turf Moor on Easter Monday 1958.

For Mark Pearson, who now lives in retirement in his native Derbyshire, he can always say; “I WAS the original ‘Pancho’ Pearson!” ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77125 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76711&goto=newpost Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:52:42 GMT MUST Media Release - Sunday 18th December 2011

Monday the 19th December 2011 represents a hugely important anniversary in Manchester United's history yet this story has received surprisingly little coverage in the media to date. The importance of the story and the strong parallels between 1931 and 2011 justifies, at the very least, an acknowledgement in Monday match reports of Sunday's game between QPR & Manchester United and indeed, given the significance of this piece of history and the parallels with today, a dedicated article on the 80th anniversary would seem entirely appropriate.

We'd be grateful to receive (duncan@joinmust.org) links to any resulting articles covering this story so we can circulate them to our 175,000 members and via social media to Manchester United supporters worldwide.


MUST remembers the former chairman and saviour of Manchester United, the great James Gibson.

James W Gibson - the man who saved Manchester United - 80 years on

Monday 19th December 2011 is 80th Anniversary, to the day, of the date when James W Gibson saved Manchester United. That is no exaggeration. The economy was in meltdown and the club was in huge debt. 80 years on you might be forgiven for thinking little has changed. However in December 1931 the club was literally on the brink of extinction and was only saved days before Christmas when club secretary Walter Crickmer went to the house of a Manchester businessman to ask for help. That man was James W Gibson. After little more than an hour, Crickmer left Gibson's house in Hale. He did not leave empty handed. The generous sum he received was not only enough to pay the backlog of player’s wages and keep the club’s debtors at bay over the festive period but there was even enough left over to buy the players a turkey each for Christmas.

This was the beginning of James Gibson's involvement in Manchester United and his lifetime contribution was immense. Not only saving the club from extinction but going on to invest in the club, become Chairman and play an instrumental role in the development of the innovative youth system and the Busby era. It is fair to say he set Manchester United on a course which created perhaps the greatest football club in the world.

Reading the history of James W Gibson one cannot help but note the stark contrast between 1931 and the owners of many Premier League clubs today. Gibson was a man who only ever gave to Manchester United Football Club and its fans - clearing the debt and expecting nothing in return. A real local hero who deserves proper recognition for his selfless acts.

So on Monday we remember his contribution. The links below provide further historical background.

CEREMONY - 11.30am, Monday 19th December, Old Trafford
On the morning of Monday 19th December 2011 at 11:30am the Embling family (James Gibson's relatives), along with the Mayor of Trafford, will lay flowers at the James Gibson Plaque on the Railway Bridge on Sir Matt Busby Way. The Embling family wish it to be known that any United supporters and media who want to attend and celebrate this occasion & the life of James Gibson are very welcome. Alan Embling, supporters and MUST representatives will be available for media interview at the ceremony or over the telephone. Contact details are below.

Background:
https://www.joinmust.org/gibson/index.htm

15 point bio/highlights of James Gibson's life:
https://www.joinmust.org/gibson/fifteen.htm

A more in depth look at James Gibson which sets some context to the time.(written by Andrew Embling the son of Alan):
https://www.joinmust.org/gibson/eighty.htm


James W. Gibson & his wife, Lillian, inspect the newly named "Manchester United" locomotive.



Manchester United engine nameplate fetches £40,000 at auction


CONTACTS:

Embling family (Gibson family relatives):
Alan Embling Home Phone Number 01323 873 434 Mobile Number 07958 626360
Frances Embling (Alan's wife) mobile 07957 302336

MUST:
Sean Bones: 07743 001164
Duncan Drasdo: 07883 070 876
Twitter: @Drasdo ]]> MUST Announcements Paul Brooks http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76711 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76229&goto=newpost Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:31:13 GMT Sir Matt and Sir Alex - The Wonder of Two In 1878, the workers of the Carriage and Wagon Works at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway were granted permission by their bosses to form a football team. From those first embryonic days when those workers played on a bare patch of land just to the... Sir Matt and Sir Alex - The Wonder of Two

In 1878, the workers of the Carriage and Wagon Works at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway were granted permission by their bosses to form a football team. From those first embryonic days when those workers played on a bare patch of land just to the north of Manchester’s city centre, a lot of water has run under the bridge. Little could they have ever imagined what was eventually going to evolve from such an austere and humble beginning. Today, the legacy of those workers and those far distant days is the juggernaut of a club that is called Manchester United.

Apart from a brief period of success during the first decade of the 20th Century, Newton Heath, and Manchester United’s first 50 years of history, could only be described as nothing less than mediocre. It would be true to say that the club was known more for happenings off the field of play, than those initial small successes achieved on it. It was almost always a club shrouded in poverty and had twice come close to becoming bankrupt and extinct. The club was saved on both occasions by local benefactors who saw some kind of masochistic benefit in investing their hard earned cash and time, into what could only be described on both occasions as ‘lost causes’. That they did, gave credence to their foresight and vision.

These persons have become revered in Manchester United’s history. Because of their faith in what they were doing in keeping the club from going under, it has been able to build a history which is now littered with personalities, accomplishments, and achievements, that could never have been envisaged all those years ago. J.H. Davies, J. Taylor, W. Deakin, and J.Brown were the first men to rescue the club in 1902. Later, years saw the arrival of James Gibson in 1932. There were also many other unsung heroes outside of the Boardroom who helped keep the club functioning. People like Fred Attock, ‘Father’ Bird, Harry Stafford, George Lawton, Ernest Magnall, George Bedford, Harold Hardman, Louis Rocca, and Walter Crikmer. Apart from the years between 1906 and 1911, there were no real tangible successes apart from a few promotions out of the Second Division. These were almost all followed very quickly by relegation back to the place from whence they came, so for the most part the club wallowed in the doldrums.

When James Gibson took over as Chairman of the club in 1932, not only did he inject much needed monies into the club, he took a huge interest in the development of it as well. It was Gibson who persuaded the Midland Railway Company which operated a service from Manchester Central to Liverpool, to put in a passenger halt at Old Trafford on the line which passed directly behind the main stand of the stadium. He also had a revolutionary idea which would take the best part of 20 years to come to fruition. It was simplistic in that Gibson thought that football clubs generated their own financial problems in that they spent large amounts of money buying players, many of whom were found to be bad investments. His vision was one where his club would find the best young local, and schoolboy talent, and develop them through from the junior teams, and up into the first team at Football League level. It was quite visionary, and in the years from 1937 – 1939, his plans began to take shape.

In 1936, United gained promotion back to the First Division. Then, in 1937, with Louis Rocca and Walter Crikmer overseeing it, the Manchester United Junior Athletic Club (MUJAC) was established. They played in the Chorlton Amateur League and in their first season scored an incredible 223 goals. At that time, Scott Duncan was the manager, but in 1938 he left to take over the reins at Ipswich Town who had just been elected to the Football League. Crikmer took over as manager at Old Trafford and immediately started to bring much younger players into the first team. Chairman Gibson was overjoyed and stated; “We have no intention of buying any more mediocrities. From now on we will have Manchester United composed of Manchester players.” There was a fresh energy all around Old Trafford and the future looked bright. Sadly, on September 3rd 1939, World War II broke out, and football as the fan knew it, was put on hold for almost seven years.

When football finally did resume its normality in 1946, few United fans at that time could have ever imagined the enormous strides that the club would make over the next 50 years, or that just two men would be responsible for making Manchester United arguably the biggest football club in the world.

Today, when one looks back over the club’s 133 years of existence, it is surprising to find that out of a total of 17 Managers employed during that period, only three of them have ever managed teams that have won the coveted First Division/Premiership title – Ernest Magnall, in those halcyon years between 1906 -11, then Sir Matt Busby, and after him, Sir Alex Ferguson. Many others failed along the way and it is no coincidence that the three who were able to do so enjoyed longevity in their tenure, and so were given the time to build those championship winning teams. In Magnall’s case however Manchester City was able to coerce him into leaving Old Trafford in 1912 to join them. Although he stayed with City until 1924, he was never able to emulate the feats which he achieved during his tenure at Manchester United.

In May 2011, I was over in Manchester for my Annual Dinner and to take in the last home game of the season against Blackpool. For the previous 12 months, I had been involved with the students at Stretford High School in a project about the Busby Babes. Chris Hirst, the Director of Learning at the school, invited me to go over and speak to the year 7 students. It was a refreshing experience. What I will always recall is the Q and A session with the kids after I had spoken. They had obviously done their homework, but one particular question floored me when it was asked – “Who is the best manager – Sir Alex Ferguson or Sir Matt Busby.” Wow! How do you come up with an answer to that? Do you let your heart rule your head? Do you allow sentiment to cloud your judgment? It really is a difficult question to answer, but fortunately I was able to give those students some kind of answer. However, since that day, that question has turned over in my head many, many times, and I have thought about it a lot, especially with the 25th anniversary of Sir Alex’s appointment on November 6th 1986, becoming imminent.

Sir Matt’s tenure as manager finally came to an end in 1971 after a period of some 25 years and 15 years before Ferguson first entered Old Trafford. Those in between years saw a mixture of mediocrity, a glimmer of hope, a period of boredom, and of being the ‘nearly men.’ It also saw the arrival and departure of four managers, O’Farrell, Docherty, Sexton, and Atkinson. Two came close to winning the First Division Championship – Docherty and Atkinson. One fell on the sword of his infidelity with a colleague’s wife, and the other because he became too blasé and too close to the players. The other two, O’Farrell and Sexton, found the pressures of managing a club the size and with the status of Manchester United, just too daunting. So why is it then that Sir Matt and Sir Alex succeeded where so many others floundered?

The simple answer to that question can be described in one word – character. Sir Matt had it in abundance, as does Sir Alex today. Both men were blessed with the inner strength, single mindedness, and ever burning desire to make Manchester United into the finest football club in the world. That they did succeed is beyond doubt. There is not a country in the world today where the name Manchester United is not known. Love them or hate them, they are still the most talked about club in world football today.

Both men imposed their vastly differing personalities upon the club from the very first day that they commenced work. It is their DNA. Busby, the pipe smoking, soft spoken Scot, who was never heard to raise his voice in anger, but who still ruled with a firm hand, and was the most astute of men when it came to both club, and football politics. Ferguson, who can be said to be loud, volatile, arrogant, and to rule by fear, but like Busby, knows how to play the political side of the game. However, when it gets down to the real nitty-gritty of decision making and running the football side of the club, the only thing they would ever consider to a situation was if the outcome was to the good and benefit of Manchester United.

Both men arrived at the club when it was at low ebb. In Busby’s case it could be said to have been virtually non-existent, and it is a wonder that Chairman Gibson, Rocca and Crikmer, were able to persuade him to take on the job. No ground (Old Trafford was suffering from bomb damage incurred in WWII), and no money to buy players, the prospects did not look too bright. But when Busby met James Gibson at the Cornbrook Cold Storage facility in February 1945, they both outlined their ideas as to how each thought that Manchester United should be run. There was a mutual liking for the items discussed in their conversation, and at the end of it, Busby walked out with a five years contract and a salary of 750 pounds per year. It was to turn out to be the moment when the foundations of Manchester United really became cemented, and the following 25 years brought the most significant successes to the club, and also saw the most terrible tragedy ever to impact British sport.

Busby was a radical thinker where football was concerned. It was through him that the term ‘track suit manager’ was advocated. Prior to WWII, football managers were ‘suits’ and never ever seen out on the training pitch. Busby changed all that. He trained with the players, talked to them throughout practice games, and illustrated exactly how he wanted the game to be played. He also knew that he could not do everything himself and enlisted the services of the genial Welshman, Jimmy Murphy, as his assistant. Murphy’s work and contribution to Manchester United should never ever be forgotten, and he is without doubt the best assistant manager that the game of football has ever seen. Busby built his own team of trusted servants around him and trusted them implicitly to carry out the plans laid down for his, and James Gibson’s visions.

The club’s directors were also responsible for team selection, but within a year of his appointment he had wrested that responsibility from them, and he was also solely responsible for negotiating transfers, and for selling on players. In his own words;

“Call it confidence, conceit, arrogance, or ignorance, but I was unequivocal about it. At the advanced age of 35, I accepted the position only if they would let me have all my own way. As the manager, I wanted to manage – I would be the Boss.”

In those early years he had to stand his ground with those directors, particularly with Harold Hardman who was later to become Chairman, and there was more than a few occasions when he threatened to quit. Fortunately, he was always able to get his way as those directors acquiesced to what he wanted.

Busby’s reputation and that of Manchester United grew. He moulded his teams to his and Jimmy’s way of wanting the game to be played. His first team was mainly made up of players who had come back from serving their country in WWII and had lost six years of their careers. However, they became the most exciting team to watch during those post war years and in 1948, ended the club’s 37 years wait for a major trophy when they were victorious in what is often described as one of the best Wembley FA Cup Finals ever. They were also runners-up in Division 1 on four separate occasions before finally becoming League Champions in 1952 for the first time since 1911. That great team gave Busby the precious time which he needed to see the club’s innovative youth policy come to fruition.

What followed was revolutionary, and his team of “Babes” would dominate English football for the next few years winning two First Division championships, and they came so close to winning what was then a glorious treble. Busby was far sighted and had fought the Football League about United entering the new European Cup competition. He could see the benefits of his teams pitting their skills against the best football clubs in Europe. He could also see the financial benefits that would be brought to the club, but not only that, he coveted the prestige in Europe that Manchester United’s name would bring. Where others had feared to tread, Busby had foraged forward, and with his calm, but firm political nous and manipulation, once again he won the day. If he had not, who is to say how long it would have taken for English clubs to be allowed to compete in European competition?

Of course following the European dream, Busby, and the club, were to endure the horrific tragedy of Munich. It was a disaster which once again, threatened to destroy the future of the club. Fortunately, Jimmy Murphy was able to take over the mantle as manager and he did more than a remarkable job in keeping the club afloat. It is incredible that upon his recovery Busby was able to put together another great team and that just five years after the disaster happened, they won another major trophy by lifting the FA Cup, and then went on to win two more First Division championships. In 1968, the Holy Grail was at last achieved when United became the first English team to win the coveted European Cup.

It was great testament to his character, will, and determination to keep Manchester United at the forefront of both English and European football. There had been battles along the way with both the FA, and the Football League, and there were several Chairmen at other First Division clubs who would have relished in the demise of Manchester United. He could be as hard as bell metal in his dealings with other clubs, or the legislators of the game, as well as with his own staff. However, never once did Busby lose his grip and he fought those battles in his quiet, dogged, but determined way. He was no push over as the authorities found out. His standing in the British game made him the patriarch of his time. As Hugh McIlvanney wrote at the time of Sir Matt’s passing:

‘Greatness does not gad about, reaching for people in handfuls. It settles deliberately on a blessed few, and Matt Busby was one of them. If Busby had stood dressed for the pit, and somebody alongside him in the room had worn ermine, there would have been no difficulty about deciding who was special. Granting him knighthood did not elevate him. It raised however briefly, the whole dubious phenomenon of the honours system.'

Busby emanated presence, substance, the quality of strength without arrogance. No man in my experience ever exemplified better the ability to treat you as an equal while leaving you with the sure knowledge that you were less than he was. Such men do not have to be appointed leaders. Some democracy of the instincts of the blood elects them to be in charge.

That innate distinction was the source of his effect on footballers. He never had to bully. One glance from under those eloquent eyebrows was worth 10 bellows from more limited natures. Players did not fear his wrath. They dreaded his disapproval. His judgment of the priorities of football was so sound, his authority so effortless, that a shake of his head inflicted an embarrassment from which the only rescue was recovery of his respect.
Using Shakespeare’s words to praise somebody we knew is bound to be a rather wild risk but invoking Mark Anthony’s lines about Brutus: “His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world “This was a man”.’

Like Busby before him, Alex Ferguson’s arrival at Old Trafford came when the club was in complete disarray. Ron Atkinson’s early years had promised so much, but delivered just two FA Cup winning teams in five years. It is true to say that towards the end of his tenure, there was definitely problems with the structure of the club, especially at the grass roots level. In the 1985/86 season United had got off to an electrifying start winning their first 10 League games. They were still unbeaten after fifteen games after they had beaten Coventry City 2-0 at Old Trafford on November 2nd, and they had increased their lead over Liverpool to a 10 points margin. As they went into 1986 they were still topping the table by 5 points although both Liverpool and Everton had played a game more. After beating Birmingham City on New Year's Day 1986, the following 18 games brought a paltry return of 6 wins, 6 draws and 6 losses. It was the losses and draws at Old Trafford that cost them dearly and at the end of the season, United finished in 4th place some 12 points behind the champions, arch enemies, Liverpool. A season that had promised so much became an agony for the faithful fans.

The following season, 1985/86 got off to a disastrous start and on November 1st, after drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford against Coventry City, United languished in 19th place in the league and had managed just 3 wins from their 13 fixtures. The wheels had come off, and worse was to follow. On the following Wednesday evening, in a replayed League Cup tie against Southampton at the Dell, United were heavily defeated by 4-1. The Saints fans sang vociferously; “He’s round, he’s fat, he’s going to get the sack – Atkinson, Atkinson.” They were not wrong – 24 hours later he was gone. Atkinson had got too close to his players, and there was a definite drink culture with the senior players that he could not curtail. On the club’s pre-season tour to Holland he fined seven senior players for an after-hours drinking soiree. Together with some bad investments in the transfer market, and his own personal life problems, he had certainly lost his credibility to manage Manchester United, and although he could not see it, he was the master of his own demise.

There is some conflict regarding when Ferguson was approached by United regarding the manager’s job at Old Trafford. There was a lot of suspicion that he had been approached before the sacking of Atkinson. Certainly, Atkinson’s sacking and the search for a new man had been discussed vehemently during the earlier weeks by the United Board. Sir Bobby Charlton confirms this in his autobiography ‘My Manchester United Years’. Charlton championed Ferguson’s appointment when the remainder of the board wanted Terry Venables. He’d spoken to Ferguson in Mexico during the summer’s World Cup finals. There is a story that there had been a clandestine meeting some days before Ferguson’s appointment, and that this had taken place at a motorway service area in Scotland between Ferguson, Martin Edwards, Bobby Charlton, and United’s legal man, Maurice Watkins. Whenever questioned about the story, none of the persons concerned have ever confirmed, nor denied the occasion.

Ferguson’s very first meeting with his players took place on Friday, November 7th, 1986. What he saw certainly did not please him and made him realize the enormity of the task that was at hand. The previous evening, and after his sacking, ‘Big Ron’ had thrown a party at his house and several of the senior players had been in attendance. When Ferguson addressed the assembled group at The Cliff that morning, it is more than fair to say that several of them were suffering from a distinct lack of concentration. It was a far cry back to Sir Matt’s first experience when he had first addressed his new players back in 1946. Under Atkinson the training regime had been allowed to become slack. Training had supposed to begin at 10.30 a.m. – that is only if Atkinson turned up on time. Under Ferguson it became a much different matter – it began at 9.30a.m., and, seeing as he was in his office every morning at 7.30a.m., he was there when the players began arriving. Anybody turning up late soon discovered what the penalty would be and woe betide them if they transgressed again.

There was no doubt that Ferguson was appalled at the state that the club was in. Just like Sir Matt had done all those years ago, he had to restructure the club from top to bottom. He got rid of the deadwood in the scouting area and completely reorganized it. If there was a youngster who was thought to be of United caliber, then he wanted to know about it, and woe betides the scouts if any of those youngsters slipped through the net. He knew that the rebuilding process was going to take time, and that there would be some painful decisions to be taken along the way. One by one he got rid of the bad apples on the playing side, and others that were not up to his standards were also shown the door. These were players on high wages who were also a barrier to the younger players breaking through. As Sir Matt had done, those tough decisions were never shirked. The early years were as tough a ride as a manager could get and he had to fight his corner in the boardroom just as Sir Matt had done.

Within a year of his appointment, his relationship with United’s Chairman, Martin Edwards was not as good as it could have been and it was all down to the financial constraints placed upon him. He was getting frustrated and stated at a board meeting;

‘I came here thinking that I would have the luxury of buying players. I have done a lot of hard work at youth levels, but to win the league we need to buy. I’m very disappointed that I haven’t had that kind of money. Liverpool have bought the best but what sticks in my gullet is the difference between them and us. I respect them – but I don’t like being second. Mr. Chairman, you now face two very tough choices between having a very good team or balancing the books. It is impossible to have both at present.’

Eventually, he started to get his way and along with a certain amount of financing, players were also shipped out to supplement the cost of bringing better players in. Ferguson was building blocks, and one by one they were starting to cement the foundations that he needed. However, it was taking time. He was never afraid to embrace Sir Matt and talk to him, and also Jimmy Murphy, before he died. It was something that previous managers before him, apart from Docherty, had been unable to bring themselves to do. Ferguson’s outlook was that with that amount of experience and expertise there for his asking; it would be silly not to tap into it.

By the start of the 1989/90 season, from outside Old Trafford, things looked as bad as they had done on the day that Atkinson had been dismissed. The fans were restless, the board was restless, and there is no doubt that the hatchets were out for the manager. On January 1st 1990, after drawing at home to QPR, United languished down in 15th position in the league. Millions had been spent on players – Leighton, Anderson, Bruce, Phelan, Pallister, Ince, Webb, McClair, Hughes, Wallace, and Sharpe. On the terraces at home matches, there had even been heard a concerted chorus of “Fergie Out” reverberating around the stadium. Even Red News was to lash out and was typical of the feeling at the time;

‘What really hurts Alex, is that under you, we’ve had **** football, **** atmosphere, **** boardroom shenanigans, and our support is drifting away.’

Even ex-players and current players were having a go. Willie Morgan was keen to state in the local paper that he didn’t want to go and watch United again for a very long time. Jim Leighton and Clayton Blackmore even went as far as to say that Ferguson had lost the dressing room and that the players thought that he would be on his way, sooner rather than later. In a home game just before Christmas 1989, a fan unfurled a homemade banner on a thinly populated Stretford End which stated – “3 years of excuses and it’s still crap … ta-ra Fergie.”

These were pressures that Sir Matt had never ever had to face. Boardroom politics and hostility, yes, but there was never any backlash from United fans. There was never a time when United’s fan base was ever less than 100% behind him. Times had changed though, and though Busby had seen the advent of the greater freedoms of the 60’s and the more vociferous and younger type of fan, he was never subjected to the outside hostilities that Ferguson was. Matt was shrewd and managed and massaged journalist’s egos. He was a master at PR, but McIlvanney said that was wrong. He said that Human Relations (HR) was Matt’s specialty. To quote him;

‘He conquered millions of hearts one at a time, moving out from his club, and the adopted city that he loved, into the world of football and the wider world beyond that. The way that the huge power of his personality worked was the benign equivalent of house-to-house fighting.’

Those words could never have been written about Ferguson in his early years at United. One could say that it was his personality which changed people’s view of United outside of the Old Trafford faithful. Unlike Sir Matt, he didn’t take defeat gracefully, and would launch tirades at referees, linesmen, and even rival clubs, particularly Liverpool. Opposing fans saw United as bad losers, whingers, and still do to this day. But it was all part of Ferguson’s make-up, he wears his heart on his sleeve where Manchester United are concerned. The pressures upon the man were enormous and not only did he have to deal with the unrest on the terraces, he had to deal with criticisms from ‘phone-ins on local and BBC radio stations, as well as from the many fanzines that had started to appear from the mid-1980’s.

Only the Board members who were serving at the time will ever know the real truth as to whether Ferguson would have lost his job had United lost to Forest in that FA Cup tie on the first Saturday in January, 1990. There was immense media pressure upon him in the week preceding the tie, and 99% of the media pundits were of the opinion that he would be out of a job by the following Sunday morning. Over the years the press had become more and more intrusive, and sports editors and journalists were not of the mould that Busby had found during his tenure. This was now a beast of a considerable different nature, and could be scathing in both professional and personal aspects. Nothing was judged to be sacred. Looking back it’s difficult to envisage how Sir Matt would have handled the intrusiveness and downright vindictiveness that opined towards Manchester United at the start of the 1990’s, and has continued since.

That United won that cup tie by 1-0 is consigned to the history books which show that after four hard years, Ferguson’s team was finally able to lift its first major trophy. The platform was now there and his dynasty began to take shape. The following season they finished 6th in the League, reached the League Cup Final (losing 1-0 to Sheff Wed), but it culminated in them winning the European Cup Winners Cup in Rotterdam against the mighty Barcelona. It was the first year that English clubs had been allowed back into European competition after the 5 year ban imposed after the Heysel tragedy of 1985.

In 1991/92, despite the club winning the League Cup by defeating Forest 1-0 at Wembley, it was to prove to be a season of bitter disappointment with United capitulating from being league leaders with five games to go in the run-in. The title seemed certain to come back to Old Trafford after 25 years, but of those last 5 games, United were to draw one and lose three – the ultimate pain being the loss by 2-0 to Liverpool at Anfield which confirmed Leeds United as First Division champions. Nobody felt that defeat more than Alex Ferguson.

Behind the scenes at Old Trafford his building bricks were being cemented into solid blocks and the youth team won the FA Youth Cup for the first time since 1964. For the club, it was a significant achievement and one that was looked upon with great pride. Amongst those youngsters who lifted that trophy were Gary Neville, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, and Robbie Savage. Two of the substitutes were a certain Ryan Giggs, and Keith Gillespie. The following season the youth team was beaten finalists losing 4-1 on aggregate to Leeds United. Additions to the United youth team included Paul Scholes and Phil Neville. All eight players were later to excel at international level. Not one of the Leeds United players made it to that level and for a few of them, they only saw careers played out in the lower divisions of the Football League. Nobody was prouder of United’s youth team than was Sir Matt as he watched them from the stands. In later years Ferguson was to say;

‘Sir Matt lost and rebuilt a team, rebuilding it the right way, in the fashion of what he thought Manchester United should be. My job really was to regain that.’

Season 1992/93 saw the inception of the Premier League and the increased levels of television money being brought into the game. It also saw the beginning of the destruction of a way of life that had gone on for well over 100 years – normal Saturday afternoon football. It was the start of the tail wagging the dog. The piper had to be paid and the FA had sold its soul to the Premier League. However, for Manchester United and for Ferguson, things were about to change. By the first week in December, United were in 5th position in the League some 9 points behind the surprise leaders, Norwich City. During that week, a chance ‘phone call from the Leeds United chairman Bill Fotherby to his counterpart at United, Martin Edwards, was an enquiry asking if United would be interested in letting Dennis Irwin go. Ferguson, who was with Edwards at the time didn’t want to know, but he did pass Edwards a small piece of paper which had written upon it; ‘ask him about Cantona’. The United chairman’s eyebrows lifted in surprise but ask he did, and he was surprised when Fotherby did not rebuff him but said he would call back. Less than half an hour later the return call came and Fotherby said Leeds would accept just one million pounds for the Frenchman. Ferguson was delighted and the deal was concluded. The final brick in the block was about to arrive and little could anybody both inside or outside of the club ever have imagined just what an impact this piece would have over the next four years.

When Eric Cantona was unveiled at a press conference as United’s latest signing, the press and media thought that Ferguson had lost his marbles. There was widespread disbelief that United had signed a player with such a flawed temperament, and one who had a more than colourful past. Despite this, Ferguson played his hunch and it turned out to be the master stroke that saw the catalyst for the next five years of unbridled success. On April 21st 1993, after beating Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park, United were four points clear of Aston Villa their nearest challengers with just two games to play and they had played the same number of games. On May 2nd, Villa was at home to Oldham Athletic, a team languishing in the bottom three of the league. It was a game everybody expected Villa to win easily, but surprisingly they lost 0-1, and United were champions for the first time since 1967. The celebration party at Steve Bruce, the United captain’s home in Hale, went on well into the daylight hours with all the first team squad in attendance.

That evening United had a home game to play against Blackburn Rovers and when the players strode onto the pitch, many of them were suffering from king sized hangovers. They went behind very early to a Kevin Gallagher goal, and it could have been even worse had the referee denied the Rovers a perfectly legitimate penalty claim just shortly afterwards. But as the United player’s heads cleared, Ryan Giggs equalized with a wonderful free kick, Paul Ince added a second, and then minutes before the final whistle, Gary Pallister blasted a free kick into the bottom corner of the Blackburn goal to ensure that every outfield player in the team had contributed with at least a goal that season. Cantona had made an outstanding contribution with his prompting, passing, and goals, and had been a revelation to the younger players with his professionalism, especially at training. As both Bruce and Bryan Robson jointly received the very first Premiership trophy, the music blasted out throughout the stadium – ‘We Are the Champions’, ‘Simply the Best’; and up in the stands, a venerable old white haired Scotsman, stood with his daughter, and joined in with the chorus to ‘Always look on the Bright Side of Life’ as the players cavorted with the trophy down below them on the pitch. Later on, within the confines of the dressing room, the Master Builder and his younger Apprentice, stood together and posed for a photograph together with the Premiership trophy. From that day on, the Apprentice became the Master Builder.

The following season the double of Premiership and FA Cup was won, but not before Sir Matt had passed away on January 20th, 1994. Thousands turned out for his funeral at St John’s Catholic Church in Chorlton cum Hardy, and also along the route after the requiem mass was over. The cortege made one final journey for Sir Matt, down past the stadium at Old Trafford, before going on for a private family interment at Southern Cemetery where he was laid to rest with his beloved wife, Lady Jean who had passed away in 1988. His presence had blessed British and European football for some 66 years. Never before, or since, has anybody been more revered in the game than Sir Matt Busby.

In the 17 years which have followed Sir Matt’s death, Ferguson has gone on to surpass everything that Busby had ever achieved in terms of winning trophies. He knocked Liverpool off their ****ing perch, as he so succinctly put it in his early days. He saw off the threats of Kenny Dalglish when at Blackburn, Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, Jose Mourihno, Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, and will now meet the challenge of their new manager Andre Villa-Boas head on. He has never shirked a challenge or walked away from a battle in all his time at Old Trafford.

Nobody who follows Manchester United will ever forget that most wonderful of nights in Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium when to all intents United were just about to lose to Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final. That final, although never one of United’s finest displays of free flowing football, displayed all of Ferguson’s qualities. His character was stamped all over that team; courage, indefatigable spirit, determination, and the never-say-die attitude that saw the final three minutes of that game turn it into one of, if not the most remarkable finish to a European Cup Final, that has ever seen. When referee Collina blew his whistle to end the game, United were European Champions, Premier League Champions, and holders of the FA Cup. What most football pundits thought was an impossible task to achieve, had been achieved, and ironically, it was done on the very day that Sir Matt Busby would have celebrated his 90th birthday. As Ferguson was to say just after the game in the Nou Camp finished;

‘It would have been Sir Matt Busby’s 90th birthday today, but I think he was up there doing a lot of kicking. I’m privileged to have followed Sir Matt because all you have to do is to try and maintain the standards and traditions that he set so many years ago.’
If only it was that simple!

It’s so hard to make comparisons between these two great men because they have reigned in two distinctly different eras. When Ferguson first took over at Old Trafford although the game was changing, it was little different to the football world that Busby had experienced. However, over the last 20 years a juggernaut has propelled British, European, and even World football into a completely different stratosphere. Today’s football world is nothing like the one that Sir Matt knew and loved. I have the suspicion that had he been alive today, he would not like what he would see. Some eight years before he passed he was to say;

‘You can see the changes. Business people come in, not many with experience of football. It has become a business organization.’

He vehemently fought the Edwards family over the initial share rights issue in 1979. He was bitterly opposed to any one person owning Manchester United. Before the public flotation of the Club in 1990, he also said;

‘Recent events have only demonstrated only too clearly, the problems that can arise from private ownership when the time comes for the club to be sold. I agree with the people who believe we would get more stability, and a better guarantee for the future well being of United, if it were now to pass into the control of a number of representative shareholders.’

Those words eventually went unheeded by Martin Edwards, but they were so far sighted. No, the great man would not like what he sees in the corridors of Old Trafford today.

To have stayed at Old Trafford for 25 years as manager is a remarkable achievement. At other clubs managers come and go on a regular basis and become long forgotten. Like Sir Matt, Ferguson is fiercely protective of everything United and of those who work for him. Notwithstanding that, he has had to fight his battles with the board, although as of this moment, we do not know if there have been any battles with the club’s American owners. Only time will tell on that matter. He has made mistakes, some which he readily admits to. His dalliance with the racing fraternity, especially J.P. MacManus and John Mangier, left him with a bloody nose and certainly had some serious long term effects on Manchester United. His benefit match in 1999 does not stand up to much scrutiny, and his conduct with his son Jason who was then acting as a football agent, left a sour taste in the mouth. Telling a United fan of many years standing to ‘**** off and go and watch Chelsea’ was also not the brightest thing that he has ever done.

However, for all of his warts, there is not a shadow of a doubt that he is a football man through and through. He’s made his enemies within the game, particularly among the journalistic and media corps, and although a lot of today’s fans may find it hard to believe, Sir Matt also had his. But just like Sir Matt, when the tough decisions have had to be made, and especially where players are concerned, he has never shirked that responsibility. There is also a very compassionate side to Ferguson’s nature, one which the general public very rarely sees. His work with charities is done well away from the glare of the media, and many, many United fans will also tell of his kind and generous deeds.

When will he be loved? By the most resentful and embittered followers of Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal, the answer is, of course, never. When it comes to the wider football community beyond the gates of Old Trafford, Ferguson - like Busby, Shankly and Stein - will be suitably acclaimed only when he's safely removed from the combat zone and is no longer a threat. That his genius will be universally recognised is beyond doubt: it's a matter not of if, but when. And that, for the man who will be forever caricatured as gesticulating at a stopwatch in the dying moments of a contest, ensures an end game in which time, just for once, is unquestionably on his side.

So, back to the school child’s question; ‘Who is the best manager – Busby or Ferguson?’ All I will say is that as Manchester United supporters, we have been so blessed to have been managed by two Scotsmen with totally differing personalities who have placed Manchester United on the pinnacle upon which they stand today. I loved Sir Matt Busby dearly, and cherish his memory, and the great things and foundation which he gave to his beloved club. Love him or hate him, Ferguson has a huge standing within world football, earned through his hard work, grit, and determination, and his will to never be second best. The saddest day for Manchester United and its legion of fans will be when the day comes and he retires. Without doubt both Sir Alex and Sir Matt, in my opinion, stand as the two greatest managers of their time. Oh! Boy, would I like to have had them both at my table as dinner guests, and joined by Bill Shankly, Jimmy Murphy, and Jock Stein. Now that would have been one incredible long night!

I’ll leave you with a little piece by Hugh McIlvanney:

'Some people argue that Ferguson isn't particularly good tactically, but is it likely that a manager weak in that area would have had such success at the highest levels of the modern game? Would his teams have so consistently combined marvelously entertaining football with the effectiveness that wins trophies by the barrow load? Ferguson is the kind of true football man whose understanding of, and feel for how the game works, goes beyond any orthodox technical analysis. Once, when interviewing Juan Manuel Fangio, I asked him to identify the most important of the assets that made him a great driver. He said instantly: 'I drove with my ear to the heartbeat of the car.' I think Ferguson does something like that with football teams, with football clubs, in fact, because he is concerned about everything and everybody at Manchester United, as he was at Aberdeen, St Mirren and East Stirlingshire. He has a commitment to the fundamentals of team spirit that is almost religious. Ideally, he has said, when each player is sitting in the dressing room before a big match he should be able to look at the men on either side of him and know there's nobody in the world he'd rather have at his shoulder in the action ahead. 'That’s when you know you have a team,' Ferguson says. And he can talk that way to footballers and make them believe absolutely. Assessments of his work emphasise his monstrous, inexhaustible energy, and it is freakish even by the standards of obsessive, driven personalities. But all that energy is the vehicle for something you could just about risk calling a spiritual conviction, and you have to think about that when defining Ferguson’s optimism.’ ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76229 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75740&goto=newpost Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:25:04 GMT Owen Hargreaves – A Man of Glass? On Thursday, September 22, stories broke in the UK national newspapers stating that the former Manchester United midfield player, Owen Hargreaves, had suggested that the medical staff at Old Trafford had not managed his medical treatment too well. In fact he... Owen Hargreaves – A Man of Glass?

On Thursday, September 22, stories broke in the UK national newspapers stating that the former Manchester United midfield player, Owen Hargreaves, had suggested that the medical staff at Old Trafford had not managed his medical treatment too well. In fact he was to state; "I've had to be a guinea pig for a lot of these treatments." That quote was picked up as the headline banner by most of the newspapers, and at first glance, looked to be a quote which could embarrass the Manchester United medical staff. It certainly proved to make a major talking point amongst the fans, and at first glance it looked as though Hargreaves was pointing the finger at the club and blaming them for the loss of three years of his career.

At the end of the 2010/11 season, it looked as though Hargreaves’ future was heading for the knacker’s yard. It seemed that Manchester United had finally closed the door on his career at Old Trafford. His contract was up at the end of that season, and despite Hargreaves offering his services to United on a ‘pay as you play’ basis, Sir Alex Ferguson turned him down. It was not surprising. After United paid Bayern Munich the equivalent of 17 million pounds for his transfer, and giving him a four year contract, Hargreaves managed to started in just 26 games, and came off the bench a further 13 times for them.

The warning signs for United were there almost as soon as he arrived at Old Trafford. He made his debut on August 19, 2007 against Manchester City. Including the day on which he made that debut, there was a total of 54 games in all competitions available to him. Of that total he started in 23 games, was named substitute in 11, and missed a further total of 20 games through injury – some 37%. The pattern was, that there was never a period where his name appeared on a United team sheet for more than 5 consecutive games. Season 2007/2008 was to be the most productive season that Manchester United saw from him. In 2008/2009 he was limited to 2 starts and 1 substitute appearance, and in 2009/2010 he was absent for the whole campaign. His last appearance in a United shirt came in the 2010/2011 season against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and as is well documented, lasted some six minutes. There is no doubt that his time at Old Trafford was frustrating as it was for the club.

Hargreaves’ comments in his media interview last week would have readers believe that the whole problem lay with the medical people at Old Trafford. He claimed that various specialists had subsequently told him that United had prescribed ‘the wrong treatment for him’ and that the treatment had made his injuries significantly worse. If this was the case, and he has the evidence to back those claims up, then the question that I would ask is; why hasn’t he sued Manchester United?

Owen Hargreaves was no stranger to the treatment room before he joined United. It might surprise a lot people that during his time with Bayern Munich, he missed 53% of the games that were available for him to play in. In the 2001/2002 season, Hargreaves established himself as a first team regular with the Bavarian team. In all competitions, Bayern will normally play a minimum of 51 games – Bundesliga, Cup, and Champions League. During that first season, Hargreaves made a total of 46 appearances. In 2002/2003 he made 32 appearances; 2003/2004, 38 appearances; 2004/2005, 38 appearances; 2005/2006, 22 appearances, and in 2006/2007, just 11 appearances. So out of a possible 306 appearances, he made a grand total of 162 appearances. His injuries ranged from muscle tears, knee injuries, abductor problems, and of course a broken leg.

It is interesting to note that prior to joining United he had played just 26 games from a possible 102. It’s difficult to see how on earth United could really justify outlaying some 17 million pounds on a player who was obviously more than a little injury prone. Maybe Sir Alex considered it to be a calculated gamble, but it was definitely a gamble that was to backfire, and Bayern Munich must have laughed all the way to the bank!

During his last two years as a Manchester United player, Owen Hargreaves was a virtual stranger to everybody at Old Trafford. Most of that time was spent in the United States, Canada, and Europe as he tried enlisting various specialists to help with his rehabilitation. There must have been a multitude of diagnosis given to him, but how much of it was reported back to United’s medical team? If there were any doubts at all about the treatment which he had been receiving at United, then surely the eminent doctors and surgeons treating him in the various countries, would have reported this, especially as the medical bills would have been paid out from United’s coffers – and they would not have been cheap?

The club spent time, money, and had lots of patience in trying to nurse the player back to full fitness. There is only so much that can be done and as he said, ultimately, a change of scenery was the best solution for all concerned. So Hargreaves hawked his fitness video around a whole host of clubs, and there were several Premier League clubs interested in taking a chance with him. West Bromwich would have been an ideal choice, giving him the regular playing time that he said he really needed. However, Manchester City came along, and although it is almost certain that his playing time at the top level will be minimal at Eastlands, he chose to move across town. Given the vast playing staff which Manchester City employ, and particularly their surfeit of quality midfield players, it is more than difficult to imagine Hargreaves playing regularly in either the Premier League or Champions League competitions. The most he can possibly hope for at best is the Carling Cup competition – and only then if he keeps free of injury – which his record shows to be task that he has never been able to fulfil. Without doubt he is seen to be a Man of Glass. ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75740 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75685&goto=newpost Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:43:34 GMT Gone – But Not Forgotten September 20th marks the birth date of not only one of Manchester United’s greatest players, but also of one of the nicest human beings, a person could wish to meet. In today’s bloated and inflated transfer market, it would be difficult to put a price upon his talents. ... Gone – But Not Forgotten

September 20th marks the birth date of not only one of Manchester United’s greatest players, but also of one of the nicest human beings, a person could wish to meet. In today’s bloated and inflated transfer market, it would be difficult to put a price upon his talents. His record is there for all to see and he still holds the club record for the most goals scored by an individual in League matches during a season. It is a record that has stood for 50 years. It says much about the man that fans, not only in Manchester, but also in Stoke, and the United States, will instantly recognize that the person referred to is the late Dennis Viollet.

Dennis was a wonderful player, under-rated by the sportswriters, and certainly much maligned by the England team selectors of his time. Mention that famous team which became known as the ‘Busby Babes’ and it is the names of Edwards, Byrne and Taylor that are immediately brought to the fore. However, look a little below the surface and it becomes so apparent that the contribution made by Dennis Viollet played more than a large part in that team’s successes.

How good was he? Well, if I was asked to compare any modern day player with Dennis Viollet, then there is only one – and that would be Paul Scholes. Paul reminded me so much of Dennis – unselfish, wily, cunning, being difficult for defenders to pick up, always seeing the bigger picture, having the ability to pick out the killer pass, and being lethal in front of goal. However, unlike Scholes, Viollet never ever gave the referee an excuse to pull out his notebook and pencil. Both had similar temperaments – nothing fazed them at all. Like Paul, Dennis shunned the press and the limelight - he just went to work, did his job, and slipped away afterwards.

If I had to pick a couple of games out of the 293 which he played for United to remember him by, then I would select the game against Anderlecht on 26th September, 1957 when he scored 4 goals in a 10-0 blitz of the Belgian champions. That total could have been larger, because he spent much of the last fifteen minutes of the game trying to tee a goal up for David Pegg, the only forward not to score on that memorable night.

The other game would again be in that same season and that first European campaign, when United played the Spanish champions, Bilbao at Maine Road on 6th February 1957. United were down 5-3 from the first leg, and Dennis worked his socks off that night, fetching and carrying and trying to get that all important first goal. He had one goal dubiously disallowed for offside, but just before half-time he suddenly appeared ghosting into the box and fired home. That was the lift that the team needed, and in the second half he was so conspicuous with his supply of the ball to the United wingmen, and Tommy Taylor. It built pressure on the Spaniards, and eventually they cracked as United scored two more goals and went through 6-5 on aggregate.

It was a shock for the United fans when he was allowed to leave the club in 1962 – he’d been at Old Trafford since leaving school in 1948. But Denis being Denis, he hid his disappointment and went off to Stoke City and enjoyed five memorable years at the Victoria Grounds. Stoke City were then in the Second Division, but in his second season with the ‘Potters, he helped them gain promotion back to the top flight. Over the next few years, the Stoke City manager, Tony Waddington assembled an array of ageing stars for his team – Stanley Mathews, Jimmy McIlroy, Roy Vernon, Jackie Mudie, Peter Dobing, Eddie Clamp, Ron Stuart, Maurice Setters to name but a few. The Stoke City dressing room was a fun place to be. For Waddington, those old stars had so much experience and they gave him the time to bring his younger players through.

There was a human side to Dennis and there are so many tales to tell about him. He touched the lives of everybody he met and they were better for the experience. Once, when he found himself at Manchester Airport late on a Saturday evening, as he was about to leave he spotted a young lad bedding down on the seating there. There was nobody about and all flights had departed for that day. Dennis went across and spoke to the young man and found out that he was a United fan making his way back to Ireland, but had missed his flight and had to wait until the Sunday morning until he could continue his journey. Dennis did no more, took the lad home, billeted and fed him, and got him back to the airport the following morning. You could not imagine anything like that happening today.

In 1967, when his time was up at Stoke City they gave him a testimonial game which was played against England’s World Cup team. Dennis had an old school friend named Alan Wallace. They had played together in the same school team back in the late ‘40’s, and Dennis told him “You were there at the start of my soccer career, and I would like you to be there at the end of it.” Alan recalled; “I was delighted to be invited to Dennis’s testimonial. He wrote me a letter telling me that he was delighted I had accepted the invitation to be at the game. He took me into the England dressing room and introduced me to every one of the players. He also took me into the Stoke City dressing room and did the same thing. He treated me like a king.” Dennis gave Alan his fullest attention, introducing him to people and showing him the same warm friendship shown to the other more famous personalities present.

Dennis befriended Stoke player Bill Asprey. Asprey grew up in Dudley, the same home town as Duncan Edwards. Through Duncan, he got to know a lot of the United players of that time, and he remembered; “The first time that I actually met Dennis was one Saturday night in the Continental Club in Manchester. Dennis and Bobby Charlton were on stage singing a duet. It was great! Tommy Taylor also liked a sing along as well. All those lads from the ‘Babes’ were characters and wonderful company. Those nights were unforgettable occasions.

Dennis was a lovely fellow – down-to-earth, always ready for a bit of fun. As a player his technique was first class and his reading of situations was uncanny. I never ever saw him in trouble with a referee he relied on his skill and brilliant football brain. I never once in my career ever heard anybody speak derogatory of Dennis – a great footballer, a tremendous friend, and a wonderful human being.”

Dennis Smith the old Stoke centre half had just started his managerial career and was managing Oxford United. At an away fixture, after the game was over, he was seen and heard to be ushering his players out onto the team coach as he was in a hurry to get going. Smith was stopped by a person who went on to say how much he had admired Smith as a player. The man then mentioned Dennis Viollet. The young Oxford manager stopped and told him “I was in awe of Dennis Viollet” and he then proceeded to talk to the man for over half an hour about him.

The late Sir Stanley Mathews was to say; “There were moments in games when the ball came to Dennis and it was if a spotlight had fallen on him and every other player was in his shadow. Your eyes were drawn to him as he engineered, first space to work in, then proceeded to conjure up his own special brand of magic. Only when the ball had left Dennis’s feet did you see the opening as the ball glided across the turf just in front of one of our galloping forwards for the course of the game to be altered. Short pass, long pass, low pass, high pass, it mattered not one jot. Whatever it was, it was always the right pass when it came from Dennis.”

After leaving Stoke City, Dennis moved to the USA and the North American Soccer League. He joined the Baltimore Bays and he stayed for just a year. When he returned to UK he turned his hand to coaching as well as playing. He had spells at Witton Albion and Preston North End, but wasn’t happy and so decided to move to the USA. He was asked to coach at Baltimore Bays, and later, moved with them to Washington DC when they became the Diplomats. In 1978 Noel Cantwell the former Manchester United captain, took over as head coach at the New England Tea Men.

Noel was to recall; “I hadn’t seen Dennis for a few years. The next time I met up with him was when I had been offered the job with the New England Tea Men in Boston. Phil Woosnam whom I had known at West Ham and was one of the first British coaches to go to America, advised me to take it. I knew nothing about American soccer, so I thought to myself; “who can I get to help me?’ I thought of Dennis, got in touch with him, and he accepted the position of assistant coach. We got things moving in Boston and won our Eastern Division, and I was named Coach of the Year. The reality was that Dennis did as much coaching as I did, so really we were both Coaches of the Year. He was brilliant in every respect. Our families became very close and spent a number of years together in the States. It was the most enjoyable relationship of my life, a lovely man with a beautiful loving family.”

The Tea Men were moved to Jacksonville in Florida and in 1983 Dennis was appointed Head Coach when the team joined the American Soccer League. The team won Jacksonville’s first, and only professional sports championship. He was then appointed as Staff Coach to the Florida Youth Soccer Association. He progressed the game at all levels. He moved the game into colleges and University and took control of both the men and women’s programmes at Jacksonville University. His contribution to the development of the game in the United States cannot be questioned and it is a story that needs telling.

Dennis would have celebrated his 78th birthday today and I’ll leave you with his own words after he retired:

“No player has gained more pleasure from the great game of football than I have. But as I bow out, there is a little sadness for me. I see that the game is changing. The pattern is less colourful, and the individuals grow fewer and fewer. Football is now regimentation. Yet I have been privileged to spend the major part of my career with a club I have always considered the finest in the world – Manchester United. During those years, and after, I played with the greats like Duncan Edwards, Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor, and the rest. I have also been thrilled to play with the illustrious Stanley Mathews, and against mighty footballers like Puskas and di Stefano. To me these were the football kins, ruling the game with their brilliance and overwhelming authority.” ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75685 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75550&goto=newpost Mon, 12 Sep 2011 02:03:07 GMT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In The Shadow of a Giant’s Footsteps Nostalgia as I have always said, is a wonderful thing; simply and purely because nostalgia can be made to be anything that you want it to be. It can also be a dangerous thing... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In The Shadow of a Giant’s Footsteps

Nostalgia as I have always said, is a wonderful thing; simply and purely because nostalgia can be made to be anything that you want it to be. It can also be a dangerous thing in that it can cloud your judgment as you yearn for those past eras; those past personalities, and the events which they contributed to. Every generation hears about ‘the good old days’ from their older peers and the comparisons of individuals from years gone by, with the present day subject.

For younger people, it can be a frustrating kind of experience, and it can provoke heated debate, even argument, and that is quite understandable. I grew up in a time period of what I love to term as the ‘Golden Age of Football’. Football was vibrant, stadiums packed, and there were so many great British players to watch week in and week out. But even back then, there were always comparisons with players who plied their trade in the pre-war years. It was common place to hear statements like; “he’s no Hapgood”, or “he’s not as quick or skilful as Bastin was.”

My Grandfather, who I revered, and whose judgment I trusted implicitly, used to base his comparisons on a number of United players whom he had watched over the years; some from before WW1 even! For forwards he would use Joe Spence and Billy Meredith as the yardstick. For the halfbacks it would be the likes of Frank Barson, Alec Bell, Charlie Roberts, and Dick Duckworth. Believe me; if he likened a player to any of those personalities, then I can assure you, that player had to be something special.

As I grew up, he eulogized about Johnny Carey, Henry Cockburn, Stan Pearson, and Jack Rowley. Then of course, as I grew older, the ‘Babes’ were emerging. He was generous in his praise for Roger Byrne and he thought that he was the best Captain that United had ever had. Surpisingly, he likened Mark Jones to Charlie Roberts, although he thought that he was not as ruthless as Barson. He loved to watch little Eddie Colman, and again surprised me when he said that he was the best tackling player that United had at the club. As much as he liked Tommy Taylor, he preferred Joe Spence, but then he did say that Dennis Viollet was as lethal a player as he had seen. Today, I personally, would liken Viollet very much to Paul Scholes.

When we moved into the 60’s, Grandfather loved to watch Denis Law, and revered Bobby Charlton, who he said, was the perfect role model for any youngster coming into the game. He was a huge admirer of Paddy Crerand’s game, and said he was probably the best passer of a ball that he had seen. And then came George – and he was smitten. What he loved about George was not only his astounding natural talent, but also his tremendous heart and courage, and his indefatigable spirit.

My Grandfather first saw United back in 1898 when they were known as Newton Heath. Sadly, he passed away in October 1966, so had watched the club grow for 68 years. It’s a very long passage of time during which he had seen so many, many matches, and watched countless thousands of players. He was my mentor and my inspiration where United are concerned. As most of you know, I first attended Old Trafford back in the autumn of 1950, and attended my first senior game in September 1954. Like Granddad, that’s over 60 years in the bank where United are concerned, and just like him it’s countless matches attended, and thousands of players watched.

So where is all this leading to? During your lifetime, especially where football is concerned – there comes along that ‘special’ player, that one player who, because of his outstanding qualities as a player, is the one who becomes your benchmark. From the 50’s, United fans will probably look at players like Carey, Chilton, Rowley, Byrne, Foulkes, Taylor, Viollet. From the 60’s Charlton, Law, Creand, Stiles, Best. In the 70’s my own choice would be Martin Buchan, Steve Coppell, and Sammy McIlroy. From the 80’s Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes, and into the 90’s, Steve Bruce, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Peter Schmeichel. After the turn of the Millennium, Rio Ferdinand, Ruud van Nistlerooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic. That’s some litany of exceptional players and I have probably left more than a few out.

For me, and also for my Grandfather, the one player who stood out like a beacon above all the rest was a young boy from Dudley in the West Midlands – Duncan Edwards. It says so much for him that even now, 53 years after his passing, he is still looked upon as arguably the greatest British player ever to have played the game of football. That’s some legacy. I’m proud and privileged to have watched him throughout his career and have so many vivid memories of him. Believe me, the stories about Duncan were not myths, he really was that talented, and that special.

Down through the years, many, many players have been saddled with the label of; ‘the next Duncan Edwards’. I’ve seen them all – but not one of them in my opinion, has lived up to, nor has come anywhere close to reaching the standards of Duncan Edwards. It’s a tough ask, and comparing players to Edwards is in my opinion, more than a little unfair. It’s a heavy label and burden for a player to carry, and I have always been wary of watching a player and tagging him with that mantle.

However, I was in Washington DC when United played Barcelona, and something stirred me – just a slight glimpse, but it was there. Again, I saw it in the second half of the Community Shield, and then in the later stages of the game at The Hawthorns, and against Tottenham, and Arsenal. Yesterday’s game at Bolton only stirred me more because what was exciting me, was something that was taking me back 50 more years and more. It was a young boy striding out in the shadow of a Giant’s footsteps. Watching his pace, his vision, his touch, his physique, his youthfulness and exuberance for the game, and it brought the memories flooding back. Since Duncan’s passing, no other player has ever done that for me…until now.

The moment that really electrified me was when he burst out from the back and made that surging drive forward with the ball which culminated in the third goal. It turned the clock back for me and made me inhale deeply.

Phil Jones is just 19 years of age, and it would certainly be totally unfair and unrealistic to tag him as being; ‘the next Duncan Edwards’. But through these old eyes of mine I know that we are seeing something that is very, very ‘special’. This kid is just so gifted, has so much natural ability, and a confidence without being arrogant, that already he looks to have everything that it takes to be the best in the game. He’s still a work in progress, and people should take that into account – and no, he’s not ‘the next Duncan Edwards’, he has his own identity. But I’ll tell you this, the team in which he is playing in at the moment has excited me like no other team that I have seen in the last 50 years, so enjoy every minute of what you are witnessing. For young Philip, he has the world at his feet – and he is something ‘very special’. ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75550 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75396&goto=newpost Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:15:06 GMT The Blue Plaques In September 2010, I was contacted through Red News by schoolmaster Chris Hirst. Chris is the Director of Learning at Stretford High School, which is situated on Greatstone Road, just a stone’s throw away from the Old Trafford Stadium. The reason that Chris contacted me was to... The Blue Plaques

In September 2010, I was contacted through Red News by schoolmaster Chris Hirst. Chris is the Director of Learning at Stretford High School, which is situated on Greatstone Road, just a stone’s throw away from the Old Trafford Stadium. The reason that Chris contacted me was to see if I could help him, and his Year 7 students, with a project that they were about to undertake through the 2010-2011, academic year.

The project was about the ‘Busby Babes’, and the object of the said project was to see if the school could get the local Trafford Metropolitan Borough authority to authorize the erection of a number of Blue Heritage Plaques on the former lodgings of some of those former players. He had approached United, but unfortunately was told they didn’t have any information and could not help. This would be an easy task some may well have said. Not so, as we were to find out.

Chris initially asked me if I had any knowledge of the addresses where the ‘Busby Babes’ players had actually lived prior to the horrific Munich tragedy. Of course I had to open the back pocket of my memory and get my old grey matter working. Fortunately I was able to help and point him and his students in the right direction.

Most of that wonderful ‘Babes’ team, especially the single boys, did live in the Old Trafford area. Initially most of them were billeted together at Mrs. Watson’s boarding house which was situated at 5, Birch Avenue, which was off Talbot Road, close to the Lancashire Cricket Club. It was two large Victorian terraced houses knocked into one. The building has long since gone and has been replaced by a large office block.

Mrs. Watson’s unfortunately achieved some notoriety on several occasions, and eventually, the club was forced to move the young players elsewhere. Mrs. Watson’s better half was a drunkard, and a womanizer. There were times when he would play cards with lads and would be relieved of his money. This led to him losing his temper and sometimes to start hitting out. The end came when he had an affair with one of the young ladies who was working as a chamber maid, and once the powers that be at Old Trafford heard about this, they decided that the atmosphere at the boarding house was not what they wanted their young players to be privvy to. They were moved out to several other accommodations within the local area.

Tommy Taylor went to live at 22 Greatstone Road, and lived with the Swinchatt family. Jack Swinchatt MBE, was to contact Chris Hirst later and state that his mother and father shared one bedroom, he had the second bedroom, and big Tommy had the third bedroom, at their small terraced house.

Duncan Edwards was moved in with the Dorman family at 19, Gorse Avenue, along with Billy Whelan. Eric, the Dorman’s son, became Duncan’s closest friend. In this modern era, when players earn literally millions of pounds each year and live in huge houses out in the green belt areas, it will seem strange to the modern football follower that two seasoned full internationals, one who is arguably the finest Britain has ever produced, would be living in the spare rooms of what were then council houses. How times have changed!

The youngsters at Stretford High School continued to research and find out where the different players lived, and early in 2011, it was decided that the school would apply to have the Blue Plaques erected at the former homes of both Tommy Taylor, and Duncan Edwards. The applications were downloaded from the Borough Council website, and completed, and together with the appropriate cheque for the costs of the making of the Plaques (600 pounds each), were submitted back to the Borough Council.

Trafford Borough Council limits the number of Blue Plaque applications that are finally authorized for the Borough to no more than six per year. They are not authorized lightly. From the time of application, to the time of authorization, it normally takes some six to twelve weeks. It was with great pleasure that Chris Hirst received a telephone call from the Borough Council just four hours after the applications had been received at their offices, informing him that authorization for the erecting of the Plaques on the said properties had been granted. The students, staff, and teachers at the school, were so delighted and thrilled.

Chris then began working on how to approach the day of unveiling, and who he could contact to see if they would agree to do the unveilings. After much thought, he wrote to Harold “Dickie” Bird, the former cricket Test Match Umpire to unveil the Plaque at Tommy Taylor’s former home. “Dickie” went to school with big Tommy in Smithies, a district of their home town, Barnsley. It may surprise some that he was a very good footballer who played inside right to Tommy in the Barnsley Boys town team. They spent a lot of time together as youngsters, and even after Tommy joined Barnsley Football Club as a professional. “Dickie” was also a prolific cricketer, a batsman, and he went on to join the Yorkshire County Cricket Club. They both followed each other’s careers closely, until Tommy lost his life at Munich.

Hirst also wrote to Sir Bobby Charlton, and asked if he would consider unveiling the Plaque at Duncan Edwards’s former abode. Sir Bobby and ‘Big Dunc’ had been very close friends up, and until, Duncan’s passing at Munich. Obviously, if he was going to accept this invitation, it was going to be a very poignant, and emotional moment for him.

I had been in regular communication with Chris Hirst since the project began. To try and glean more information for him, I had called Wilf McGuinness, the former United player and manager to see if he could remember where most of the young ‘Babes’ were billeted. Wilf helped and I was also able to put Chris in touch with him. I was delighted when Chris informed me that Wilf had agreed to attend the school and had agreed to talk to the students. I was happier still when I found out that his visit would coincide with the time that I was in Manchester for my Annual Sportsman’s Dinner.

On May 19th, Cheryl and I visited Stretford High School, and it was a pleasure to meet Chris Hirst in the flesh, and also some of the staff and other teachers. I was invited to talk to the 7th year students, and it was quite an experience. For some 45 minutes I talked to them, first briefly about United’s history, and then about the team which I grew up alongside – the ‘Busby Babes.’ The kids were attentative, and when I asked for questions from them, they floored me. “Who is the best manager – Sir Matt or Sir Alex?” “Who was the best player, Duncan Edwards, Bryan Robson, or Roy Keane?” Who was better; Tommy Taylor, Denis Law, or Ruud van Nistlerooy?” “Which was the better team, the United team that won the treble, or the ‘Busby Babes’?’ And of course the all time favourite question; “Just how good was Duncan Edwards?” It was a refreshing experience. Chris then took us down to the Headmaster’s study where he surprised us by showing us the two Blue Plaques which had arrived at the school that morning. It was quite emotional for me to see them, and I was quite surprised by how big they were.

The following morning we returned to the school, and were introduced to Mr. Jim Hasledine the School Principal in his study. A short time later Wilf McGuinness arrived and after a short time, we were shown into the school auditorium which was packed with students. The reception we received was just so loud and like an explosion. Mr. Hasledine introduced Wilf, and for the next hour he had the kids enthralled as he recounted the time when he too was a ‘Busby Babe’. After his speech was over he spent time signing autographs and then we retired outside to have some photographs taken with the Blue Plaques. Wilf, like me, was so happy to see how impressive the plaques looked.

Before we left, Chris informed me that both ‘Dickie’ and Sir Bobby had accepted the invitations to unveil the respective Plaques. He also told me that the unveiling would take place on July 8th. Sadly, it meant that I could not be there to witness it as I was already committed to an obligation in Cologne, Germany, on that date. Nonetheless, I would be there in spirit.

The day arrived, and as well as Sir Bobby and ‘Dickie’, Brian Hughes MBE and his wife Rosemarie had been invited, as well as local MP, Kate Green. There was huge excitement within the school to be hosting such wonderful people, and after a brief reception, the children and dignitaries headed for the first location, 22, Greatstone Road. As well as the children, there was also a big media and public presence. Jim Hasledine introduced ‘Dickie’ Bird and he was very emotional when he talked about his pal Tommy Taylor.

“Tommy was my friend. We were brought up together in Barnsley in a little place called Smithies. We went to the same school, Burton Road primary, and then Raley Secondary Modern School. We both played for the school team, he played centre forward and I played inside right to him. At school, Tommy’s nickname was “Tucker” Taylor. I think that he got that label because he tucked the goals away.

Both of our fathers were close friends, having worked at the same coal face down the pit. At weekends they would enjoy a pint together, and they would argue with each other as to who was the best player, Tommy or me! Both of our fathers agreed that neither of us would ever go down the mines to work, and it gave them both a tremendous satisfaction when Tommy signed for Barnsley FC, and I signed for Yorkshire Cricket Club. That’s how it all started for us both.

We used to practice for hours together just the two of us. Tommy, from a standing start could jump over a garden gate. He could also jump on top of a snooker table as well from a standing position. When we were playing matches together, he always wanted me to cross the ball at head height for him so that he could rise and head the ball. He had this remarkable gift of being able to rise and hang in the air. I am convinced to this day, that this gift made him the best header of a ball that the game of football has seen.

Tommy was in these digs at this house after he signed for Manchester United. He loved cricket and spent a lot of time at Old Trafford cricket ground. He loved it also when Yorkshire played there against Lancashire and he would always come up to the dressing room to visit me. Though he was idolized in Manchester, there was not the slightest sign of any big headedness about my old school friend. If anything, he was rather shy. He was very proud of his roots, a typical, warm hearted Yorkshire lad.

Tommy, I know that you will be in heaven mate, because you were a good and honest man. You gave millions of people a lot of pleasure. Your achievements are all there in the record books for everybody to see. I always talk about you whenever football is mentioned, no matter what company I am with. It only seems like yesterday that we were both young kids practicing both football and cricket on broken glass, in fields, and on any old rough ground. I think that it gave us both the will and determination to succeed in both our chosen professions. They were poor, but oh! So happy days all those years ago. I hope that the many thousands of football fans will visit this place as it gives them the chance to remember a wonderful young man. I am so proud and honoured that Tommy was my friend.”

With that, and to loud cheers, ‘Dickie’ pulled back the drape covering the Blue Plaque, and it was there, resplendent upon the house wall, for everybody to see.

After a few minutes’ walk, the whole party moved on just around the corner from Greatstone Road, to 19, Gorse Avenue. For Sir Bobby Charlton it was an emotional few minutes, and this is what he had to say;

“Thank you for giving me the honour of representing everybody who had the pleasure of watching Duncan Edwards play football. My own digs were just a few hundred yards away from here, and Duncan’s, as you can see, backed virtually on to Longford Park. Whenever he wasn’t playing for Manchester United, you could always find him practicing or watching teams play in Longford Park. I have got to say, that whenever you mention Duncan Edwards, he was without doubt the best player that I ever played with, and better than any other player who I played against. I was fortunate enough to have done my National Service with him at Nescliffe, near Shrewsbury. I did see a lot of him, even though I hadn’t got into the first team by then, but he was a regular and an international by the time he was 18, he was such a sensational player.

He had a phenomenal love of the game and he just loved playing football. He had such a natural talent, you couldn’t teach him anything. If you were 50-60 yards away he could hit you with balls from his left foot, right foot, it didn’t matter, but the ball would be spot on. He was a phenomenal passer of the ball. He was tough, he tackled ruthlessly, he could play in any position at a time when the game was tough and for youngsters coming into the professional game, it was really hard playing football. The football pitches today are nothing like what we used to play upon. But to Duncan, it did not matter; he was just the most sensational player.

He loved Manchester United, and I know that he loved these digs. He was never a drinking man; we could hardly ever get him to come out with us. But he had a fantastic association with the local public and I was just so fortunate to be one of his pals for such a long time.

When he was very ill in Munich, the first thing he said to me was; “Where the hell have you been?” He was tough as teak, and he used to frighten me to death. He was the best and toughest player that I ever played with, and I’ll never ever forget, Duncan Edwards. This is just fantastic and I’m really grateful to the people who live here now, because every match day, they are going to get hundreds and hundreds of people coming here, and also to Tommy Taylor’s digs just around the corner where we have just been, to remember what is an integral part of Manchester United’s history. Munich is a part of Manchester United’s history unfortunately, and Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards were two of the club’s shining lights.

I am so proud that Council have authorized these plaques because it gives people the opportunity to think about what it was like in those days. When Munich happened, it was because we were trying to win the European Cup. Matt Busby said we were good enough to win it, and after we had defeated Red Star Belgrade, it looked as though the world was ours. Unfortunately at Munich, it was all broken and stopped.

Nevertheless, the European Cup became the Holy Grail and somehow we just had to win it. Fortunately, in 1968, we did win it, and we have won it since, and we have a fantastic club at Manchester United now. However, when most people think about Manchester United, they think about Munich and the great players that were lost, and I have to say that they were great players, and I am so pleased that there is such a big crowd that has turned out today.

I just want to say that Manchester United is the greatest club without any doubt, and it’s because of people like Duncan Edwards.”

The plaque was then unveiled, and one could detect a small tear in Sir Bobby’s eye.

The dignitaries returned back to the school where they were afforded lunch. For everybody connected with the project, especially the young students, it was the culmination of a lot of hard work and patience. For me personally, I was so pleased to have played some small part in the project, and to see those two plaques finally unveiled, filled me with great satisfaction.

It is right that these great players who perished in the snow at Munich, and those who survived, but have since passed, are remembered. They gave a lot to the local community where they lived. They were stars, that is for certain. But they were never pretentious; there were never any airs and graces. It was incredible to see them out and about in the local area – shopping, going to the cinema, going down to the local dance hall or pub, playing football with the kids in the local parks, and even walking, and cycling down, to Old Trafford on match days, along with the fans who were going to watch them play. For me personally, there has never ever been a group of players who have come near to touching them in the way that they lived their lives, the skills that they possessed, or for their love of life, and for the game and the club that they loved. ]]> tomclare http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75396 http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74368&goto=newpost Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:29:11 GMT MUST would cautiously welcome full flotation of Manchester United

In response to reports in the Sunday Times today that the Glazers may be considering floating Manchester United on the (Hong Kong) stock exchange a MUST spokesperson said:

"If this report proves to be well founded the prospect of a flotation of Manchester United is one that many supporters would cautiously welcome because it could be an opportunity for supporters to once again share in ownership of their club. However three immediate concerns spring to mind. Firstly that this would have to be a full IPO signalling a clean exit for the Glazers. Secondly the valuation would have to be realistic - something closer to 1bn GBP rather than the 1.5bn+ GBP that the Glazers seem to feel is possible. Thirdly shares should be freely available to all MUFC supporters and certainly floated on the UK market to maximise accessibility."

"Of course many supporters would hate to see the Glazers walk away with a huge profit but in the end it isn't about them. It is about what is best for Manchester United - the Football Club and its supporters. Until their drain on our finances is removed we will never be able to compete on a level playing field with the best in the world."

"MUST's avowed aim - our inspirational dream - is Manchester United FC owned by the fans and run for the fans."

"Our task is to create the opportunity for all United fans to share in the ownership of their club, inspiring the participation of at least one million supporters."

"Since May 2005 we have renewed our efforts to encourage every United supporter to join the us and build a mass membership to share in the future ownership of Manchester United. If the Glazers choose to sell we must be ready to take advantage this time round. It has always been a regret that too few took the opportunity when Manchester United was a PLC. Undoubtedly, there is a desire from Manchester United supporters for change, with the supporters put back at the heart of the club. We can't afford to miss a second chance so we'd encourage every United supporter to join the trust."

"If we wish to persuade the Glazers to go for a full flotation, and on the UK stock exchange, then a million Manchester United supporters standing together, represented through MUST, could present a compelling argument. Supporters can join MUST online and without charge - 172,000 have already done so through our website www.joinmust.org"

Notes:
Man Utd owners eye Asian flotation
PA ]]> MUST Announcements TanyaT http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74368