Some of you good people may have seen this before, but I'll post it anyway. When you look at this 5 minutes of a pure genius in action, note his incredible ability to stay on his feet and ride tackles. In doing so, see how he really hurts defenders and defences. Notice his use of BOTH feet and the ability to keep the ball very, very close. If I was SAF, I would sit Cristiano down each day and make him watch this five minutes until the penny dropped! George really was... simply the Best! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi0tkfJxPhg
One of the few tributes to bring a tear to my eye I just wonder what would have happened if he and Duncan would have been working together 5 stars Downloaded and saved it too, R.I.P
The thing is, that they were both young enough to have played in the team together. When you think of it, Munich really did throw up some real posers. We could ask ourselves if it hadn't have been for the tragedy, would the likes of Nobby have ever made it at United? Would Paddy, or Denis ever have been bought?
In the picture, Best Law and Charlton are easy to recognise - anybody know who the other 2 players are?
Best (no pun intended) Manchester United player in the teams history. I say this because Duncan never had a chance to really make his mark on United due to his extremely premature death. If he had I may be saying something else right now, but it stands as it is, George Best = Ultimate Legend. This, by the way, reminds me of one of my father's friends from work. He came into my house to install cabinet doors and we got to talking. He noticed all the Man Utd memorabilia in my room and asked me if I liked football. I said yes, and that as he could've probably have discovered, Man Utd were my team. He asked me who my favorite player was and I told him Beckham, but George Best was in my opinion the greatest. He looked at me with a smirk and told me that he and George Best used to be good friends back in England. He told me a story of when he and Best were playing in some pick-up match or charity match (I can't really remember what the match was for) and Bobby Moore was playing against him. This was right after the World Cup '66 where Moore had captained England to the title. Best ran circles around Moore and Moore kept getting pissed off at Best for it. Best turned around after scoring 1 of his goals and said to Moore with a smile "Just because you won the World Cup doesn't mean you thought you could stop me right!" That's what my dad's friend told me. Take as you will, but he had an English Accent, and he described to me how he saw Bestie's life fade away do to women, money, and alcohol. I believed him. it may not be true but he sure as hell sounded convincing and extremley truthful.
I have to take issue with your opening paragraph. Duncan was without doubt imho, the finest ALL ROUND player that the game has ever seen. He did make his mark at United and had in fact played in the First Division for 5 years at the time of his passing. He was an England International at just 18 years of age, and that in an era when International Caps were not given away so freely as they are now. He had won two Championship medals, appeared in the FA Cup Final and was as I said, an established international player. As Jimmy Murphy told Sir Matt when Duncan first arrived at Old Trafford; "Matt, this kid's got the lot - there is nothing we can coach into him." He really was an exceptional footballer. He could play in any position and still be the most outstanding player on the field. I have never ever seen a player who had all the attributes that Edwards had.
I completely understand everything you just said. And I know why people say that about Duncan. I have only seen limited footage of him, and even still footage doesn't do justice to the player he was. However, he unfortunately did not have time to make the impact on the club that George Best did. Edwards played in 175 matches for United and scored 20-22 goals if I'm not mistaken. Edwards would have been the best ever United player, maybe the world's best player, had he not died a premature death, but with that being said he did, and I find it hard to say that Edwards, even though he was an immediate legend, made a bigger impact on Manchester United than George best did who played 466 games for United scoring 178 goals, winning the European Cup, the F.A Cup, and he holds the record for most goals scored in a single match by 1 player. 6 against Northampton in 1970. Honestly though, a debate llike this only shows one thing...how amazing of a football club Manchester United is to have had amazing talents such as these two, and many others in their team at one point or another.
Well it really in a harsh way is fate isn't it? I don't think many managers would lose the chance of having Best, Law and Sir Charlton in attack while Duncan breaking down all counters and running around the mid-field would they ? You could say the same thing about Alan Sheerer if we had signed him we would have never signed ole and personally I don think the treble would have ever happened, would he be willing to sit on the bench as many times as solskjaer did ? Or how bout Zidane and Scholes would have Scholes survived if we Signed the former as a youngster? It's the same with Ronnie and Rooney and with many other examples. I don't think anyone could have stopped United if Munich never happened, but then again we would have not known allot of the players we love today. Harsh but this is possibly one of the few ways to keep both Busby babes in memory R.I.P .
Yes, I respect what you say. However, I did see Edwards, and obviously George. There was a suggestion yesterday on another forum that I subscribe to, regarding the great players that our Club have had throughout it's history. Basically, what my friend Charlie was saying, was that he would love to see a "Walk of Fame" leading up towards the main entrance at Old Trafford. Statues of the truly great players adorning each side of the road - maybe 20-25 of them. Now, I would love to be involved in the selection of just who would make that "Walk of Fame". Obviously, at this moment in time, it won't happen, but I would love the club to think about this.
It just makes you wonder "what could have been", but sometimes things happen for a reason, its just fate. What is the "tradegty" that everyone is refering to? Did someone die? The refrences to Munich wouldn't happen to be referring to the 1972 Olympics where the 11 Israeli athletes were murdered?
No my good friend. It relates to the 6th February 1958, when the aircraft carrying the Manchester United team back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, crashed on take off. 7 players died that day, and 1 more 15 days later. Most of the cream of the British Sporting press perished along with club officals and other passengers.
First off, great video, thanks for posting. Second, good question. Are you testing us young grasshoppers? or can't you make it out? It's difficult, well for the likes of me it is as it's not exactly my era. Having watched the relevant clip just before that frame a number of times I'm still not convinced I know. The big fella is wearing number 6 which as far as I know from that era would normally mean David Sadler but it doesn't really look like him to me. He does, however look a wee bit like Alan Gowling so that's who I'm going for although I'm not 100% sure. The one at the back I'm even less sure of as you don't get as good a look at him. As a complete shot in the dark I'll say Willie Morgan although a few other names sprang to mind. Wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong on both. Edit: It does look like Highfield Road (Coventry) to me and I did a little research at www.stretfordend.co.uk Those 5 all played together in a 3-2 win in 71/72 with Best getting on the scoresheet so I'm sticking with that. Still think I could be wrong but out of interest here was the line up that day: Stepney, O'Neil, A Dunne, M Buchan, James, Gowling, W Morgan, Best, Charlton, Law, Storey-Moore. Goalscorers: Best, Charlton, Storey-Moore. Edit yet again, lol: Having taken a closer look at a few pics in a book of mine I now think it's Gowling and Storey-Moore. At least if nothing else this is helping me brush up on my history.
Duncan had it ALL ...He could pass, tackle ,shoot and cross ...he could just play ever spot on the pitch beside GK. He could take over the game by himself. There is a story that good old paddy Crerand told ,they were playing in a youth cup game vs chelsea and Jim Murphy said "you are all great players, most of you are going to go on and play for England. we have a lad named Duncan and he's amazing talent but i don’t want you to get a Duncan complex give the ball to each other . well come halftime they were not playing that well and it was 0-0 and Jim Murphy goes ok change the plan whenever you get the ball give it to Duncan ! Most of the older reds who i have talked would said that if was not for Munich it would of been Duncan Edwards lifting the World Cup in 66 not Bobby Moore.
10/10 for you - Best, Charlton, Gowling, Morgan and Law - Sept 11 1971 away at Crystal Palace when they won 3-1.
Listen to Wilf talk about both Duncan and George during his dinner speech last May. http://media.putfile.com/Wilf-at-the-606Sub-2006-Dinner
See what happens when I double-guess myself? Right first time. Could of sworn that was Highfield Rd though but in retrospect the socks on what I thought were the Coventry players didn't look right. I never knew that Palace played in a kit that looked like that..... suppose that old adage about learning something new every day is true although that makes it two things today. Like I said earlier, it was fun to look through that book of mine at some of our players from previous generations as I haven't dug it out in a while. Don't know if you've got it or have heard of it but it's entitled "Manchester United - Player By Player" by Ivan Ponting. It's basically a run-down of all the players to wear the shirt from the 50's right up until the mid 80's with pen-pictures and brief summaries of the careers of most of the lads. It doesn't go into great detail but it certainly helps fill in one or two blanks here and there although judging from your posting you don't seem to need that. Thanks for motivating to me to take a look at said book again.