George Best: A football wonder
When anyone lucky enough to have witnessed George Best with the ball at his feet is asked to measure the Belfast-born phenomenon against stars of a later vintage, the exercise is pointless.
Equally, it is delusional in the extreme to cavil about short rations from a man who played nearly 500 games for Manchester United and dazzled as his side lifted two league titles and, most treasured of all, the European Cup – a prize that meant more than any other to Matt Busby’s Reds, coming as it did in 1968, just 10 years after the savage devastation of the Munich Air Disaster which claimed so many lives.
Naturally there was sorrow that George left the club at the age of 27 but by then he had created a decade of deathless memories at Old Trafford, along the way becoming, in the words of his illustrious team-mate Bobby Charlton, a wonder of the footballing world. If further opinion was required, Denis Law, the third member of United’s glorious Trinity immortalised by the statue outside the ground, called him one of the greatest players who ever lived.
The clues to George’s future eminence were always there from the time of his arrival at Old Trafford as a 15-year-old in 1961. Having overcome a bout of homesickness which saw him return briefly to Belfast, the scrawny little chap, whom his landlady reckoned looked more like a jockey than any sort of an athlete, made a stunning early impression at The Cliff training pitch.
Among the first victims of the Best magic was his fellow Ulsterman Harry Gregg, voted the planet’s top goalkeeper after his displays in the 1958 World Cup, at this point working his way back from injury with United’s youngsters.
Once, twice and three times, the spindly wee boy gulled the supremely confident, famously fiery Gregg with a mesmerising body-swerve, leaving the embarrassed custodian flailing helplessly in the mud as he placed the ball between the posts.
Later Harry recalled: “I got up and told him, jokingly, that if he ever did that again I’d break his bloody neck. Then we had a laugh together and I went home marvelling at the image of this skinny lad with such breathtaking skills.”
At first Busby was dubious about Best’s prospects because of his slight frame, but soon the boss was convinced he had been gifted the privilege of nurturing an extraordinary talent.
STEPPING UP
When George first flitted across the First Division scene as a 17-year-old in a home clash with West Bromwich Albion in September 1963, he was generally regarded as a promising young winger who would need plenty of time and experience to make a major impact at the top level.
But even on that momentous occasion, in front of more than 50,000 fans, the newcomer soon fell to roaming into all attacking areas, his self-possession unfazed by the baying multitude, or by the no-nonsense ministrations of his principal marker, the excellent, battle-honed full-back Graham Williams.
The Welsh international was surprised to see so little of the wandering George but remarked that he was clearly an exceptional talent with tremendous balance and a great attitude, always bouncing straight back up if he was knocked flat. Williams’s summation would prove notably canny as the Irishman’s career progressed as a free spirit who might pop up to devastating effect in any area of the pitch, as much at home at centre-forward as patrolling the touchline.
Thereafter, usually with no.11 on his back, George was undroppable and frequently unstoppable as Busby’s lovely side finished the season as runners-up to Liverpool, then lifted our first League crown since Munich a year later.
All the players were vastly accomplished, from back to front, but what beguiled the senses most completely was a ravishing forward line of John Connelly, Bobby Charlton, David Herd, Denis Law and Best. Three of them were unquestionably world-class while flankman Connelly and spearhead Herd also offered real quality. But in terms of limitless potential, it was the rookie Best who stood out most vividly.
After that sprightly debut, Busby allowed Best to polish his game in the reserves until he was recalled to face visiting Burnley two days after the Reds had been subjected to a 6-1 Boxing Day humiliation at Turf Moor. Duly he shone, and scored the first of his 179 senior goals for the club, as United exacted their 5-1 revenge.
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TAKING CENTRE STAGE
It was in the following campaign, 1965/66, that his fame truly exploded and began to transcend sport. Having excelled as United reached the last eight of the European Cup, George played splendidly as the Portuguese champions, Benfica, were seen off 3-2 in the first leg at Old Trafford.
It was seen as a handy victory but there was a notion that the Reds needed a bigger lead to progress. Accordingly, ahead of the meeting with Eusebio and company at the Stadium of Light, Busby counselled caution, advocating a policy of containment and consolidation for the first 20 minutes while his team bedded into the contest. But not everybody, it would soon become evident, was paying heed to the boss’s words of wisdom.
Benfica, who had never lost in European competition on their own turf, started slickly, but George was not bothered. Within a dozen minutes the swashbuckling Irishman had netted two superb goals, the first a perfectly judged looping header from full-back Tony Dunne’s flighted free-kick, the second capping a mazy slalom past several defenders with a gorgeous low cross-shot from 12 yards.
That put the visitors 5-2 in front on aggregate, and, with Best darting ungovernably here, there and everywhere, the Reds stretched out with further strikes from Connelly, Paddy Crerand and Charlton to triumph 5-1 on the night, and 8-3 in the tie, turning in what remains the club’s most sensational performance on foreign soil.
The instant upshot was the near-canonisation of the boy from Belfast at the tender age of 19. As the most prominent of the new breed of pop-star footballers he found himself a celebrity of the most extravagant order, especially after he was pictured returning to Manchester from Lisbon wearing the biggest sombrero he could find, giving rise to the lasting tag of ‘El Beatle’.
Thus, George ruled the football world and United were installed as tournament favourites, only for the season to turn sour as he was laid low by a knee injury. After playing the first leg of the semi-final defeat by Partizan Belgrade in excruciating pain, he missed the second leg as United were knocked out, and George was also absent for the FA Cup semi-final loss to Everton.
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Fit again for 1966/67, Best was ever-present, contributing 10 goals to United’s First Division title win and qualification for a renewed European Cup tilt. At this stage he was well-nigh irresistible, his attributes comprehensive. His dexterity on the ball seemed supernatural. Best was frighteningly brave, remarkably resilient given the fouls perpetrated on him, greyhound-quick and sharply intelligent, even if he could frustrate comrades occasionally by hanging on to the ball after they might have made lung-bursting runs to receive it.
As his team-mate and close chum David Sadler would have it: “His principal strength as a player was that he didn’t have a weakness. There was a time when he could have played anywhere in the team and been the best in that position. It sounds incredible but he could do everything better than everybody else.”
Having played the game of his international life – he was capped 37 times – as Northern Ireland beat Scotland at Windsor Park in October 1967, George continued in coruscating form as United were pipped to the championship by Manchester City but reached the European Cup final, to face familiar opponents in Benfica. On a suffocatingly balmy Wembley evening, he was kicked all over the show by his markers but still delivered a stunning goal after a dazzling dribble as United prevailed 4-1 in extra-time.
Personal accolades piled up – he was both European and English Footballer of the Year and topped the First Division’s goal chart alongside Southampton’s Ron Davies with 28 hits – but after the most intensely emotional achievement in United’s history, probably the side could have done with more reinforcements than were procured.
Still, Best remained serially superlative even when carrying debilitating injuries, and the Reds reached another European Cup semi-final in the spring of 1969 before bowing out controversially to AC Milan.
Over the next half-decade, the side declined alarmingly, Busby retired, successive replacements were tried and the unthinkable trauma of relegation occurred in 1973/74. Until 1972, George was still a world-class performer despite his colourful, well-documented off-the-field exploits, tallying more than 20 strikes in each of his last three full seasons.
Eventually he fell prey to alcohol and cut a sad figure as he played his last game for United on New Year’s Day 1974. But that is absolutely not the way to remember George Best.
Let the last words rest with his fellow United greats, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law. As Sir Bobby put it in 2012: “People still talk of George today. He is part of their lives and to them he was footballing perfection. Of course, nobody is that, but there were times when he did come close.”
Over to Denis: “Unhesitatingly I’d place him in the illustrious company of Di Stefano, Puskas, Pele, Bobby, Eusebio, Greaves, Beckenbauer, Maradona and Cruyff. So on the whole, George Best didn't do too badly, did he?"