View Poll Results: Who is your favourite Man Utd player ?

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  • Bobby Charlton

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  • George Best

    1 8.33%
  • Ryan Giggs

    4 33.33%
  • Peter Schmeichel

    0 0%
  • David Beckam

    2 16.67%
  • Eric Cantona

    1 8.33%
  • Roy Keane

    1 8.33%
  • Ruud Van Nistelrooy

    1 8.33%
  • Wayne Rooney

    2 16.67%
  • Any Other

    0 0%
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Thread: Manchester United - Fans Corner

  1. #2521
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    http://www.ddnews.gov.in/sports/manc...nness-60-years

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  2. #2522
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    February 6 will mark the 60th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, a tragedy etched forever in the history of that city, Manchester United and the football world.
    That fateful afternoon in 1958 ultimately claimed the lives of 23 people, including eight members of Matt Busby's trailblazing team.
    It cruelly robbed a generation of football fans of the opportunity to see whether this wonderful football team — nicknamed the 'Busby Babes' because of their boundless youthful promise — would conquer Europe in the same way they had England.

    The disaster is part of the club's fabric. Was it fate, or coincidence, that United would again be crowned champions of Europe on what would have been Busby's 90th birthday in 1999, or again 50 years on from the crash in 2008?
    Here, we tell the story of what happened before, on and after that tragic day 60 years ago.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz56JQu3xsN
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

  3. #2523
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    It is August 31, 1955 and Matt Busby's Manchester United are playing Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. A testing assignment, undoubtedly, but United had a sprinkling of stardust in their ranks.
    'If it ever comes to pass that clubs can pay their players on box-office value, count Duncan Edwards in the ?100-a-week class,' was how the Daily Mail's Roy Peskett opened his account of United's 2-1 victory.
    'He has not only become a very great player, but also an entertainer of the highest order.



    'Edwards of the ultra-short shorts and tree-trunk thighs scored both of United's goals. Each was a combination of thunderbolt shooting allied to lightning thinking.'

    Can't you just picture it now? The crackle of excitement among the crowd every time Edwards collected the ball, the thrill as his youthful energy drove United on the attack, the roars when his blistering shots rippled the net.
    Edwards was just 18 at the time, still completing his National Service with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, yet it's so clear from just these words that he was a young man with the world at his feet.
    He was 'box-office' - that's for certain - with thousands flocking to catch a glimpse of the wonderboy from Dudley's mercurial talents at football grounds up and down the land.



    Questions about the glories that awaited Edwards in his career would certainly have occupied the thoughts of plenty of football fans and scribes in 1955.
    Would the brilliant 'Busby Babes' clinch the league championship that season?
    Would United have the chance to compete in the nascent European Cup competition? Could they be crowned Europe's best?
    Could Edwards lead England to World Cup glory in Sweden in 1958?
    Anything was possible. Everything was possible.



    But the thing about some questions is that we are destined never to know the answers.
    Less than three years later, Peskett would have the sad duty of writing Edwards' obituary after he died, aged just 21, from the catastrophic injuries suffered in the air crash at Munich-Riem Airport that claimed seven of his United team-mates.
    'He thundered briefly across the sporting stage this boy with the man's frame,' Peskett wrote.
    'It seems only yesterday that a new colossus strolled into international history - Duncan Edwards of the ultra-short shorts, the massive thighs, the phlegmatic temperament.
    'It seemed that Duncan would break all records before finishing with the game he played so gustily, but it was not to be.
    'Which makes this the saddest story I have ever written.'
    From hero of his time, Edwards passed into legend. Not many remain who had the pleasure of seeing him in action, but, even 60 years on, his star still burns bright.
    Perhaps Sir Bobby Charlton, his United team-mate who survived the crash, put it best: 'The best player I've ever seen and the best footballer I ever played with.'



    Had Edwards lived on, perhaps Busby's United would have battled Real Madrid for early hegemony of the European Cup instead of waiting until 1968 to lift the trophy.
    Many have suggested it would have been Edwards and not Bobby Moore who lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy for England on that sunny afternoon at Wembley in 1966.



    Indeed, some believe England wouldn't have needed to wait that long. With Edwards as their driving force, surely they would have been world champions at Sweden 1958 or Chile 1962. Maybe both.
    Almost all who had the pleasure of watching or playing alongside him agree Edwards would today be mentioned in the same breath as Pele, Eusebio, Maradona, Charlton and Best as the finest players to ever take the field.













  4. #2524
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    Munich air disaster and Man Utd's laundry ladies - from lipstick on the collars to cleaning the coffins

    "One week before Munich my mum was washing their shirts, the following week she was polishing coffins."
    Tuesday, 6 February marks 60 years since the Munich air disaster, which claimed the lives of 23 people including eight Manchester United players after a refuelling stop on the way back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade.
    Ken Ramsden was a 12-year-old United fan at the time.


    His mother Irene and aunt Joan worked in the laundry room at Old Trafford. Ramsden went on to have a 50-year career at United as programme editor, press officer and club secretary, before he retired in 2010.
    But his memories of that time remain vivid and provide a fascinating and very personal insight into the weeks surrounding the crash - and how the club started to rebuild in the aftermath.


    By the time United flew to Belgrade, Matt Busby's young side were the dominant team in England. The 'Busby Babes' had won the First Division title in 1956 by 11 points with a team that had an average age of 22. They won it again the following season.
    My Auntie Joan, who is now 93, had a job at a refreshment kiosk on matchdays. The club's secretary Walter Crickmer (who died at Munich) told my auntie the club were opening a laundry and asked if she knew anyone who would be interested in working there.
    It was as simple as that. No interviews.
    That must have been 1955 or 1956 and it was in a cellar just along from the dressing rooms. When it rained heavily, it flooded. That happened a few times, I can tell you.
    Back then most of the players trained at Old Trafford. There was a small staff. When I joined in 1960 there were perhaps 10 or 11 and that was the entire club.


    You did know everyone and, of course, you knew the players. You saw them every day. They would go in the laundry to cadge a cup of tea, have a cigarette or borrow the paper.
    Bobby Charlton, Duncan Edwards, Mark Jones - they all came in to the club from outside, so they were sometimes a bit lost and a bit lonely.
    They saw in my mum and my aunt a softer side of life. A friendlier side. If they got a bit of lipstick on their shirt, they would take it to the laundry and get it washed. It was that kind of thing.
    In those days the FA Cup draw was only ever on the BBC. Everybody stopped to listen to the draw. There was only one radio in the club and that was in the laundry. The players would mooch down there around the time just to listen to the draw. It was that kind of a place.

    It was a very intimate atmosphere, which has long gone of course.


    The players were big stars to me but would travel in on the bus or cycle. They would go in the same shops as you.
    We lived in Salford. Eddie Colman - another who died in Munich - was born and lived in Salford. A lot of the boys lived in Stretford, round Longford Park.


    In the school holidays I would come down to the ground, like lots of kids did, just to hang around.
    You couldn't get in the ground but you just stood waiting for the players to arrive and go out. However, in those days, when my mum and my aunt washed the clothes, they would often hang them out on lines between the stadium wall and the railway fence. Can you imagine now putting shirts on the line to dry?
    My mum would come out with a basket full of shirts and when she saw me, she would take me back in with her. That was my day made. All the other kids were looking at me marching into the ground. She would take me to the laundry room and make me a drink. Players or trainers would come down. I was in seventh heaven.


    United beat Red Star 2-1 at Old Trafford in the first leg of their quarter-final. They drew 3-3 in Belgrade on a Wednesday afternoon to go through and then embarked on the return journey in a chartered plane. United had stopped to refuel in a snowy Munich when their Airspeed Ambassador plane crashed as it made its third attempt to take off, ploughing through a fence at the end of the runaway and hitting a house.


    The next day, it must have been about 4pm. Mum had come home from work, I was home from school. Someone came to the door. It was a young boy from the next street. He knew where my mum worked and he came to tell her that he had heard on the radio that there had been a plane crash.
    My mother sent him away with a flea in his ear and told him not to say such terrible things. She couldn't believe it was true. But over a period of hours and days, the truth emerged.
    I have been in the museum on a number of occasions. There is a spread of all the newspapers. It is quite amazing how slowly the story unfolded.
    One day it is this, next day so and so is getting better, the next he is getting worse. It took five or six days for the full story to emerge.
    I remember being in school on the Friday and the word went round the playground that Tommy Taylor had survived. It was actually journalist Frank Taylor. It is difficult for people of a certain generation to understand how little news came and how slowly it came. I do recall it took a long time for the full story to emerge.


    Fairly soon after the crash the bodies started to arrive.
    There is lots of newsreel footage of them arriving at Manchester airport and being brought to the ground. The gymnasium, which was alongside the dressing rooms, was turned into a temporary mortuary. That is where the bodies stayed for quite some time.
    My mum and aunty polished the coffins. Partly it was wanting to do something. I am sure they didn't need polishing but there was this closeness, an affection - caring for them when they were alive and carrying that on.
    It always struck me that one week they were washing their shirts, the following week they were polishing coffins. Even now, 60 years on, when you start to think about it, it is just quite amazing.
    It was not long after the war. Nobody came and said "how are you coping, are you all right?" That wasn't the way in 1958. You just got on with what you were doing.

    "Wherever football is played, United is mourned," club chairman Harold Hardman said on the programme cover of United's first match after Munich. Amazingly, that took place on 19 February - just 13 days after the crash. United beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 in the third round of the FA Cup and went on to reach the final that year, losing to Bolton.


    We lived in Salford, so we had perhaps a 15-minute walk to the ground. My mum got a couple of tickets for every game, so my dad and I went.
    We were walking down Trafford Road and there were more people walking back towards us than were walking down because the ground was full so early. We were fighting a tide of supporters. It was unreal.
    We had been welling up with this great sadness and tragedy and here was a chance to go to a football match where you could shout and cheer. That was cathartic, I think.
    But it was just this amazing feeling that the club was carrying on. There was that sense of relief, I suppose.

    Sheffield Wednesday might as well have not turned up. They had no chance. I felt sorry for them. Everybody felt sorry for them. They daren't have won. It was just overwhelming.

    Seven players were dead when United played Wednesday, and Duncan Edwards died days later. Manager Matt Busby remained seriously ill and was twice given his last rites. Assistant Jimmy Murphy had not travelled with the team because he was managing Wales at the time - and he took over for the rest of the season. He made signings and promoted youngsters but league form understandably suffered and the team finished 11th.


    Goalkeeper Harry Gregg and defender Bill Foulkes came home quite quickly - Jimmy Murphy had gone over and brought them back overland. Both played against Wednesday and I have always been amazed at the strength of Harry and Bill to play so quickly.
    Not only did we lose eight players. People like Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower survived but never played again.
    By and large, don't forget the club had been building this production line before Munich. There were people like Shay Brennan, Wilf McGuinness, Ronnie Cope, Freddy Goodwin, Alex Dawson, Mike Pearson. Quite a few players who were coming through.

    To be fair to them, their careers were greatly affected by the fact they were brought through before perhaps they were ready for it. In other circumstances, it might have been another couple of years.


    After the Sheffield Wednesday game a sort of normality came back. I think back to one of my predecessors Les Olive, who was the assistant secretary at the time of the crash. He was 28. The club secretary died in the crash and Les was suddenly thrust into this amazing situation. The club had little or no staff.
    The stewards and ground committee came in from work on an evening and worked for nothing, just opening the post, helping to file applications for tickets and so on.
    The club was run on a shoestring. There was no money. There was no financial support from anywhere, no big staff to take over.
    It was a case of opening letters, reading them, marking what they wanted, putting them in the right pile, sorting the tickets, taking the money. It is a very slow and laborious job.
    How they coped with everything else that was going on, even now I can't get my mind round it.

    Some may say the crash made United unique. I would like to think it made for a very humble club.


    I think from Munich we saw the affection there was for Manchester United and the love for it.
    I know from my working life, a lot of people stopped coming after Munich. There are those who say 'you only became a fan after Munich'. That may be true for some but a lot of people stopped coming because they couldn't bear to come here and, as they saw it, see the ghosts of Munich.
    That is perhaps not as widely known as some of the other stuff, but it is a fact that a number of people have told me over the years that their dad or uncle never came again because they couldn't bear to come.




  5. #2525
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  6. #2526
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    Great film from the Manchester Evening News

    film explores what happened on that fateful day and the devastating impact the Munich disaster had on Manchester United, the city and football as a whole.

    https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/munich-disaster-60-manchester-united-14249660

  7. #2527
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    The official program notes ahead of the fa cup clash with Sheffield Wednesday just 13 days after the Munich disaster amidst doubts of closing down manutd football club!!

    'The road back may be long and hard,but with the memory of those who died at Munich,of their stirring achievements and wonderful sportsmanship ever with us, Manchester United will rise again'

    From the brink of a shutdown, to winning the champions league at the 10th year of munich anniversary in 1968 and further ucl wins at the 90th birthday of Sir Matt Busby in 1999 and at the 50th anniversary of Munich disaster in 2008!! Poetic justice may be!!

    Gone but never forgotten!!

    #UnitedWillGoOn

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  8. #2528
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    Mancity and Liverpool joins United in remembrance of the departed souls of Manutd!!

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  9. #2529
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    Ashley young

    The Munich Air Disaster is something I was always aware of growing up but in truth I didn?t understand its influence on @manutd until I joined the club.

    The lows of February 1958 that ultimately led to the highs of Wembley 1968 are inspiring to every player that has the honour to pull on the United shirt.

    Today we remember and mourn but we must also take inspiration from the response to the tragedy and people like Sir Bobby Charlton. It?s a privilege for all of us to still have him around and active at Manchester United.

    You still sing about Sir Matt Busby and about playing football ?the Busby way?. We have a duty to keep that spirit alive and keep making you proud to support this team.

    Keep the red flag flying high and join me, my team-mates, the staff at the club and millions of fans around the world in remembering The Busby Babes. The Flowers of Manchester ❤️ https://t.co/2F1yQPHZzY


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  10. #2530
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    HOW THE BUSBY BABES THRILLED US

    The Manchester United team decimated in Munich on that fateful day in 1958 has become the subject of football folklore.

    Here, on the 60th anniversary of the tragedy, we present the personal memories of three men who saw what made the Busby Babes so unique?

    Ken Merrett, Manchester United club secretary from 1988 to 2007

    "United were unquestionably the glamour team of the 1950s. Everyone knew all about them. I remember going to watch the European Cup tie against Athletic Bilbao at Maine Road in 1957, and that was just an incredible evening. United were 5-3 down from the first leg but won 3-0 in the second leg to go through. The atmosphere that night was unbelievable. The only thing I can compare it to was the famous Cup Winners' Cup tie at Old Trafford against Barcelona in 1984, when Bryan Robson scored twice and we came from behind to win 3-2 on aggregate.

    "That night at Maine Road against Bilbao was on the same level. There were so many superb players in Sir Matt Busby?s team, it was a thrill to watch them. Tommy Taylor, Roger Byrne and Duncan Edwards were all England internationals, but there was an enormous buzz around the whole club at the time, not just the first team.

    "I had a part-time job selling tea, coffee, Oxo, pies and so on at Old Trafford, and that wasn?t just for senior games; the club would ask me to come in for the Reserve team games as well, because there were so many fans coming along to watch, trying to spot the next stars coming through. I remember watching Alex Dawson, Mark Pearson and other lads in the Reserves, and then suddenly they were in the first team, replacing some of the players we had lost at Munich."

    David Meek, Manchester Evening News football reporter from 1958 to 1995

    "I remember going along to watch the Babes play and it was such a thrill, both in terms of the atmosphere and in terms of the football on show. We take floodlit football for granted nowadays, but back then it was new and exciting, and the players reflected this in the way they played the game. I think the crowd reflected it as well because they were eager to get involved in the match. It wasn?t just a group of bystanders; the United fans at this stage became quite passionate.

    "I think the fans recognised that it was a special time. They possibly didn?t realise the depth of the revolution, but they certainly knew it was something new, and that all started with Manchester United. It was reflected by the fans who regarded it as a journey. It was the same for the players. I remember Bobby Charlton telling me: ?You?ve got to remember that European football was a big adventure for the players. It was something new, that?s why we got so excited about it.?

    "For me, Duncan Edwards was the face of the Babes. He was the outstanding individual player who really looked the part. He had a physique that was like a superman. He played like a superman. He was so young when all this was happening to him, but he took it in his stride. It?s unfair to just single out one player, though, because it wasn?t just Duncan. That Busby Babes team was symbolic of what Matt Busby was doing at Manchester United, creating his own players in the image of himself, to play as he wanted them to play. The whole team was brilliant. Bobby Charlton was just coming into prominence, Dennis Viollet was a key part of it, Eddie Colman ? snakehips ? was brilliant, and the whole team was fantastic.

    "Apart from Berry, Gregg and Taylor, it was almost entirely a homegrown team and it had the kind of loyalty and dedication that you often get with homegrown teams. I think that was one of the factors that made Matt build his career around developing his own players. He spotted them, signed them, brought them up and he made them into footballers. It was just thrilling to witness that."

    Ken Ramsden, Manchester United club secretary from 2007 to 2010

    "The Busby Babes signified something new in football, because up to that point, football had been played by men who were older. Roger Byrne and Johnny Berry were slightly senior, but for the most part this was a very young team, full of of local boys, so you could identify with them. You also saw more of them around Manchester. They?d travel to matches by bus or even on bikes, they went into local shops, so you felt as if you knew them. My mother worked in the laundry room at the stadium, so during school holidays I?d go down to the ground to see if she was about so I could get in and get a drink. I?d often see the players because they trained there in those days. They were always around, just so full of life and full of football.

    "The world we live in now, we?d be looking ahead to the end of this season, next season, two years on and so on, but back then you really did live for the moment and you just enjoyed what you saw. Of course, we might have enjoyed it even more if we knew it was going to be so short-lived, but it was widely recognised that it was the start of something new and unique



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