Fifty Years On, Wilf McGuinness Pays Tribute

The Purist

"I had played for England at every level from schoolboy up by the age of 20," asserts Wilf McGuiness with pride, as if he'd ever somehow have to compete with the pedigree of those whose passing in 1958 has prompted such universally uniform respect every February since.

McGuinness managed to miss the fateful trip to face Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup with the luckiest cartilage injury of his life, and is still the only man ever to have managed and played for Manchester United.

Aged 19 at the time of the crash and forced to quit playing after a badly broken leg at the age of 22, his other clubs may have later included Bury and York City, plus a sojourn in Greek football, but McGuinness, who succeeded Matt Busby in 1969 only to be hounded out after 18 torrid months, will always be United to the very bone.

"I also coached and managed the England under-18s and under-23s before helping Sir Alf Ramsey behind the scenes," he points out with characteristic understatement. Indeed a career of rare ups and downs could hardly have got any better than the opportunity to take his place on the Wembley bench in 1966 and see the Charltons as well as fellow Mancunian Nobby Stiles claim the biggest prize of all.

Yet, in recalling the memories that linger, the man who could reasonably have been expected to have lifted the Jules Rimet trophy that day before passing it along to fellow football icon Bobby Moore looms the largest.

For Wilf shared more than his adolescence with the playing casualties of Munich, and cherishes to this day the chance he had to get to know Duncan Edwards better when they shared a hotel room on a scouting trip with Jimmy Murphy to Bray in Wicklow, Ireland.

"I was proud to know all of them," he remembers. "We would socialise and even visit Butlins on the Isle of Man or Pwllheli on our holidays. We went to our first pubs, first pictures - we did everything together."

It must always present some problem having to single individuals out when reporters duly come calling like clockwork year after year?

"Of course it is, and that's what I will always recall, even though it was so long ago now: it was remarkable how well we all gelled for how young we were.

"We'd stay at each other's houses, and Bobby Charlton's stay at my mum and dads' place really helped the two of us develop a bond. The more mature lads would go out to The Ritz in town, while us less mature ones might go to The Plaza, where Jimmy Savile was a DJ! Then there was the Locarno in Sale, or meeting up for a shandy at The Quadrant after a salt bath at Old Trafford on a Sunday."

Among the local lads was Eddie 'Snake-hips' Colman. "What a great personality Eddie had," smiles Wilf. "Fun-loving, chubby-cheeked and a scar on his lip, he gave them all a run for their money on a night out!"

Given that Sir Matt's reconstructed squad took ten years to claim the European Cup, how good could his lost team have been? "I think it's hard for people to grasp now, but imagine Giggs, Beckham and Scholes at just under or over 20 and see how much they came on.

"Scholes, if he'd stopped then, would have remained just a prospect - and what a prospect - but we are talking about the likes of Tommy Taylor, who was already England's centre-forward.

"It's so, so sad, because, for me, had they lived, the Busby Babes would have been a Real Madrid for this country - and for anyone my age that is the highest of praise!"

Captain Roger Byrne, who had started his own career relatively late before establishing himself in the England side, is still remembered almost as a father figure by Wilf. But he was not the only one to demand respect on and off the pitch. "Mark Jones may have been one of the younger ones but he typified how much we treated each other as brothers," Wilf continues. "He and Roger were both disciplinarians in their own way. Step out of line and Mark would put you in your place with a phrase like, 'You're a footballer, not a dancehall man'!"

Edwards clung to life the longest of those who did not survive. So ironic that the sky was ultimately to prove the limit in the days of primitive aeronautical safety for this Dudley-born colossus.

"No one is exaggerating when they talk about how good Duncan Edwards was, you know. Bobby Charlton always said he wasn't fit to lick, never mind lace his boots," sighs Wilf.

Eight survivors started alongside Wilf in August, 1958 in a friendly match held in Munich. "It was the first time we played and flew in Europe again and I was in that side - I remember it for a goal by Albert Quixall, who had come from Sheffield Wednesday after the tragedy, which he hit from the halfway line! One of the positive things to come out of the crash was that the relations between our cities and our clubs were made closer," adds Wilf, a familiar face still both at Old Trafford and the Victoria Ground, Northwich, where United play FA Youth Cup fixtures these days under the coaching eye of his son, Paul.

"But those men were so young and so skilful. And they all played their part..."

Wilf McGuinness' autobiography Man & Babe is available at Amazon.co.uk

The Purist
Frank Rijkaard
Charlton Athletic
Euro 2004: A Look Back
Inside Euro 2004
Football's Quitting Culture
Gareth Southgate
Warren Barton
Ramon Vega
Gary Lineker
Steve Perryman
Di Law

GO AND SEE A GAME!

Advertise Here

UK Flights/Hotels/Car Hire
Opodo

"The Onside In-Site" Copyright © From 2000. All rights reserved. Soccerphile Ltd.