 |
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Supported by David Jack Halsall |
 |
 |
Sir Matt Busby
| Category: | Manager |
| Year Inducted: | 2002 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
Matt Busby, the visionary, charismatic manager who almost lost his life in the cause of Manchester United, created an aura of style and quality around Old Trafford.
Busby built two acclaimed sides: the vibrant ‘Busby' Babes of the mid-1950s, and the European Cup-winning side of the 1960s, the celebrated team of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, and George Best.
Yet there was also tragedy: in February 1958, the core of United's championship-winning side perished when the plane carrying them back from European Cup duty in Belgrade crashed in the snow of Munich. Horrendously injured himself, Busby was given his last rites by a priest in hospital.
Ten years later, on a highly emotional night at Wembley, Busby watched from the bench as his rebuilt side defeated Benfica 4-1 in the European Cup final at Wembley.
At the sound of the final whistle, Busby walked out slowly on to the pitch. After embracing Eusebio, the Portugal international, he hugged Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes, two other survivors of the disaster. ‘We won this for Matt and all the boys who died in Munich,' Foulkes said.
Declining their join the lap of honour, Busby quietly off the pitch. The tears were shed in private in the dressing-room, followed by a celebratory chorus of the song What a Wonderful World .
Busby always argued that ‘challenges should be met, not avoided', and he followed his own advice in persuading Manchester United to become the first English club to compete in the European Cup, in 1956-57.
A former Manchester City and Liverpool player, Busby was appointed manager at Old Trafford in 1945, at the age of 35. Under his leadership the club won five championship titles and two FA Cups.
One of the first ‘tracksuit' managers, he broke with precedent again by insisting on absolute control of all team affairs. ‘Matt will seek the board's advice, ponder over it and then go away and do precisely what he wants to,' Harold Hardman, the club chairman, said years later.
During the 1950s Busby established a network of scouts in order to scour Britain for the best schoolboy talent. Duncan Edwards was spotted in Dudley, under the noses of Wolverhampton Wanderers; Bobby Charlton was a schoolboy star in the North-east, but he opted for the United of Manchester not Newcastle.
As a result Manchester United won the newly created FA Youth Cup five seasons in succession between 1952-53 and 1956-57. The legend of the ‘Busby Babes' was born.
This was the team destroyed in Munich.
Remarkably, a patched-up eleven reached the FA Cup Final in 1958; Busby had only recently been released from hospital and he still needed walking sticks to get to his seat at Wembley. United lost the game, but their unlikely ‘against-the-odds' Cup-run captivated the nation. A legion of neutrals was converted to the United cause.
At the time Busby said that it would take five years to rebuild the club, and so it would prove. Several major signings were brought in, notably Denis Law, the man of the match when United lifted the FA Cup in 1963.
Despite the heavy financial outlay, Busby remained true to his belief in the value of nurturing young talent. As the 1960s progressed, another generation came through the system, including George Best. ‘Eight of the side that beat Benfica in 1968 were developed by the club,' Busby said proudly.
A year earlier Busby was made a Freeman of the City of Manchester. In his acceptance speech, he outlined his philosophy to the game:
‘There is nothing wrong with trying to win, so long as you don't set the prize above the game,' he told the audience. ‘There is no dishonour in defeat, so long as you play to the limit of your strength and skill.
‘What matters above all is that the game should be played in the right spirit, with the utmost resource of skill and courage, with fair play and no favour, with every man playing as a member of the team, the result accepted without bitterness or conceit.'