Goalkeepers and Defenders                                                 

So, another review is here, the good people at PR Genie have decided that more time and devotion shall be spent on my couch as I trawl through some obvious, some surprising,and some downright ridiculous candidates for the best Manchester United XI. In stark comparison to the otherwise impressive Rooney Goal Machine, the opening titles and graphics have a slight air of class about them, less Europa League, more Champions League perhaps. Loud classical music blares triumphantly with the overblown grandiosity of a late ‘90s SKY Sports advert. The basic format is from a competition invented by the club’s website in 2011 where fans vote on the best players for each position, based on what I’m guessing is a rigid 4-4-2 formation.

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“Forever a Babe: Growing Up With Manchester United” is the story of boy growing up in a working class family in post war Manchester surrounded by poverty, hardship and a football club being rebuilt almost from scratch. From his first days as a pupil at St. Augustine’s right up to the horror of the Munich Air Disaster, Tom Clare chronicles the highs and lows of his family life together with Manchester United Football Club in this 368 page paperback published in 2009.

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The bare facts are familiar to football fans the world over. On February 6, 1958, BEA Flight 609 carrying the Manchester United team back from their European Cup quarter final against Red Star Belgrade crashed on take off at Munich airport killing 23 passengers, among them eight of the Busby Babes. The stories of tragedy and heroism behind those headlines are perhaps less familiar. How the team’s 21 year old star, Duncan Edwards sent a telegram to his landlady after the aborted second take off telling her of the flight’s cancellation and assuring her he’d be home the following day. How goalkeeper Harry Gregg battled to drag his fellow passengers from the flaming wreckage to safety.

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It’s a well known fact that anyone who has ever donned the famous red shirt of Manchester United is revered by fans long after they leave Old Trafford. Someone who was part of the first ever Busby Babes that was part of transforming the club into the world giant it is today, is even more so – which is why the passing of 76 year old Eddie Lewis in South Africa last week is mourned by the United family. He may not have been the best known member of the Babes but he was certainly one of the very first.

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Up until Liverpool met Merseyside neighbors Everton in the tragic 1989 Hillsborough FA Cup Final, the most emotional event ever held at Wembley Stadium was without doubt the Manchester United clash with Bolton Wanderers in the 1958 Final – for very obvious reasons. Greg Struthers of The Sunday Times remembered the occasion fifty years later.

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Have you had enough of reading about millionaire footballers? Are you sick and tired of hearing about wild, baseless rumours on which player is coming or going? Here’s a story about a man who has seen it all at Old Trafford, first hand. For the last 50 years Ken Ramsden went from office junior to ticket office manager, programme editor, press officer, assistant secretary through the ranks to club secretary. But Ramsden’s Manchester United journey is over and the Ordsall born son of a Salford foundry worker and an Old Trafford laundry lady has retired. It’s a fascinating story brought to life by Manchester Evening News Stuart Mathieson. It is being reproduced here in its entirety, totally unedited.
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