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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Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly was Britain’s first ever football ‘glossy’. Packed with hand tinted photographs and celebrity articles, its arrival on the bookstands in September 1951 brought colour and glamour to the nation’s football hungry public after years of wartime deprivation and austerity. At its peak in the late 1960s the magazine was selling 254,000 copies. Charles Buchan’s Manchester United Gift Book: Selections from Football Monthly 1951-73 is a 144 page hardback published by Malavan Media in October 2007 which is full of wonderful nostalgia for anyone around my age.

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If there’s a bigger name in the history of English football I’m yet to hear it. Legends like Bobby Moore, Sir Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Sir Alf Ramsey and many others are all genuine contenders but surely, nobody can compare with Sir Bobby Charlton. The Manchester United icon was born in 1937 in Ashington, Northumberland. He made his first team debut for United in October 1956 and won the FA Cup, three Division One championships and the European Cup with the club. He then joined the board in 1984, a position he still holds today. Charlton was a key member of the victorious England World Cup side of 1966 and played 106 times for his country. He was awarded the OBE in 1969, the CBE in 1973 and was knighted in 1994, the first footballer to gain such an honour since Sir Stanley Matthews in 1965.

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If there’s a bigger name in the history of English football I’m yet to hear it. Legends like Bobby Moore, Sir Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Sir Alf Ramsey and many others are all genuine contenders but surely, nobody can compare with Sir Bobby Charlton. The Manchester United icon was born in 1937 in Ashington, Northumberland. He made his first team debut for United in October 1956 and won the FA Cup, three Division One championships and the European Cup with the club. He then joined the board in 1984, a position he still holds today. Charlton was a key member of the victorious England World Cup side of 1966 and played 106 times for his country. He was awarded the OBE in 1969, the CBE in 1973 and was knighted in 1994, the first footballer to gain such an honour since Sir Stanley Matthews in 1965.

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It was hardly unexpected, but still a sad farewell! Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has announced his retirement from football but I still would love to have seen him give his farewell to Old Trafford after the Blackpool game a week ago. The midfield maestro has been one of the most respected players in world football over the past 15 years. Perhaps the most meaningful compliments for the Salford born hero are those which come from his own peers. Some of the biggest names in world football – past and present, who have been emphatic in their praise for him.

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Some are unkind enough to refer to it as the Daily Fail – sorry, I cannot agree! Not when The Daily Mail comes up with the sort of interview that Sir Bobby Charlton gave to his friend of 40 years Jeff Powell. There were no leading questions, no double edged attempts to uncover some sort of sensational story which had been laying dormant during Charltons’ decades at Old Trafford. Instead, Powell simply allowed Sir Bobby to recollect his memories of the 1968 European Cup defeat of  Benfica in 1968 and give his thoughts on Saturday’s Final against Barcelona. It makes for a fascinating story which should be read by United – and indeed, all football fans.

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