David Gwilliam
Well-Known Member
It was a different world in 1958.There was little hatred in football - that would begin in the late 1960s. Most footballers had grown up near the town they played for and most had no cars so they lived in the town and caught the bus.
In those days Manchester United were actually popular. With Billy Wright fading their left back Roger Byrne was regarded as his natural successor as England captain - seen as a high honour in those more deferential days. Tommy Taylor was so good that he had displaced the legendary Nat Lofthouse as England centre forward. The team was full of young talent so that everybody saw them as the natural successors to Real Madrid as the greatest team
Among that talent one star shone far brighter than any other. The best player I ever saw was Duncan Edwards. We are talking of a talent to compare with Di Stefano or Pele Well my opinion does not really matter compared with others. Sir Bobby Charlton claimed Edwards was better than George Best or Pele. Sir Alex Ferguson was asked "If you could have any player past or present in your team who would it be?" and he replied "Duncan Edwards." Jimmy Murphy said "I laughed when I heard Ali referred to as The Greatest. The Greatest was a boy from Dudley."
It was different then. At a time when he was the best player in the country Duncan Edwards was fined fiver shillings (25p) for riding his bike the wrong way down a one way street. For this Mr Busby fined him two weeks wages (£30) for bringing the club into disrepute. .
That horrible plane crash took so many young lives and that had to scar parents, wives and girlfriends. Their grief was personal and obviously terrible It also broke an England team Johnny Haynes believed that England would have won the World Cup in 1962 if they had lived. Would the England team of 1970 have collapsed against Germany if Edwards had been there as an elder statesman.
Duncan Edwards did not die straight away. For about two weeks the news bulletins told about his fight for life. He was so strong and so athletic people really thought he was indestructible. His death broke the hearts of all true football fans .
