Whatever you think of today's Manchester United, and I understand perfectly if you don't think much of them, their 1957-58 team was the one more than 17000 flocked to see at the Vic just a year before eight of them perished. We were proud to play the Busby Babes. We felt their loss.

To put it into perspective, imagine the sadness we felt for Michael Maidens multiplied by eight.

May they and the other 15 who died continue to RIP. And Michael too of course.

Different world, different people, totally removed from the world we live in today. You have to admire their dignity and how they coped and still cope with the experience.

I concur

Tragic day for football no matter who you support.

Except certain factions of Leeds, present company excepted.

Who's that lying on the runway,
who's that dying in the snow.
Well its Busby and his boys
making such a f***ing noise,
Cos they can't get their aeroplane to go.

Nice eh?

They were very much a product of the seventies, the heyday of hooliganism and 'fans' doing their damnest to gain a worse reputation than their rivals. Man United and Chelsea were pretty much the real bad boys as I recall, Milwall came much later.

It was a bit like Punk Rock inasmuch as the worse you could appear, the better.

As Snowy so rightly says, different world, different people: no four million pound mansions, no celebrity weddings, not a sponsor's name in sight ... and above all no hoodlums. The Manchester United side of that period made us all dream. We wanted to emulate them. We were in awe of them. When we drew them at the Vic in the third round of the Cup, everyone felt privileged to be able to receive these superheroes at our tiny ground and stand toe to toe with them. When we ran them so close, even though we lost we were bursting with pride.

Are we really unable to remember it the way it was rather than allow ourselves to be distracted by all the irrelevant shite that came later from people who couldn't imagine living in a footballing world free from their brand of disrespect?

very well said. 50 years but it seems like a whole evolution has taken place amongst people in that time

Thinking about it reminded me of my first cup final on the box...Spurs v Burnley. My granda invited his mates from Richardson Westagarths to watch it... men who didn't make a fuss and enjoyed tea and bacon sarnies with the match.... I was the only bairn and they brought me sweets... and then they ate them all mind you, that was in the days before the world went mad.

It's a good film but I thought it was set in the 70s??

Oh that Munich - aye damn shame - as is most loss of life,but naturally talented - ungreedy enselfish people is even worse.

Just think of the BS that would be printed if something similar happened today....

there was a good article in the paper this morning about how the survivors showed great dignity and courage after the event, with some of them even able to return to a playing career. there are passengers who were on the plane that glided into heathrow the other day are seeking compensation for 'mental trauma' and post traumatic stress disorder. traumatic as i'm sure that was, it probably doesn't quite live up to regaining consciousness with a dead team-mate sitting next to you.

several posters are right, we live in a different world today where people showing similar courage are the exception rather than the norm.

i'm not sure many of the survivors would welcome the pizzazz the current manure set-up are making of it, but then i'm not involved so that's just an opinion from afar.

Many of the young players lived in digs near Old Trafford because they walked or biked to work. Quite often Duncan Edwards or Bobby Charlton (yes he was young once) would stop to chat to some fan or another who they saw wearing a red and white dut.
They don't do that any more. The last person I remember stopping to chat to me when he saw my Pools scarf was John Gill.

Bloody hell I'd better stop this hadn't I -- I'm beginning to sound like Monty Python's four Yorkshiremen.

The stars were probably just as underpaid then as they are overpaid now, although no doubt better paid than they were down the pit. They lived normal lives and they were modest. Can anyone EVER remember the great and gifted Bobby Charlton behaving at ANY time with anything but the utmost humility? He is probably representative of the vast majority of players from that era.

That's why the whole country mourned Munich. It was people just like themselves who died, not glorified, mediatised monsters. You couldn't be jealous of Manchester United because they represented everybody's ideal. These were players you could really look up to with all rivalry taking a back seat.

But that was then and now is now. People idolise the reds for different reasons today. And the whole football circus consumes money at an obscene rate. Strange how wealth was not a prerequisite for passion in those days isn't it.

Sigh.

I believe this will eventually kill the game...it's going from a sport to part of a consumer worshipping society that values the ability to spend on the latest must have accessory and the Premiership has done a brilliant job at selling itself as such....football as a commodity. If the Premiership is a guide, the corner shops of football such as Pools will be swept away as football rationalises and gets more 'efficient' at screwing every penny out of the public for the big boys in the game ...the real supporters are being squeezed more and more as the 'new money chavs' and the middle classes 'discover' football ...they'll fill the grounds because they can pay, the ordinary fan will have to watch it on the box eventually...by which time I'll have jumped ship.

Heard a story on the radio, yesterday, after the crash, Duncan Edwards' father gave up his relatively well paid job in the steelworks (or somewhere similar) to take up a job as a sweeper in the cemetery where Duncan was buried, so he could be with him every day.

Heart-breaking.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 232390.stm
more madness




also read a really good article about the Munich disaster here>> http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/ind ... c=206715.0
which also goes to show that are still decent supporters/people in Liverpool not just scummy gets who sing vile songs.

the thread on that Liverpool message board goes to show that there is humanity in some premiership fans after all!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 232390.stm
more madness



..is this the same premier league who whine like castrated dogs everytime there's an international match because there's toooooooo much football.... then they fly halfway round the world for some pointless exhibition match .... have to keep the plc brand in the spending publics eye eh...?