Geoffrey Green - Intrigued By Manchester United

Intrigued By Manchester United

Newspapers were printed out of Manchester until the late 1960s and coincidentally Sir Matt Busby's Manchester United became the first club to actively seek the benefits the media could bring to the game in the 1950s (Busby Babes) and no wonder that Green like many of his peers who frequented there, became intrigued by their young, robustly scouted, team. The chief reason for being captivated was the healthy line of talented young players who came through the Youth Academy at Manchester United - Duncan Edwards, Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best. And it was Geoffrey Green who saw these three popular players in their prime. What was happening at Old Trafford was the complete opposite to what was happening at Villa Park during the same 1950's-60's era. It was clear Green was seeing the game he loved change before his eyes. Innocence was being lost as a new era of commercialism came to the fore. Money and the media were to gain a much bigger say as to the destiny of football and its biggest prizes. Whilst the original giants of the English game struggled to come to terms with the changing landscape, new, formerly insignificant clubs born out of second tier football were grasping the new opportunities with both hands.

Green was one of a very few journalists to have seen, up close, the much heralded Duncan Edwards, to whom he devoted an entire chapter in his book 'Soccer in The Fifties'. "His talent, his energy, his unselfconscious fun and enjoyment of the chase, his ability to make everything seem possible, all this added up to a volcano of excitement that gripped the crowds and the game wherever he played". Edwards would sadly perish in the Munich Air Disaster of 1958, so would eight other celebrated journalists. "Certain it is that Duncan Edwards, had he survived, would have captained England to the World Cup in 1966."

Of significance to Manchester United supporters, Green captured the arrival of George Best,too, against Benfica in the 1966 European Cup quarter-final (modern day equivalent of UEFA Champions' League) in a splendid form "Night a star was born", wherein he described Best's goal as "gliding like a dark ghost past three men, to break clear and slide the ball home - a beautiful goal." Quintessential Best as The Beatle who "was the best of all, as he set a new almost unexplored beat" with his "long dark mop of hair, is known in these parts as The Beatle."

The Manchester club, who would rise after the awful Munich disaster of 1958 and conquer Europe a decade later, continued to play good football even during their return to barren years during the 1970s and 1980s. Out of those doldrum years came Green's 'There is Only One United' in 1978 where he described the club: "As for United, they stand for something more than any other person, any player, any supporter. They are as was once written in the club programme of 1937 - the soul of a sporting organisation which goes on from year to year, making history all the time. They remain a club with a rich vein of character and faith. Because of that they have no fear of the morrow."