Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Lest we forget




This blog is generally about Galatasaray and more generally the beautiful game and how she is practised in Turkey. However tomorrow February 6th is the anniversary of the Munich Air Crash whihc wiped out the 1958 Manchester United Team. Now I know there are many out there who say who cares its only Man Utd but when you check the statistics and look at who was lost it was more than just the death of a club side it also ripped the heart out of the England team and in Duncan Edwards capped 19 times by the age of 22 we lost one of the best English players ever.

Two consecutive league championships, a runners-up place in the 1957 FA Cup final, five back-to-back FA Youth Cups between 1953-57, a place in the 1957 European Cup semi-finals and the same again in 1958.

The average age of the team was 23.

In Ferguson, Manchester United have a manager who carries on the torch Matt Busby started with his Busby Babes, fast, attacking fluent football played by generally young teams. Long may it continue.

In memorium:

Players:
Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Duncan Edwards, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor, Liam Whelan.
Journalists:
Alf Clarke, Don Davies, George Follows, Tom Jackson, Archie Ledbrooke, Henry Rose, Eric Thompson, Frank Swift.
Also killed:
Walter Crickmer (club secretary), Bert Whalley (chief coach), Tom Curry (trainer), Capt Kenneth Rayment (co-pilot), Bela Miklos (travel agent), Willie Satinoff (supporter), Tom Cable (steward)

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