George Best was missing… but our man knew exactly where to find him
Daily Express veteran Ted Macauley recalls his friendship with the wayward footballer, and the truth about the Man Utd star’s relationship with teammate Bobby Charlton
morning. He is a great and hard-working trainer. He’d shoot and take penalties all day long if you’d let him.”
AT THE United training ground, called The Cliff, there was a covered gym area, which Best would never leave as long as somebody was there to kick a ball to him. Bobby added: “As United’s captain I have never had any trouble with George on away trips or abroad. He is a dedicated professional.
“Sometimes in a match you want to curse him inwardly when he is trying to beat a fourth or fifth opponent and he loses the ball. But that’s a regular fault among young players. People used to curse me for the same reason when I was a beginner. And I have admitted it myself. With George all the curses boomerang when things are going wrong for the team and, suddenly, when all is seemingly lost, he gets the ball and starts off on one of his long, chinking, winding, dodging dribbles, beats a few defenders on the way, and finishes by creating or scoring a memorable goal.
“And that gives me the tingles just as surely as it does with the fans. I remember him scoring a goal in the first minute of four successive League matches, the kind of start you pray for in every match. And you just love him.”
Best scored 179 goals for United in 470 games and left in 1974. He played 37 times for Northern Ireland, scoring nine goals, but in later life his health suffered from his harddrinking lifestyle. Despite two liver transplants, he died in 2005, aged 59, from multiple organ failure.
Even today his footballing genius is talked about by fans around the world. Charlton told Macauley on the tape: “When the argument in cafes, dressing rooms and pubs comes to dribbling and ball holding, two names are usually mentioned in high regard... Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney. “They were both fantastic and although I came in at the back end of their careers they were on the boil. But there is no doubt in my mind that Besty could stand shoulder to shoulder with any of the great artists, past and present. He will go down in history and those of us who had the utter pleasure of seeing him in action will never, ever forget him.”
Ted went on to be the Chief Sports Feature Writer for the Daily Mirror until his retirement in 1997. And all these years later, he still misses his friend. He said: “He was the most gifted footballer ever. He excited fans all over the world, a dribbler who would beat half-a-dozen defenders in one surge and then score with either foot. He left a host of baffled defenders and beaten goalkeepers all over the world.”
’All of us at Old Trafford thank you for bringing him home. This is where he belongs’
●●Raring To Go! by Ted Macauley (Veloce Publishing Ltd, £16.99) is out now. For free UK P&P on orders over £20, call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832 or visit www.expressbookshop.com