Sir Matt Busby: The ‘Sir Alex’ No One Remembers

Sir Alex Ferguson is popularly considered to be the best ever Manchester United manager. By extension, the Scottish manager is widely considered to be the greatest manager of all time. His legend basically consists of picking up a faltering Manchester United side on the brink of relegation and later forging different sets of glorious teams who dominated Europe for the greater part of his two and a half decade reign.

But Sir Alex’s Manchester United isn’t the only United team to be crowned in glory. As  history would have it, a few decades back, fellow knighted Scot, Matt Busby, who also incidentally managed the team for two and a half decades, had registered an unforgettable legend of his own.

Today, history remembers Sir Matt Busby, the Sir Alex no one remembers.

Before going into management, Busby was a player for two of Manchester United’s greatest rivals, Manchester City and Liverpool. During his time at City, Busby played in two FA Cup Finals, winning one of them. After his playing career was interrupted by the Second World War, Busby was offered the job of assistant coach at Liverpool, but they were unwilling to give him the control over the first team that he wanted. As a result, he took the vacant manager’s job at Manchester United instead, where he built the famous Busby Babes team. Eight of these players died in the Munich air disaster, but Busby rebuilt the side and United won the European Cup a decade later. In a total of 25 years with the club, he won 13 trophies.

Aged 18, Busby signed for Manchester City on a one-year contract worth £5 per week on 11 February 1928, with the provision for him to leave at the end of the deal if he still wished to emigrate to the United States with his mother. He decided to stay and made his debut for City on 2 November 1929, more than 18 months after first signing for the Blues, when he played at inside left in a 3–1 win at home to Middlesbrough in the First Division. He made 11 more appearances for City that season, all at inside forward, scoring five goals in the process.

During the 1930–31 season, City manager Peter Hodge decided that Busby’s talents could be better exploited from the half-back line, with Busby playing the right-half role. In his new position, Busby built up a reputation as an intelligent player and a finer passer of the ball. In 1930, Manchester United made an enquiry about signing Busby from their cross-town rivals, but they were unable to afford the £150 fee that City demanded. By the 1931–32 season, Busby was firmly established in the first team, missing just one match that season. Indeed, Busby and Jackie Bray became such fixtures at wing-half that club captain Jimmy McMullan had to move to forward to keep his place in the team. In the 1930s Manchester City performed strongly in the FA Cup. They reached the semi-finals in 1932, and the final in 1933 before finally winning the tournament in 1934. However, from the second half of the 1934–35 season, Busby’s number 4 jersey was worn by Jack Percival with increasing regularity, and Busby was sold to Liverpool for £8,000 on 12 March 1936, having made more than 200 appearances for Manchester City.

READ ALSO: History: Rescaling The Munich Air Disaster

After Manchester United had tried to sign Busby from Manchester City in 1930, he became good friends with United’s fixer, Louis Rocca; their relationship was helped by the fact that both were members of the Manchester Catholic Sportsman’s Club. United were in desperate need of a manager to take over from club secretary Walter Crickmer after the war and a board meeting was called in December 1944 so as to ascertain who that new manager might be. Knowing that Liverpool had already offered Busby a job, Rocca convinced the United board to “leave it to [him]” and immediately wrote a letter to Busby, addressed to his army regiment. The letter was vague, referring only to “a job”, just in case it fell into the wrong hands, namely the Liverpool officials.

The contract was signed on 19 February 1945.

Busby would go on to build a formidable team of young talents who came to be known as the “Busby Babes”. The team had been challenging on all fronts and had made it all the way to the semi-finals of the European Cup. Having eliminated Red Star Belgrade of Yugoslavia, the team was en route England when a tragic air crash in Munich claimed the lives of 23 people aboard the aircraft, including 8 players.

After the crash, Busby built a new side around Munich survivors including Harry Gregg, Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes. He also brought in players from other clubs – these included David Herd, Albert Quixall and Denis Law. Northern Irish forward George Best was scouted for Manchester United by Bob Bishop and signed to the club’s playing staff by chief scout Joe Armstrong.

Busby successfully rebuilt United, as he guided them to a 3–1 victory over Leicester City in the 1963 FA Cup Final. They were league champions in 1965 and again in 1967, with a defeat on the final day of the 1967–68 season seeing rivals Manchester City snatch the title away.

The biggest success of his career came on 29 May 1968 when the team won the European Cup, against a very formidable Benfica side which had within its ranks, the great Eusebio.