Flowers of Manchester

Just finished watching the movie-United, which is based on the story of the Manchester United team that were involved in the Munich Air Crash that killed 23 players and journalist on board.


Without a doubt, one of the most emotional movies that I have watched, largely due to the undying love for United but also because it's a true story.

Picture taken just before the team got on board

The whole movie is centered around the Busby Babes and the plane crash which saw the passing away of 23 people including 8 first team players.British actor David Tenant is the main actor in this movie, taking the role of the then United assistant manager,Jimmy Murphy.Also very much in the plot of the movie is a very young Sir Bobby Charlton potrayed as the main United player just having debuted before the crash occurred.




I would love to give a quick tribute to the players that lost their life's on that runway on the afternoon of 06th February 1958.


Here are the list of players:

Geoff Bent
Roger Byrne
Eddie Colman
Mark Jones
David Pegg
Tommy Taylor
Liam "Billy" Whelan
Duncan Edwards 

Amongst the list of players that lost their lives on that day,there was one particular player many consider as the greatest player the world have never known about.The undeniably incomparable Duncan Edwards, the greatest England midfielder that England never saw more than 18 times. While many would argue that watching the movie and being a staunch United supporter has gotten into me saying this, but go and take a look at the records yourself.The records show that Big Duncan was the youngest player to play in the English League then aged just 16 years and 185days, and was also the youngest player to have played for England at that time. He survived the air crash but sadly passed away in the hospital 15days later out of kidney failure.


 "When I used to hear Muhammed Ali proclaim to the world he was the greatest I used to smile. You see, the greatest of them all was an English footballer named Duncan Edwards."
Jimmy Murphy


I played with Moore, Best and Law, and against Pele... but Duncan Edwards was the greatest
Sir Bobby Charlton


 "You can keep all your Bests, Peles and Maradonas, Duncan Edwards was the greatest of them all."
Tommy Docherty


"I wasn't fit to tie his shoe laces."
Sir Bobby Charlton


"He was the greatest player I ever seen." 
Terry Venables


"We definitely did lose one of the all-time greats." 
 Wilf McGuinness

Read this report from the Independent on the 06th of February 2008 calling Duncan Edwards the greatest footballer that ever lived.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/duncan-edwards-the-greatest-footballer-who-ever-lived-778480.html 

The movie also highlighted the courage of the Jimmy Murphy in building another squad in the absence of Sir Matt Busby and the determination in keeping the United flag flying high despite not having any footballers to play the very next game after the crash. A quick trials were conducted at Old Trafford and many man came out to try their luck to join United, out of this make shift team, United won their next game to Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 and reach the F.A Cup final that year,loosing 2-0.


Nevertheless, Sir Matt Busby built a formidable United squad that went on to win 2 more league tittles, one F.A Cup and of course, went on to beat the great Benfica side of Eusebio to win the European Cup in 1968, just 10 years later to become the first English team to become European Champions.


Manchester United went on to win to  their second European Cup in 1999 and on the 50th year anniversary of the event, won their third European Cup.


The victory was dedicated to the Flowers of Manchester