Busby and Ferguson
Sralex has now surpassed Sir Matt as the longest-serving Man U manager. Who's better? I think it's a non-comparable which may seem like a copout. Clearly Ferguson has racked up more silverware. Busby's achievement, though, really can't be measured. It transcends fitba or even sport. To have the fortitude to put his life back together after Munich is a colossal achievement, to build the team he did is beyond that. Non Man U fans probably think this is maudlin blather. They may be right but I think that what many do not appreciate is how great was the team that died. These were all young men - "Busby babes" - that Busby would have regarded as second, third...etc sons. I regret that I didn't see that team but my dad did and he was the finest judge of fitba that I've ever met: his judgment - they were the best he ever saw. The best that I've ever seen were his 60s teams. I used to think it was just nostalgia but you can now get videos of matches from the 60s and they were great: that group of players would have been just as exceptional now.
Having said that I'm equally in awe of what Sralex has done. Here's the link between the two men: they were/are both passionate about fitba as an expression of creativity. While they both understood the need for defense and the darker arts theirs was/is a commitment to winning with style. Ferguson's teams have all played wonderful stuff as well as winning stuff. I wonder if we'll see their like again. They both come from an era of Scottish fitba that may have passed. The scots produced a succession of unique players way above their population size, players of vision, passion, skill and toughness. Crerand, Young, Baxter, Johnston, Dalglish and many others of not quite that calibre but still distinct, like Archie and Tommy Gemmill, Morgan,McNeil, Ure. That production line seems, alas, to have petered out.
But I digress and there's no shortage of similar passion in nations large and small, from Italy, Brazil, Spain, Argentina to Croatia, Holland, Greece.
A lot of fans instintively loathe Man U but I ask all to metaphorically tip their hats to two great football men who between them provided almot 50 years of some truly grat football.