ImagesPA; Getty Images0 7
MATT BUSBY
There’s a story that former
Manchester United defender Ronnie
Cope tells of the first time Matt Busby walked
back into the dressing room after the Munich
Air Disaster.
His manager entered with a heavy limp,
still in pain. Those present watched in silence
as he closed the door, dropped his coat and
stood right in the centre of the room. His
eyes slowly panned around, searching each
player’s face with tears in his eyes. “He was
looking for the ones who weren’t there,”
recalls Cope.
Sir Matt Busby’s career can be split into two
eras: before and after February 5, 1958.
He’d arrived at Old Trafford 13 years
earlier, fresh off coaching army teams in the
Second World War. But United were in drift,
without a league title since 1911. Change
was needed.0 6
ARRIGO SACCHI
For football fans, Sacchi is possibly the
most important figure in history. Not
because he won trophies and influenced the
likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp – but
because he was a shoe salesman obsessed
with the game. But he had a dream.
“I never realised that to be a jockey you
had to be a horse first,” he quipped upon
joining Milan in 1987, a sleeping giant of
Serie A with just one Scudetto in 20 years.
Sacchi set about creating his masterpiece.
He leaned heavily on his influences, signing
Dutch icons Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and
Marco van Basten. He favoured a 4-4-2 – rigid
out of possession, but fluid in full tilt. Sacchi
revelled in the mechanics of the offside trap,
pushing his teams forward into an incredibly
high press. The Italian believed there should
never be more than 25 metres between the
backline and frontline; his Milan concertinaed
as a result, squeezing opponents and hitting
them with fast, incisive attacking moves.
This was at a time when Italian football
still looked to catenaccio for influence. Yet
here was Sacchi, delivering a Serie A title in
his first season, before lifting consecutive
European Cups with the most scintillating
football much of Europe hadn’t seen since
Rinus Michels.
Sacchi was a couple of poor penalties and
a Roberto Baggio miss away from winning
the 1994 World Cup, leading the Azzurri to
second. He never quite recovered tactically
and never replicated his blistering career at
Milan – but Fabio Capello lifted his template
and carried on the Rossoneri’s success.
Winning always helps, but the game should
also entertain. Sacchi made Italian football
beautiful in a way that no one had ever done
or ever has since. That’s his biggest legacy.Despite flogging seven players and
replacing them with reserves, Busby’s new
team quickly challenged for silverware, lifting
the FA Cup in 1948 and league title in 1952.
They were at the end of their cycle by the
latter, however; Busby was expected to sign
big, but instead promoted a clutch of youth
players: the ‘Busby Babes’ would celebrate
two First Division titles between 1955 and
1957, with an average age of just 22.
They would have won so much more, had
eight members of the squad not been killed
on that fateful night in Munich.
Bruised and broken-hearted, the Scot took
stock of his dressing room and started over.
It was far from easy, but his team claimed
an FA Cup just five years after the tragedy,
two more titles and, most remarkably, the
European Cup 10 years later.
It’s a story of raw faith, perseverance and
emotion. On such pillars, Busby has no equal.BUSBY WALKED InTO THE
DRESSInG ROOM – HE WAS
LOOKInG FOR THE PLAYERS
WHO WEREn’T THERE
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