Sir Matt Busby, Jimmy Murphy & Sir Bobby Charlton on Duncan Edwards

Sir Matt Busby, Jimmy Murphy & Sir Bobby Charlton on the ability of Manchester United legend Duncan Edwards
“He was the best player I ever saw, or am likely to see in my life. If I was asked to name a team of the players I played with, his name would be the first one I would put in, no question about it.” - Sir Bobby Charlton
“I never thought I could be as good as him. Never. He had every talent, he was the best short passer, he was the best long passer. He had terrific vision. His 60-70 yard passes with a heavy ball were pinpoint accurate. He had an enthusiasm for the game, he never stopped talking about it. He’d pick you up if you were losing. He was absolutely sensational, fantastic. He was a great loss to England, and he would probably have played in the 1966 World Cup final because he was young enough. Probably also the United team that won the European Cup in 1968.” - Sir Bobby Charlton
“We used to look at players in training to see if we might have to get them to concentrate more on something. We looked at Duncan, and gave up trying to spot flaws in his game.” - Sir Matt Busby
“I am convinced that Duncan would have been a fixture in the England team well into the 1970s. Whatever was needed in a player, he had it.” - Sir Matt Busby
” (the most) complete footballer in Britain - possibly the world.” - Sir Matt Busby
“If I shut my eyes I can see him now. Those pants hitched up, the wild leaps of boyish enthusiasm as he came running out of the tunnel, the tremendous power of his tackle - always fair but fearsome - the immense power on the ball. He played wing-half, centre-half, centre-forward and inside-forward with consummate ease. When I used to hear Muhammad Ali proclaim to the world that he was the greatest, I used to smile. You see, the greatest of them all was an English footballer named Duncan Edwards.” - Jimmy Murphy, assistant manager to Sir Matt Busby at Man United

[@stevelee4952]

My mum is now 94. We are an east end of London family, loyal Orient fans. But my mum loved Duncan Edwards and cried like she had lost her own son when she heard the great boy had died. We named our first son Duncan and she cried again when gave her the news. The old girls got dementia now but she smiles when we talk to her about the great Duncan Edwards. God bless him.

[@tt99football56]

Great story

[@gordonmonaghan133]

For one of the all time greats (Bobby Charlton) to be in awe of this fellow, says it all!!

[@davidrhodes4001]

THEN A RED DEVIL NOW A RED ANGEL THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES YOU GAVE ME AS A TEN YEAR OLD BOY.NOW MANY YEARS ON THEY ARE ALWAYS THERE. .

[@pepguardiola3739]

Legend of the game

[@tt99football56]

A great player, a big loss to the game.

[@Rureal42]

I remember watching this as a young lad in the early 80s and had it on VHS for yrs.

[@dnorfed]

How proud are those that speak the name Duncan Edwards, I was only 8 when he passed, wish I’d have seen him play

[@jonathans4187]

Such a tragic loss and all we're left with is what ifs...

[@badabing8884]

Not just Big Dunc but all the Busby Babes who perished. DE just epitomised what a tragedy it was. He’s now frozen in time at 21 and what could have been.

[@keithsymons5708]

Truelly a all time great

[@tt99football56]

A big loss to football, did you see him play?

[@keithsymons5708]

@@tt99football56 no but my father did and was always telling me how good he was

[@johnwilson783]

He was described as a giant among men at 17 and he died at the young age of 21 after making a 177 appearances for utd scoring 21 goals and was a regular player for England scoring goals internationally

[@bernardcurtis1764]

Iwas lucky to see the great Manchester United team that played shamrock rovers in the Europeancup in dalymount park ,in those days it was champions of there Leagues only unlike now 1234 teams from each league, United had a Great team at the time, the stand out player on the night was the great Duncan Edwards abley assistanc by Bill Whelan,an Irishlad , the score was shamrock rovers 0 Manchester United 6 ,

[@mrragaman7270]

@@bernardcurtis1764 that is very delightful story... i really want to chat all about your experiences cos it was golden from age like yours...hearing stories frrom people who have seen it all get me intrigued about the wonders of football..appreciate it from my generation to yours..

[@jJustPlayingNZ]

I remember we were on our way back from school on the bus, I was 14, and we saw the newspaper hoardings "United plane crash..." and we were talking about how Dunc would be holding the plane together with his bare hands. Sadly not true. It's very hard to express the feelings of despair we all felt when the coffins were brought back and paraded through the streets.

[@tt99football56]

A sad day in the history of Manchester United & in Edwards one of the greatest players ever lost.

[@martinh1309]

Thank you for posting this video!

[@tt99football56]

Np great opinions of a great player, I found the full documentary on here.

[@martinh1309]

@@tt99football56 do you have a link?

[@martinh1309]

@@tt99football56 i have a video on my channel of some "rare" Edwards footage if you want to check it out

[@tt99football56]

@@martinh1309 It's called Manchester United Munich air crash 1958, on a channel called oldfootballdvds. It's the video which is 55 minutes long.

[@martinh1309]

@@tt99football56 thank you very much, i'll check that out!

[@nialloneill5097]

My grandad was a Utd fan, so from 5 or 6 I was supporting and watching Utd, whenever they were on Match of the Day, even Phil Collins knew and sang about how important Saturday nights were back then, when as young children we were glued to a game of football. Best was my idol, and Charlton always got be off my seat too, but Big Dunc had the biggest place in my heart. Although I was only born in 58, the year he died, I recall the deepest sadness and reverence for this man, and the legend of someone who could have become the greatest player of all time. And my dad, who saw the game as an art of beauty, said he was the best player that he had seen, by far, and he wasn't one to be easily impressed. When I mentioned three other Busby Babes, who had come from my mining village, or ones nearby, who he'd played against both in school and local leagues, he said Mark Jones was nothing special as there were lots of really good, big CH's in the area at the time, but he said Pegg was good, and Taylor a special player, Tommy Taylor, a very close schoolmate and friend of Dickie Bird, who played both soccer and cricket to really high standards, but due to a knee injury, gave up football for cricket, and he played for Yorkshire and England at cricket, then umpired at international level. When Taylor was at Utd, he would go down after training to watch Dickie, during the Wars of the Roses, Yorkshire vs Lancashire, which were really big games at the time, bigger than Utd vs City as derbies. Bird said that Taylor's family could not bury him properly, and all the German authorities sent on were his ashes. He must have been in the centre of some explosion and fire, sadly. Bird also thinks Taylor too would have played for England for a long time, a lot better than Hurst he said, and he was scoring almost a goal a game for them, and he felt he was the best header of a ball around. He was still a young lad too, and like Edwards, would have played in the 66 World Cup victory, the 68 European Cup, the 70 World Cup, which was for me perhaps the best England team that I have known in 60 yrs of watching. Assuming these players lasted until say 34, or 35, then they would have played until 1972/3 ish. I think both Utd and England would have won more Cups than they did, without the intervention of the air disaster. As Bird said, what on earth were they thinking trying to get that aeroplane up in the air????????? Destiny???? Either way, a heartbreaking story, not least as some of the players and staff were outstanding, and thus history was changed, a history that would go on for many yrs. It was when Ronaldo, Teves, and Rooney were at Utd, there were a few games, and a short period of time during one season, perhaps the 50th anniversary, when the grief came out one last time BIG TIME, and since then, the outpourings are not the same. For those who know of reincarnation, then they will surely understand that many of the team had returned for one last brief finale, to achieve that which they were destined to so long ago...the European Cup, so maybe it was around 2008. Ring a Bell??? It's not easy to realise who Edwards had been reborn as, the man who adored scoring goals...CR7. I'll leave it there. All the best everyone!!!

[@andrewhudson8966]

Dickie Bird didn’t play cricket for England.

[@nialloneill5097]

@@andrewhudson8966 Sorry, I was thinking of his umpiring...he did so many big games, I think of him as an international star. He was certainly different in relation to the way he umpired.

[@nialloneill5097]

@@andrewhudson8966 He sounded really really close to Taylor too

[@andrewhudson8966]

@@nialloneill5097 he was liked and trusted by players.Its great to see him still going strong well into his ninety’s.He’s at all Yorkshire CCC home games and he is President of the Wombwell Cricket Lovers Society,making most of the the meetings and he always makes the Society’s Junior Players Awards night.

[@alfreddunn03]

What a loss for us all.

[@jonlowsby552]

I wonder how many honours Edwards would have got to his name playing in that exciting young United team for the next 10+ years, unfortunately we'll never know. Perhaps 7 or 8 League Titles, a few FA Cups, a couple of European Cups plus back to back World Cups with England. The impression I have is that all that was definitely a possibility until disaster struck.

[@mickdevlin]

He is Duncan. Say that that word at Old Trafford? Silence.

[@PatrickBatemanJr0007]

Manchester United would have been more great with Duncan Edwards

[@bourtziglance]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5vam6t7aL-Ja5I Manchester United color view of the 1958 Munich air disaster