Wilf mcguinness autobiography summary

McGuinness managed to miss the fateful trip to face Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup with the luckiest cartilage injury of his life, and is still the only man ever to have managed and played for Manchester United. Aged 19 at the time of the crash and forced to quit playing after a badly broken leg at the age of 22, his other clubs may have later included Bury and York City, plus a sojourn in Greek football, but McGuinness, who succeeded Matt Busby in only to be hounded out after 18 torrid months, will always be United to the very bone.

Indeed a career of rare ups and downs could hardly have got any better than the opportunity to take his place on the Wembley bench in and see the Charltons as well as fellow Mancunian Nobby Stiles claim the biggest prize of all. Yet, in recalling the memories that linger, the man who could reasonably have been expected to have lifted the Jules Rimet trophy that day before passing it along to fellow football icon Bobby Moore looms the largest.

For Wilf shared more than his adolescence with the playing casualties of Munich, and cherishes to this day the chance he had to get to know Duncan Edwards better when they shared a hotel room on a scouting trip with Jimmy Murphy to Bray in Wicklow, Ireland.

Wilf mcguinness autobiography summary: Typical sports autobiography, but quite

We went to our first pubs, first pictures - we did everything together. Does it present some problem having to single individuals out when reporters duly come calling like clockwork year after year? Among the local lads was Eddie 'Snake-hips' Colman. Given that Sir Matt's reconstructed squad took ten years to claim the European Cup, how good could his lost team have been?

Captain Roger Byrne, who had started his own career relatively late before establishing himself in the England side, is still remembered almost as a father figure by Wilf. But he was not the only one to demand respect on and off the pitch.