THE Busby Babes’ final game on British soil before the Munich air disaster was at Arsenal.
By HARRY REDKNAPP
I was there with my dad on February 1, 1958, with more than 63,000 packed inside Highbury.
Manchester United won 5-4 and it was a game I’ll never, ever forget.
This United was a side packed full of stars like Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman, Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor. This was an incredible football team, one of the very finest.
I didn’t support them but they were still my heroes. Yet they never returned from their next game.
I remember me and my mates crying at school in East London when the news broke.
When I lost mum and dad a few years ago, I was clearing out the house and came across the football scrapbook I kept when I was young. In it were newspaper pictures of Duncan Edwards in hospital when it looked as though he would pull through.
I looked at the scrapbook and the terrible memories of that crash came flooding back.
Equally, I’ll never forget that shocking day at Hillsborough in 1989. I was manager at Bournemouth and I remember the news filtering through.
These were kids going to watch a football match yet they never came home.
Another horrendous day.
Because both Manchester United and Liverpool have suffered such terrible tragedies, I find it even harder to understand why some fans sing these sick, despicable songs.
If anything, they should know how to respect each other as they have suffered so much more than other teams. Both United and Liverpool are two of the greatest clubs in the world but they are both being let down by some of their fans.
What sort of morons sing about the dead?
They must be pathetic, mindless, idiots. Anyone with a brain or decency in their life would not behave this way.
I have suffered abuse from the stands in the past but nothing like that.
People can have a go but that has never bothered me. This is totally different, though, because people who sing about the Munich air crash and Hillsborough need psychiatric help. They are not right in the head.
You cannot blame the players for this, regardless of what may have happened on the pitch over the last few years. Nothing should incite fans to sing about people who were killed.
Players will go out and get stuck into each other because Liverpool against Manchester United is a massive game. I just want a bit of respect for people who lost their lives.
I have managed at Anfield lots of times and if you were to offer me a season ticket for any club in the world, it would be Liverpool.
When the crowd sing You’ll Never Walk Alone, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It is the most moving thing in football, there’s nothing like it.
Yet, when I have heard that Manchester United song at Anfield while I’ve been in the dugout, I have felt like walking out of the stadium because it disgusted me.
I have also heard some of the horrific abuse aimed at Liverpool and it’s equally as disturbing. Now, finally, I want all the fans of these two fantastic clubs to stop sinking to such a low level.
The whole country — along with millions of sports fans around the world — will be watching today and I am urging the supporters to behave.
How would these people feel if someone sang about their dead son or daughter?
Hopefully, the fans of United and Liverpool will come together tomorrow and behave in the proper manner. To show some respect to the people who lost their lives in both Munich and Sheffield.
This rubbish MUST end. Now is the time.
