Manchester United | 1955-58 | The Busby Babes

[Brezza]

Manager: Sir Matt BUSBY

Goalkeepers:

Harry GREGG
Ray WOOD

Defenders:

Roger BYRNE
Geoff BENT
Jackie BLANCHFLOWER
Allenby CHILTON
Bill FOULKES
Ian GREAVES
Freddie GOODWIN
Mark JONES

Midfielders:

Bobby CHARLTON
Duncan EDWARDS
Eddie COLMAN
Jeff WHITEFOOT
Liam "Billy" WHELAN
Wilf McGUINNESS
John DOHERTY
Albert SCANLON

Attackers:

Kenny MORGANS
David PEGG
Johnny BERRY
Dennis VIOLLET
Tommy TAYLOR
Alex DAWSON
Colin WEBSTER

FORMATION

-----------------------GREGG---------------------
---------------------------------------------------
--------FOULKES-------------------BYRNE(C)---------
-----------------------JONES------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
-----------COLEMAN------------EDWARDS------------
-------------------------------------------------------
-BERRY-----------------------------------------PEGG--
-----------CHARLTON----------VIOLLET-----------------
------------------------TAYLOR-------------------------

The Busby Babes were a group of Manchester United players, recruited and trained by the club's assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, who progressed from the club's youth team into the first team under the management of the eponymous Matt Busby.

The Busby Babes were notable not only for being young and gifted, but for being developed by the club itself, rather than bought from other clubs, which was customary then, as now. The term, supposedly coined by Manchester Evening News journalist Tom Jackson, usually refers to the players who won the league championship in seasons 1955-56 and 1956-57 with an average age of 21 and 22 respectively.

The Busby Babes seemed destined to dominate the football world for time to come and had captured the imagination of the fans; already they had proved themselves both at home and in Europe. The 1957/58 season opened with talk of a treble - The League, the FA Cup, and the European Cup. But fate had decided it was not to be. On 6 February 1958 the Airspeed Ambassador plane carrying them home from Belgrade crashed on takeoff, killing eight of United's players.

Eight of the Busby Babes died in the Munich air disaster in 1958 including Duncan Edwards, who was regarded as potentially being the greatest of them all. The last remaining player from the pre-Munich side, Bobby Charlton, retired from playing in 1975.

[DeFrenZ]

this remembers me: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Torino
only in italian sorry

[electric_trigger]

Colin Webster

Allenby Chilton

[Plava Čigra]

Fix the link for Charlton. viewtopic.php?f=183&t=2818&hilit=Charlton

[Jez]

The Flowers of Manchester
One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich, Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester

Matt Busby's boys were flying, returning from Belgrade,
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again.

The third time down the runaway disaster followed close,
There was slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned.
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.

Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were capped for England's side.
And Ireland's Billy Whelan and England's Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also,
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.

Big Duncan he went too, with an injury to his brain,
And Ireland's brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.

The trainer, coach and secretary, and a member of the crew,
Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
and one of them Big Swifty, who we will ne'er forget,
the finest English 'keeper that ever graced the net.

Oh, England's finest football team its record truly great,
its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
the flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester.


Geoff Bent
Roger Byrne
Eddie Colman
Duncan Edwards
Mark Jones
David Pegg
Tommy Taylor
Liam Whelan
Walter Crickmer
Bert Whalley
Tom Curry
Alf Clarke
Don Davies
George Follows
Tom Jackson
Archie Ledbrooke
Henry Rose
Eric Thompson
Frank Swift
Kenneth Rayment
Bela Miklos
Willie Satinoff
Tommy Cable

R.I.P We will never forget.

52 years today.

[Jez]

I really can't say much more than I did in the last post, so I'll let these lads do the talking this time.



What I can say though, is that I'll be donning the Green & Gold today.

We'll never die!

[Jez]

It's quite saddening that I'm the only person on the whole website to have paid my respects on the last two anniversaries of the Munich air disaster

[John]

I was thinking of posting my respects, but it's quite sad and unnecessary posting here as it is a bit off topic

Nevertheless..

R.I.P. Babes, we will never forget

EDIT: I really liked this comment posted in youtube video that jez posted so I'm quoting it

We're Manchester United and we'll never die; we'll lose players, some will die, some will retire, some will be transfered but nothing will stop Manchester United. No set-back is big enough to stop United. RIP BABES.

[Keaty22]

Been looking at how the numbers used to be given so these are the numbers for the starting x1

1. Gregg
2. Foulkes
3. Byrne
4. Colman
5. Jones
6. Edwards
7. Morgans
8. Charlton
9. Taylor
10. Viollet
11. Pegg

[Keaty22]

R.I.P 54 years never forgotten

[MagicDip]

Allenby Chilton wasn't part of that team and Charlton an Gregg were regulars in the first team in the last years of that era, Whelan played more than Charlton and Wood was the starter as the GK of the team.

The full roster is this one (based on those who played the most between 55 and 58):

Goalkeepers:

1 Ray WOOD
Harry GREGG

Defenders:

2 Bill FOULKES
3 Roger BYRNE
5 Mark JONES
Ian GREAVES
Ronnie COPE
Jackie BLANCHFLOWER

Midfielders:

4 Eddie COLMAN
6 Duncan EDWARDS
8 Liam WHELAN
Freddie GOODWIN
Wilf McGUINNESS
John DOHERTY

Forwards:

7 Johnny BERRY
9 Tommy TAYLOR
10 Dennis VIOLLET
11 David PEGG
Bobby CHARLTON
Albert SCANLON
Alex DAWSON
Colin WEBSTER
Kenny MORGANS

------------------------------
Reserve Players:

Goalkeeper:
David GASKELL

Defenders:
Geoff BENT
Shay BRENNAN

Midfielders:
Ernie TAYLOR
Stan CROWTHER
Jeff WHITEFOOT
Mark PEARSON
Bobby HARROP

Forward:
Eddie LEWIS

2-3-5 Formation: (It should be like this)



GK WOOD
CB (Right Back) FOULKES
CB (Left Back) BYRNE
DMF/CB (Centre Half) JONES/BLANCHFLOWER
DMF/CMF/RMF (Right Half) COLMAN
DMF/CMF/LMF (Left Half) EDWARDS
SS/AMF (Inside Right) WHELAN/CHARLTON
SS/AMF (Inside Left) VIOLLET
RWF (Right Wing) BERRY
LWF (Left Wing) PEGG
CF (Striker) TAYLOR

Source: The complete squads and datas on this site, season by season:

http://www.aboutmanutd.com/man-u-seasons/1955-1956.html

[Ratmundo]

Hi guys, I have managed to create the player faces for the best of Man Utd under Sir Matt Busby using the ingame editor on PS4.

If you're intersted then please have a look at my thread over on Pesgaming...

http://www.pesgaming.com/showthread.php?t=98968