Friday, February 1, 2008
The Tremeloes
We are fast approaching another anniversary, that of the Munich air disaster, which decimated the Manchester United football team, referred to at the time as the Busby Babes.
Rememberance activity includes a minute silence at the Manchester derby next week, and the forthcoming England v Switzeland game at Wembley on Wednesday. It is truely amazing how degraded working class (or the unemployed) values have fallen, that both these memorials have been in doubt because the authorities cannot guarantee the minute silence being observed.
If the event were at Twickenham, The Odsal Stadium, Wimbledon or the NEC, then I am sure the same nervousness would not surface, so what is it about this event? Are Manchester United hated that much these days, that this oafishness rises to the surface, even though press and public with no connection to United were killed in the crash as well?
The crash happened at a time when values were different, when parents and families commanded respect, when arguements at school were settled with fist fights, not knives, when kids in pubs sat in the beer garden with a bottle of pop and a straw, and when they could walk to school safely with their chums. These values are long gone in many societies and probably can't be reintroduced, but lets hope a little bit of credibility can be restored to the beautiful game on these two occasssions in much the same way as it was at Anfield, when they played the Everton theme tune, 'Z-Cars' for the memory of the murdered schoolboy, Rhys Jones.
On a lighter note, on Monday the youth team of Plymouth Argyle beat Birmingham City to reach the quarter finals of the cup, the first time they have got that far since 1956. On that occassion they were drawn away aginst the Busby Babes at Old Trafford. They lost heavily, with Bobby Charlton scoring six, and Duncan Edwards, who subsequently died in the crash, played having already been capped by England.
Rememberance activity includes a minute silence at the Manchester derby next week, and the forthcoming England v Switzeland game at Wembley on Wednesday. It is truely amazing how degraded working class (or the unemployed) values have fallen, that both these memorials have been in doubt because the authorities cannot guarantee the minute silence being observed.
If the event were at Twickenham, The Odsal Stadium, Wimbledon or the NEC, then I am sure the same nervousness would not surface, so what is it about this event? Are Manchester United hated that much these days, that this oafishness rises to the surface, even though press and public with no connection to United were killed in the crash as well?
The crash happened at a time when values were different, when parents and families commanded respect, when arguements at school were settled with fist fights, not knives, when kids in pubs sat in the beer garden with a bottle of pop and a straw, and when they could walk to school safely with their chums. These values are long gone in many societies and probably can't be reintroduced, but lets hope a little bit of credibility can be restored to the beautiful game on these two occasssions in much the same way as it was at Anfield, when they played the Everton theme tune, 'Z-Cars' for the memory of the murdered schoolboy, Rhys Jones.
On a lighter note, on Monday the youth team of Plymouth Argyle beat Birmingham City to reach the quarter finals of the cup, the first time they have got that far since 1956. On that occassion they were drawn away aginst the Busby Babes at Old Trafford. They lost heavily, with Bobby Charlton scoring six, and Duncan Edwards, who subsequently died in the crash, played having already been capped by England.
Labels: anfield, Bobby Charlton, Busby Babes, Duncan Edwards, Manchester United, The Munich Air crash
¶ 9:02 AM
