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Sharuko On Saturday
THIS year marks 15 years since the United Trinity — a symbol of both genius and the ultimate in finesse — was unveiled outside Old Trafford.
It has become a major part, and one of the star attractions, of the biggest club football stadium in the United Kingdom.
It’s a beautiful piece of art, the Three Musketeers — George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton — hand-in-hand, overlooking the fortress they turned into a Theatre of Dreams.
Each of them a true United and football legend, in his own unique way, each of them a representative of superstardom in this Mancunian football kingdom.
When I first visited Old Trafford in 2002, to complete the physical attachment to the emotional connection I have always had with Manchester United, the United Trinity was not yet part of the furniture.
It was also a different Old Trafford.
The Sir Alex Ferguson Stand had not yet been named after the great Scot.
It was then known by its old name, the North Stand, and nine years would pass before the greatest manager, in United’s history, was immortalised, in 2011.
Even the capacity for the stadium was different back then, with Old Trafford holding 68 210 fans, when full, instead of the 75 000 it can accommodate today.
The mood around the club, too, wasn’t upbeat because, just two months before my arrival, something taboo had unfolded at Old Trafford.
Arsenal had come to the Theatre of Dreams and completed the ultimate smash-and-grab mission to beat United 1-0, thanks to a goal from Sylvian Wiltord, to secure the championship.
But, home will always be home and you don’t abandon it simply because there has been a major setback, as happened on that May day, in 2002.
There was also something good back then.
The Blue Moon had not yet risen, across the road, from the marshes of Maine Road, to challenge our dominance in this city, in particular, and the country, in general.
Even their home, the Etihad, didn’t belong to them back then.
It had just been opened, as the City of Manchester Stadium, specifically built for the Commonwealth Games.
The Club Games were the reason I was in Manchester and all the Three Musketeers were still alive.
Three more years would pass, after my visit, before Best, the best of the trio, would die, after a lengthy battle with a cocktail of illnesses.
He was the original rock star footballer, his striking good looks, complete with smiling Irish eyes, and dazzling footwork, combined to transform him into a true celebrity.
Long after he retired, and with the game having already been taken through the rollercoaster of the genius of Maradona, some fans were still singing his name as the finest of all-time.
And, as part of that crusade of sporting worship, in a world where reasoning is as scarce as finding a shark in a desert, we even saw banners which read: “MARADONA GOOD, PELE BETTER, GEORGE BEST.”
There is a very good reason the United Trinity is virtually worshipped at Manchester United.
The trio were the heartbeat of United’s historic triumph in 1968 when they inspired the Red Devils to become the first English club to be crowned champions of Europe.
To put into context how these three were special, one just needs to see that between 1964 and 1968, they each won the Ballon d’Or.
Law took it in ’64, Charlton took it in ’66 and Best won it in ’68.
Since then, only Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or, while playing for United, in the past 55 years since Best won it in ’68.
On November 25, 2005, George Best died.
As United mourned their original superstar, the club announced it would erect a statue of the Three Supermen, outside Old Trafford, and it was unveiled in 2008.
That same year, as if the United Trinity were also playing for the Red Devils in spirit, the club were crowned champions of Europe again.
A United player, Ronaldo, also won the Ballon d’Or.
During the 2017-18 season, the statue of the United Trinity featured in the design of the third shirt jersey, which the Red Devils used.
GEORGE, THE DEEPLY FLAWED GENIUS
For all his football genius, George Best was also a deeply-flawed character who was labelled by journalist Donna Carton, in an article in the Free Library, as a “CHEAT, LIAR, DRUNK, WIFE-BEATER.’
He had this sickening flaw of being a man who routinely abused the women who came into his life, and there were dozens of them, attracted by both his good looks, fame and wizardry on the pitch.
His wife Alex left him a few months before his death and she told how, during their eight-year marriage, he routinely subjected her to violence.
In one drunken occasion, he beat her up, broke her arm and cut off much of her hair and another attack, on Boxing Day 2003, left her with a black eye and a bruised lip.
She refused to press charges, after George’s arrest, leaving him to be released without charge and infuriating her father, Adrian Pursey, who called her ‘foolish.’
His other ex-wife Angie said George was “an absolute terror,” but she still “loved him to bits.”
This is the same George who was held for 11 hours in an English jail after allegedly assaulting his estranged wife, who was arrested on suspicion of indecently assaulting a young girl.
The same man who once spent more than nine hours at a police station in Staines after punching a 34-year-old woman outside the home of his former lover, Gina Devivo, in Ewell, Surrey.
We might need the whole newspaper to chronicle all the occasions when George assaulted women, including those who loved him.
That he remains such a cult figure is what angered people like Donna Carton.
“The adoration of an aggressive, womanising drunk is abhorrent,” wrote Carton. “Regardless of his one-time sporting prowess, the time has come to stop treating George Best as a hero.
“There is nothing heroic about his publicity-seeking booze-fuelled antics, his tendency to violence and his selfish adolescent behaviour.
“Take a look in the shelters up and down the country, which house battered women who have fled their violent partners.
“Do the men they ran from deserve our sympathy? Never! Why then George Best? He has fallen from grace – again and again – but stubbornly refuses to face up to his constant betrayal and brutishness.
“For years Best has been viewed through rose-tinted spectacles. It’s time to take them off. George Best is a chronic alcoholic, wife beater, cheat, liar and persistent womaniser.”
Rachel Riley, as a leading British broadcaster and lifelong United fan, knows a lot about George Best.
She has probably told her kids a lot of things about Best and the other two members of the United Trinity on the occasions they have gone to Old Trafford.
However, for all the bad things, which George did to women, Riley seemingly didn’t see any reason to question why he remains standing proudly, outside Old Trafford, immortalised as one of the club’s greatest heroes.
For the past 15 years, in which the George statue has been towering over Old Trafford, in the company of good men like Law and Best, Rachel never used her powerful voice to question why a man who routinely used to beat women, continues to be celebrated with such immortality.
She never threatened to stop supporting Manchester United because outside Old Trafford stands the statue of a man who used to savagely abuse women, including those who used to cook his food.
She never threatened to dump United because it’s a club that celebrates the achievements, and excellence, of a man for whom beating women was some sort of dark arts football which brought him as much considerable joy as dribbling opponents.
She never called out United for continuing to hero-worship someone who converted his house into some sort of an obscure gym where the punching bags were the women who had committed to love him.
This is the same woman who threatened to dump her support for Manchester United if Mason Greenwood, who beat his girlfriend, was brought back into the United fold.
A young first offender, when it comes to beating his partner, suddenly had a higher moral authority, in terms of being judged, than an experienced professional who was crowned the best player in the world?
Is it because George was white and Mason is black?
IT’S ALL ABOUT BLACK AND WHITE
And, now we have a dysfunctional United leadership, probably the worst in the history of this club, bowing to the threats of the likes of Rachel Riley.
This is the same Rachel who didn’t utter a word, condemning Ryan Giggs, when he was arrested on suspicion of two counts of assault against his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville and her sister Emma in November 2020.
Was it because Giggs had presented her with his signed shirt, live on TV, to celebrate the 1000th edition of her show in 2013?
Now, after being asked if she wasn’t displaying double standards by attacking Mason while accepting Giggs shirt, she told us she threw that jersey into her bin when Ryan was charged.
Why didn’t she turn to Twitter, when she did that, which we doubt very much, to give the rejection of the jersey the same publicity we had seen when she received it?
Why didn’t she oppose the recruitment of Robin van Persie at United given the Dutchman was once arrested in June 2005 after being accused of rape in his homeland?
Okay, RVP’s case collapsed before he even came to United, which is fair and fine.
But, didn’t Mason’s case also collapse before the courts and, if that was the case, didn’t he deserve the same benefit of doubt as RVP?
Is it because RVP is white and for people like Rachel, there is one benchmark, on which white players are measured on, and a different one, for the black players?
Why didn’t Rachel find it repulsive that Harry Maguire was arrested and found guilty in Greece for assaulting a police officer, verbal abuse and attempted bribery in Greece during a summer holiday just three years ago?
Didn’t it dawn on Rachel that Maguire, as club captain, had a higher moral authority, in terms of the checks and balances which should guide his behaviour in public, and what unfolded in Greece was unacceptable?
Would Rachel have reacted the same, choosing both silence and patronage as convenient refugees, if Maguire was, let’s say Fred, a black United captain who goes on a drinking binge in Greece and tarnishes his image and that of his club?
How did Maguire still retain the club captaincy after he was handed a 21-month and 10-day sentence?
This is the same Rachel who, after finding herself in the same nightclub with Cristiano Ronaldo in April, 2016, tweeted:
“I was in the same bar as Cristiano Ronaldo last night & managed not to wet myself with excitement. Possibly my greatest lifetime achievement.”
What Mason Greenwood did was wrong, and to his credit he accepts that, but to suggest that it was enough to turn him into a United outcast is not fair.
To suggest what he did was worse than George Best being handed a 12-week prison sentence in 1984 for drunk driving and assaulting a policeman, which saw him spend Christmas in custody, is grossly unfair.
That one of them stands in immortality outside Old Trafford and the other is now an outcast being hounded out of the Theatre of Dreams is very, very unfair.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brunoooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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