He may have been the Best but he wouldn't cut the mustard these days

Football Food For Thought / Paul Moon / 08 December 2009 / 4

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George Best watching Portsmouth host Norwich in 2003, almost three decades after he was sacked as a Manchester United player for missing too many training sessions and excessive drinking. Best ended up losing his battle with the bottle.

"Best was truly gifted but genetically he was destined to fail. Matt Busby marvelled at his pace, balance and bravery but knew early on that he was hell-bent on self-destruction."

Paul Moon looks back at the career highs and off-field lows of the great George Best and wonders whether the wing wizard would have "made it" in the days of regimented diets, alcohol bans and strict curfews.

Reminiscing with rose-tinted glasses can be found at most local pubs up and down the country where sporting recollections often take on folklore proportions. It was in my local this week watching Manchester United beat Tottenham in the Carling Cup that the old chestnut about Georgie Best being the best thing since sliced bread resurfaced. By the end of the night his injudicious lifestyle had not only been excused, it had been replaced with an alcohol-fuelled veneration!

Sorting fact from fiction is not always easy - we have all been guilty of hyperbole from time to time but despite his natural gift, George Best should not be considered a true great! His exciting style on the pitch put bums on seats, his off-pitch antics sold copy and he advanced the sport by encouraging youngsters to take up the game. It is important to remember this last bit. The downside is that subsequent players have also aped his pop image and celebrity lifestyle.

Despite his enormous acclamation, his honours were meagre in comparison, only winning the Football League Championship in 1965 and 1967, and the European Cup in 1968. He was named European Footballer of the Year (an award that he later sold for £167,000) and Football Writers' Association Player for that year. That is the sum total of his career and the record books will show international achievements, where real luminaries are measured, were few and far between. That said, he did admittedly play for a poor international team.

'I spent most of my money on booze, birds and fast cars - the rest I just squandered' was just one of many famous quips from George Best. That gave us a telling insight into the flippancy with which he treated football and his talent!

In his autobiography, he took solace from rent-a-quote Pele when he called him 'the greatest footballer in the world' and confirmed those words were the ultimate salute to his life. Despite Best's poor decision-making when it came to a lot of aspects of his own life, he was an articulate man and a sharp cookie. So it was somewhat surprising that he took that statement seriously - the truth is Pele called a lot of people "the greatest footballer in the world", he is that sort of guy.

Best was truly gifted but genetically he was destined to fail. Matt Busby marvelled at his pace, balance and bravery but knew early on that he was hell-bent on self-destruction. Busby once confessed to chat host Michael Parkinson that he thought the young Irishman would top himself in his 20's and at the height of his fame. This was from a man who did his best to nurture him.

There is absolutely no chance of anyone with a similar flawed character being able to play top class football today. A seedy soap opera of drink, sex and violence would be at odds with the work ethic and the modern-day restrictions placed on players' eating and drinking habits. Can you imagine Sir Alex Ferguson being sympathetic to his manner of living? We all know what happened to Paul 'the guvnor' Ince when he thought he had cracked it - he was duly offloaded to Inter Milan.

Genius without sufficient fitness levels and ability without mind-set are almost worthless in today's game. Negative attitudes get managers the sack and the days of "getting away with it" because you can produce the odd moment of brilliance on a Saturday afternoon have long since gone, even with lesser sides and in lower divisions.

In 1974 Best was sacked by United for excessive drinking and a persistent failure to attend training sessions and matches and at 27-years old his career was effectively over. Nothing in sport compares to this sadness and he will never be replicated. Catastrophe is the closest word to describe his life and probably the main reason we continue to talk about him.

Meanwhile his former club eyes an important and exciting semi-final in the Carling Cup against neighbours Manchester City. First leg to be played on Wednesday 6 January 2010 at Eastlands and Betfair prices show: Manchester City [2.4] Manchester United [2.76] Draw [3.1].

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George Best Fan Club Member | 08 December 2009

I have taken on board the comments made and I do beleive that Georgie Best would have made it in todays game .
It is always hard to compere bygone players of yesteryear with players of today , of course the game is quicker the game is harder and the players are fitter , but if these players were born today then they would still have the same skill they developed and they would no doubt be as good. Especially Georgie Best, I did get to see him play against chelsea at Stamford Bridge , he turned Ron Chopper Harris inside out and he tried so hard to kick him off the pitch .
I do also beleive that although he was outstanding in his early years he did play for an average Man Utd side and even worse National side and his career was destined for tragedy , his mother whom he idolised was also an alcoholic and when she died at an early age left its mark on George who then started to go off the rails uncontrollably, there was only one way to go which was sad for football at a mere 27 years of age not even in his prime .
Peter Jones | 09 December 2009

Tell us something we dont know about George Best Mr Moon!
We all know about his drinking and womanising.
Regarding "He wouldnt cut the mustard these days",I think it would be a true to say that he was the "best in the 60"s"
I remember reading a National paper in those days which did an article on him,there was a photo of him showing all the injuries he had sustained whilst playing,he was only a young player then!They kicked lumps out of him!
So lets have a nice article from you Mr Moon,Christmas is coming
Paul | 09 December 2009

Thanks for your comments Fan Club Member.

I agree with most of what you have said and the death of his mother so young must have affected him badly. How this impacted on his football I am not so sure as she died when he was 32-years old, he had stopped playing top class football five years earlier. In any case may I remind you what Sir Matt Busby said when Georgie was in his early twenties?

Many footballers have suffered severe adversity and I accept some deal with problems better than others have but the article was more aimed at a wasted talent and not a criticism of how someone copes.

There is absolutely no doubt that his skill levels were sublime and would grace any era but here lies the heartbreak. If he struggled with the pressures of the sixties when attitudes were lax one wonders what would he make of the pressure today?

I loved watching him play and saw him live on at least five occasions. I remember affectionately a goal he scored against Pat Jennings of Tottenham. I vividly recall those tussles with Chopper Harris and Georgie’s attitude to them.

You are correct in that it is hard to compare players from different eras, something I have found writing for Betfair. I maintain that he could only make it in today’s football if he had control of his demons and I remain unconvinced that would be possible!
ekpe | 28 April 2011

all said and done,Best was a geat player