Inside Track: Best’s brilliant career had a sad ending

Last Monday was all about Manchester United. There were three stories, one good, one happy but with a sad ending, and the third, one of woe.

Let’s take them in reverse. There was a league match at Old Trafford, and was shown on TV.

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Decent results for Ruben Amorin’s side in recent weeks had the Man U supporters – no, make that zealots – living in houses that I regularly frequent, pitching themselves close to the screen.

All they were missing was the gear they usually wear on their visits to Old Trafford, scarves, hats and the like.

If I say I haven’t visited since the match, you’ll understand why.

Turning the clock back a month or so, the Reds conjured up an abysmal performance against an Everton side, who scored once, lost Seamus Coleman through injury after then minutes, and were then reduced to ten minutes later when one of their players got into a spat – not with one of the opposition, but one of his own.

Open those floodgates, the zealots shouted. They’re staying locked, was the reply.

David Moyes’ tenacious ten weren’t for catching – United weren’t very good. Jordan Pickford stopped everything that was thrown at him, illustrating why he’ll be the No. 1 choice, in every sense, when England go in search of World Cup glory next year.

Those among United faithful still with a stomach for football would have seen a huge contrast in how it is now and was over a half-century ago. Soon after the game ended, the BBC carried a programme on the life and times – and death – of George Best, one of the club’s and game’s greatest ever.

Here was a programme that had a mixture of a footballer’s brilliance and a tragic fall from grace. He went from playing on the world stage to trying to eke out a living in the game’s American backwater.

It didn’t mention that he also played for a short time in the League of Ireland, and that a club in the lower reaches of the Irish League, Tobermore United, was his last port of call.

The question is often asked – which of them was the greatest, Best, Maradonna, Messi, Ronaldo, Cruyff, Pele? There can be no definitive answer.

Let’s just say all belonged to the highest echelon. The ageing Messi and Ronaldo are still playing, but not with the verve of old.

What has to be said in Best’s favour is that the ground conditions in which he traded his wares for most part of the season were Spartan compared to what’s available to players today.

When it rained, pitches became quagmires, and there could be no better illustration of what it was like when the programme showed a picture of Best and his great friend, Mike Summerbee, handshaking at the end of a Manchester Derby. In the background was a sea of mud.

Yet, it didn’t inhibit Best. He was still able to display his silken skills, leaving defender after defender in his wake before passing or taking a shot at goal. You can only imagine what he’d be capable of on today’s over-sized snooker tables.

Something else from those days: Goal celebrations were kept to the minimum, a handshake here and a handshake there, and let’s get on with it. Full-backs rarely got involved.

Nowadays? Troy Parrott deserves great credit for his Budapest hat-trick, but perhaps something even better for surviving the pile-up that followed his third goal. He was at the bottom of it and must have been gasping for breath.

Best was regularly in the headlines – for all the wrong reasons, when his life beyond football became more and more centred on alcohol. The demon drink would eventually lead to his premature death.

From a star of the past to one who, hopefully, becomes one of tomorrow’s. JJ Gabriel – who probably would never have been given a mention in these pages if it hadn’t been for the fact that his father, Joe Ó Cearúill, has the same name as mine – continues to make all the right moves on the United’s Carrington training grounds, and wherever underage matches are played.

He’s still a young teenager, but while the rules don’t allow him to play under-16, he is, strangely enough, eligible for under-18, and has been scoring regularly for them.

Could we see JJ out for Amormin’s side before the season is out? Don’t bet against it. He’s been called into training with the senior side, working alongside Fernandes, Casemiro and the like. He could, at least, make the bench.