This is one thread i wish i didn't have to post.
MUNICH survivor Albert Scanlon has died in hospital, aged 74.
Tributes have been flooding in for the Busby Babe, who never lost touch with his roots and still lived in Salford.
He had been in Hope Hospital, initially in intensive care for over a month, since being admitted on October 21 suffering from kidney problems and pneumonia.
During his stay in hospital he was regularly visited by family and friends, including two of his pals from the Association of Former Manchester United Players – David Sadler and Wilf McGuiness.
Mr Sadler, a member of the 1968 United European Cup-winning team, today told M.E.N. Sport: “He was a Busby Babe who survived Munich and he was indeed one of life’s survivors. He was a scallywag, I understand from his playing days. He lived life to the full. He was a likeable sort of guy who must have been quite a player to have got in that team, although of course I never saw him play myself.
“He was good company, and the kind of guy you would like to be with. He was a regular attendee of our association meetings.”
Born in the working class Manchester suburb of Hulme on October 10, 1935, Scanlon was snapped up by United after leaving school and helped the Reds to two Youth Cup triumphs in 1953 and 1954.
Prior to the Munich Disaster of 1958 he shared an ongoing battle for the outside-left berth with pin-up boy David Pegg but still helped his club to successive league titles in 1956 and 1957.
At the age of 22 he suffered a fractured skull and a severe kidney injury in the devastating plane crash at Munich Airport, in which 23 people died including eight of his team-mates, but incredibly in the very next season Scanlon featured in all 42 league matches, scoring 16 goals as the Reds - unbelievably in the circumstances - finished runners-up in the league.
Scanlon’s close friend during his Old Trafford career was wing-half McGuiness who went on to manage United.
following Sir Matt Busby’s retirement. Says McGuiness: “Albert’s main asset was his pace,” said McGuiness. “He really did have blistering speed and once he got a yard on his marker he was impossible to catch. During that period there was a very popular detective series on television featuring an American cop called Joe Friday who always talked out of the side of his mouth.
“That’s how Albert talked and seeing that his middle name is Joseph you can understand why his nickname was ‘Joe Friday’. He may have talked slowly but mentally he was a sharp as a button. It was astonishing that he played so many games after the Munich Disaster following the injuries he sustained.
“And he played very well in that season. Everybody talks about United getting to the FA Cup final that season, but what was even more incredible was that we finished runners-up.
“But after that season Albert’s form started to deteriorate. I don’t know for sure but my guess is that it was a belated reaction to the horror he had witnessed at Munich.
“After his career had finished he settled down in Salford but I don’t think life has been kind to him in recent years.”
Scanlon played 115 times for his beloved Reds, notching up 34 goals until 1960, when he moved to Newcastle and then subsequently to Lincoln and Mansfield.
Scanlon has never relished talking about the tragedy, which saw eight of his team-mates and 23 people in total killed, but in the M.E.N’s 50th anniversary Munich Remembered supplement he said of the Babes: “I think they would have got a lot better.
“There was such a lot there, such a lot of youngsters. It probably was at the time one of the best club sides ever. It was not actually a team or two teams, it was one of the first clubs to have a squad.”
Busby Babe Albert Scanlon dies - News - Manchester Evening News
god bless you albert, our thoughts and prayers are with you, your family and friends.
RIP.
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