1969: Matt Busby retires from Man United
Football legend Sir Matt Busby has announced he will retire as manager of Manchester United at the end of the season - FA Cup final day on 26 April.
Sir Matt, who is 59, told a news conference at the club's ground at Old Trafford: "It's time to make way for a younger man... a track-suited manager".
He said the pressures of managing a top-class team were becoming too great for a man of his age and he would now take on the role of general manager.
"United is no longer just a football club," he said, "it is an institution. I feel the demands are beyond one human being."
The new team manager has not yet been chosen but one man that may well be considered for the job is Wilf McGuinness, a former United wing-half, a coach and manager of England Under-23s.
Munich air tragedy
Sir Matt is English football's longest serving manager. He took over United in 1945 and has since had a superlative record of achievement.
With the £1 million in profits he has since made for the club he rebuilt Old Trafford, which had been badly damaged by the blitz.
He has managed three highly successful teams. The first won the 1948 FA Cup Final against Blackpool.
The second team of talented young players, known as the "Busby Babes", included Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards.
In 1958 tragedy struck when eight players were killed in an air crash at Munich after competing for the European Cup against Red Star Belgrade in Yugoslavia.
Sir Matt was seriously injured but survived, along with Charlton who said of him today: "Matt Busby's presence will always be at Manchester United. He is Manchester United."
After the Munich tragedy, Sir Matt built up his third team, which included the transfer of Denis Law from Italian side Torino for a record fee of £116,000.
In May last year United beat Portuguese team Benfica 4-1 to win the European Cup - the first English side to do so.
In June Sir Matt was awarded a knighthood.
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I dont think we can compare the two of them as they both were from different eras and went thru the different challenges.There is little to choose from when comes to building players. But if anything...what sir alex did is still short of what Sir Matt went thru. He is the creator of United history, not too much for me to say he is manchester united. When you cried for someone you didnt even get to see over the things he went thru( not only munich!)..you know that he is special. To lost almost the whole squad and come back again to win the european cup tell us everything about the greatness of this man. If i didnt get to learned in details about Sir Matt (thanks to someone whom i hold so dear who taught me alot about united history), then i would go for Sir Alex. That said both leave a huge impact to where we are now..One thing about Sir alex is, he works in the eras where multimillion paid players got big headed and too big for their boots compared to players sir matt have to handled where most players walk or cycle to the training grounds. That itself not an easy task to do especially with players who have big egos. I cant possibly choose between the two if i can be honest but what im sure of is im proud we have both of them part of man utd and that, Sir alex will be missed dearly just like sir matt when he decided to call it a day.For all i care, they both have the same winning mentality and have the similar strong character that is respected by many..Not forgetting their appreciation and respect for the fans...I really cant choose, and wont! To me they along with a certain Bill Shankly are top of the list of all managers there is & that good thing is two of them are from man utd!
