Alan Hansen was born in June 1955, which means he was around — albeit in nappies and in Scotland — when the Busby Babes won their first league title in April 1956.
Hansen will be pleased to know that even though there was no televised football at the time, let alone studio pundits, there were plenty of people telling Matt Busby that Manchester United would never win anything with kids.
Busby has rightly been recognised as a visionary for leading United into Europe and forcing the English game to confront its insularity, but what became clear last week, as the club starts to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Babes’ first title, is how revolutionary it was in the mid-Fifties to suggest that teenagers could and should play professional football.
”People find it hard to believe now, but at first the Busby Babes were laughed at,” Sir Bobby Charlton says. ”Football was a game for grown men, and a hard game, too. The pitches and the balls were much worse back then and the medical facilities were nothing like they are today. You had to be fully developed and physically strong to cope, and the idea that you could build a team around raw teenagers at the top level was completely revolutionary.
”Matt Busby thought it was a young man’s game and went on to prove it. When United won the league with that team, it changed football forever. Sir Matt would be so proud if he could see what is happening today, with academies sprouting up everywhere and players like Wayne Rooney playing for England while in their teens.
”Matt would have loved Rooney. He is exactly what he had in mind. Yes, he gets into trouble sometimes, but only because he wants to win so much. He’s a sensational player. Even I get excited every time he gets the ball, and that is what the game should be about.
”Alex Ferguson carried on Matt’s commitment to youth, so the whole success of this club has been built around young players and I think what we did has led to other clubs investing in academies and youth programmes,” said Charlton.
Bolton manager Sam Allardyce said: ”Investment can make all the difference and if you have Jack Walker’s or Roman Abramovich’s money you can change the course of a club almost overnight. The rest of us have to wait longer.
”I am six years into a 10-year plan at Bolton and though I am happy with most of the things we have achieved, I am disappointed we have not invested enough in our academy. Managers come and go, but a well-functioning youth system is a legacy that can serve the club and its area for decades.” — Â