George Best was even better than you think | Rare footage

My dad always said to me he was the best player he'd ever seen, better than Pele even. He said that had he played for England for example on the biggest stage and profile, there would no doubt about it. Unreal that he retired at 26! How good would he have been had he seen out his whole career?

That was the thing that irked me about George,denied us the best years as a footballer.His life though and with those good looks and charm he must have enjoyed that part of his life.

The amazing thing I went with my uncle and two cousins my age(10) the three of us stood on a wooden stall to see.
Imagine them allowing that now,especially in a 55k crowd!
Midway through the second half the stall collapsed and then we saw sweet fa

Dec 1968 massive crowd and arsenal won
The stall sank after arsenal scored a goal ha!

The greatest player I’ve ever seen. I saw his debut at west ham, and I said to my pal bloody hell who is that skinny kid, he’s fantastic. My pal looked at his program and said “G.Best “.
I met George on 3 occasions. The first time he had just returned from playing in Florida and he was slim well groomed and handsome. A couple of years later he was fat drunk, bloated and with his hair and beard unruly he looked like the wild man of Borneo.
The 3rd occasion he had just come out of hospital and it was before his liver transplant. It was so sad to see a once handsome guy now only about 7 to 8 stone and looking like steptoe with sunken eyes. I said “hang on in there George , the whole country is funking for you”, his wife said that’s lovely, and when I said that there will never be another Georgie Best she started to cry. I said that I was sorry that I upset her and she said no I hadn’t and that she was overcome with emotion. George said laughingly “ shut up, you will have me in tears in a moment. I meant every word though, there will never be another George Best,he was the Muhammad Ali of football.
Just look at those clips and see his skill, his pace, and his strength holding off players or shrugging off their crude attempts to scythe him down.
God knows how many goals he would have scored in todays game where you are barely allowed to tackle.

Loved watching him but to my mind he let everyone down by retiring early with his addictions and behaviour .

George Best famously said I have spent a fortune on booze and i have spent a fortune on women.The rest i just wasted

George played 470 games for Manchester United, hardly a wasted career.
Nobody in the current set up will play that many games for them. He was
a genius and they are often flawed in one way or another.
Everywhere he played for the Reds people flocked to see him, there will
never be another like him.

I was lucky enough to see him play a couple of times and it is something
I will never forget.

I was lucky enough to see him play live, the whole 90 minutes. Like most players you get a few moments of brilliance in amongst a routine game. I tend to ignore clips. Seen players at Orient whose snapshots a great strikers. They are not. In truth a few moments of brilliance not representative.

Was he great? Of course he was especially on some of the pitches then. Would he be great today? Probably even better. Would the systems, work rate ethic and discipline today have impacted his game now? Absolutely. Was he the best? I doubt it.

I look at top flight football today and the skill levels of players is off the chart. Way beyond years ago. The United team that won the European cup would be mid-table Premiership today at best. Nostalgia overtakes reason. Training, kit, pitches, diet, science has moved on and players ability with it. I struggle to think of any sport that has not improved over the years. The excitement of the 4 minute mile, now a routine target for good club runners. Football is no different. Streets ahead of past years.

Of course great players of yesteryear are likely to be great players today with all the benefits. But you just cannot compare players as they were then with players as they are now. The game is now so much better technically. Perhaps not as exciting, but technically better.

Problem is myth overtakes reality. Stories grow. Sporting Gods are born. Did he always beat his man, lose a tackle, make a bad pass, miss a sitter, have a shocking game. We all know the answers. He was good, very good. But reputation and stories grow stronger each time they are told.