The Munich Air Disaster. It was the biggest tragedy in the club’s history, one of the biggest tragedies in football’s history, but Scott McTominay’s presence in the first team is proof that the spirit of the Busby Babes still lives on at Manchester United.
The lanky Lancastrian is proving to be more than a useful addition to Jose Mourinho’s squad this season over the 11 games he’s played across all competitions.
At 21, he’s by no means the finished article and hasn’t exactly set the world alight or indeed during brief cameos last season – no goals (bar a stylishly executed strike in a routine 3-0 win over Norwegian minnows Valerenga in pre-season last summer) and no assists in 13 competitive outings.
But he also hasn’t looked out of his depth. He’s tall and agile, has good close control, is comfortable with the ball at his feet, has a range of passing and is above all industrious – an attribute Mourinho holds in high regard among his players.
Whether he goes on to make the grade, McTominay is certainly not there just so the club can continue racking up the statistics – you have to go back 3,904 games (or October 1937) for a United matchday squad that didn’t feature a player that graduated from the academy.
Youth development and success at United became synonymous with the Busby Babes after their rise in the 1950s and especially the core of youngsters that formed part of the successful European Cup-winning side in 1968 – 10 years after tragedy in Munich.
United marked the 60th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster against Huddersfield on Saturday.
But it had been woven into the club’s DNA long before the Babes term were coined by Manchester Evening News journalist Tom Jackson in 1951.
George Best and Brian Kidd, goalscorers in that final on May 29 50 years ago, were just 21 and 19 (Kidd was celebrating winning a European Cup on his 19th birthday).
David Sadler was 22 and John Ashton just 20, while Shay Brennan, Bill Foulkes, Nobby Stiles and Bobby Charlton had all risen through the Old Trafford ranks established at least 30 years earlier.
Eight of the players who died on the runway in Munich – Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, Duncan Edwards, Billy Whelan, Tommy Taylor, David Pegg and Geoff Bent, while Jackie Blanchflower was injured to such an extent that he never played again – all graduated from the academy.
Sixty years on from Munich and McTominay is following in a lot of legendary footsteps. He may be making small strides but he only has to look at another current teammate to realise how far he can go.
Jesse Lingard has fought more criticism than most to firmly establish himself as a favourite under Mourinho this season. He’s added consistency and goals to his repertoire and seems to grow in stature with every performance.
Jesse incredible: Lingard’s rise has not been without its pitfalls.
It’s hugely impressive a player so slightly built has managed to climb the mountain of doubt put in his path. And his stature in the first team is yet more proof that United’s success is not solely built on world-class players either molded in house or brought in for monumental money.
For every United superstar there’s been a reliable stalwart – John O’Shea, Wes Brown, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Denis Irwin and Park Ji-sung were some of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most trustworthy soldiers.
Lingard and McTominay’s progress this season, as well as that of Marcus Rashford, is also encouraging as they have been nurtured under Mourinho – a manager with a reputation for an apparent unwillingness to promote youth, or even kill careers.
It is a reputation that has been used as a stick to beat the Portuguese with following the success of Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Mohamed Salah since escaping his clutches.
Yet it has also proved slightly unwarranted given the likes of Ricardo Carvalho, Deco and Maniche became Portugal internationals during his reign as Porto manager.
Petr Cech, John Terry, Glen Johnson and Robert Huth also came through at his first spell at Chelsea, while he gave Dominic Solanke and Ruben Loftus-Cheek their debuts during his second spell.
A teenage Mario Balotelli made more than 70 appearances in Mourinho’s heavily experienced Internazionale team, while even Alvaro Morata and Jese Rodriguez emerged in the bright spotlight at Real Madrid, a club less forgiving of failure than most.
Killing youth: Jose Mourinho has unfairly been painted as someone who doesn’t give kids a chance.
At his United unveiling, Mourinho presented a list of 49 players he said he had promoted from academies over the years, and the rise of Lingard, Rashford and McTominay cast a little more doubt on that theory.
It is also a sign of how much he values the club’s legacy, putting trust in the next generation. The same cannot be said of his former club Chelsea and United’s rivals, Manchester City.
The London club currently have 36 players – most of them kids – out on loan. Andreas Christensen, 21, is the only academy graduate to have been afforded adequate game time this season.
City, meanwhile, have 10 youngsters loaned out. No home-grown talents have seen significant playing time, despite the hype surrounding the gifted Phil Foden, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Brahim Diaz – who have played a combined seven games this term, compared to McTominay’s 11.
United have just five youngsters out on loan – Andreas Pereira, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, James Wilson, Sam Johnstone and Axel Tuanzebe.
For a lot of diehard Red Devils supporters, Mourinho nurturing young players – the exciting Angel Gomes made just a second but impressive cameo off the bench in the 4-0 FA Cup win over Yeovil – is enough encouragement that the future and traditions of the club are in good hands rather than those of a devil.
So, will McTominay prove to be Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher or Lingard and establish himself in club folklore, or at least in the annals of history as someone who left his mark?
Or will he follow the path out of the Old Trafford door trudged by Tom Cleverley, Ravel Morrison, Kieran Richardson, Jonathan Greening, Luke Chadwick, Keith Gillespie, Robbie Savage, Raphael Burke or the countless others who couldn’t quite make it?
Time will tell. For now, it’s encouraging to see that bright young things at one of the world’s biggest clubs continue to be given a stage on which to perform.
United, in the long term, will reap rewards by sticking by their principles, even if in the short term they have to accept failure.
