Read as part of the sport reading journey
George is the mercurial George Best who in
November 1979, eleven years and countless drinking binges after winning the
European Cup with Manchester United, washed up at Hibernian FC in the Scottish
capital.
Hibs were struggling at the foot of the
Scottish Premier League and chairman Tom Hart, in search of inspiration for the
team, settles instead for desperation and signs Best, offering the wayward
genius a way back into footballing respectability after years of peddling his
name, if not his talent, in short lived appearances for a variety of lower,
even non-league clubs and a few nascent US “soccer” teams.
George and model wife Angie (in the sense she
posed with clothes rather than provided matrimonial perfection) roll into town,
the media circus follows, and attendances rise to see one of the greatest
perform albeit in less than glamorous surroundings. He’s overweight and unfit
but still has the eye for a pass and the feet to hit it accurately; the shimmer
of the hips is still there to beat a man but the pace to leave him behind has
gone; the shot with either foot remains deadly. Above all the weakness for the
booze and the tendency to self-destruct persist.
John Neil Munro saw it at the time and here,
30 years on, presents a retrospective off that short bizarre period in Hibs’
history. It combines contemporary reports with newly obtained, largely fond,
remembrances from fans (who have now found fame), ex-players, the media and an
occasional barman.
The book is as short as Best’s Hibs career
and concentrates on his impact on the club; his off the field antics are not
sensationalised but their effects on the club are evidenced. The writing is
easy and to the point; there is some repetition, but Best’s whole later career
was a depressingly repetitive cycle of wasted opportunity, and thankfully there
is no attempt to over-analyse his problems here.
I found the book interesting having followed
football closely ever since my first “Charles Buchan Football Annual” circa
1960. Living in Manchester I saw Best at his best many times at Old Trafford;
and at university in Edinburgh I supported Hibs during one of few good periods in
the early seventies; so there was a personal element in my enjoyment of the
book.
Anyone with an interest in George Best or
Scottish Football should find this a diverting and nostalgic read.
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