OLIVER HOLT: The Manchester United of Sir Bobby Charlton’s era were celebrated as ‘England’s Team’. Now there’s just sadness over a club in decay

• Man United are set to pay tribute to the late Sir Bobby Charlton at Old Trafford 
• They take on FC Copenhagen in the Champions League at home on Tuesday  
• Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off!’

A kind of convention began in the late 1970s in the US when broadcasters and then fans referred to the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys as ‘America’s Team’.

The Cowboys were successful back then and they were glamorous and they sold out their games and even now, in an era where they have not been to the Super Bowl since 1996, the nickname has stuck.

We never did that with Manchester United when they were kings in the 1950s and 1960s. Schmaltz was never our thing. But that did not change the fact that there was an unmistakable sense that they were ‘England’s Team’.

They were the standard-bearers for the English game then and even if it is hard to separate the idea from the tribalism and the enmity that dominates today’s football, they were ambassadors for our game, too.

Perhaps that idea was accentuated by the sentiment and the sympathy that followed the tragedy that befell the Busby Babes in the Munich Air Disaster in 1958 and then the astonishing recovery of the side in the following decade, culminating in United becoming the first English winners of the European Cup in 1968.

Sir Bobby Charlton lifts the European Cup in 1968 after Manchester United defeated Benfica to become the first English side to win the European Cup

United were a pathfinder of English football, with Charlton leading the side as one of its stars

The Manchester United and England icon sadly passed away aged 86 on Saturday

United were England’s pathfinders in those days. They first entered the European Cup in 1956, don’t forget, in the face of myopic objections from the Football League. They exported English football abroad with a brilliant young team that had Duncan Edwards as its fulcrum and a young Bobby Charlton emerging as one of its stars.

The narrative of United’s resurrection under Sir Matt Busby, who was so gravely injured at Munich, made them easy to love. And a team that featured an incredible triumvirate of attacking players in George Best, Denis Law and Charlton was an irresistible draw.

Charlton fulfilled the role of the noble English gentleman footballer, the stoic, the solemn survivor of a great tragedy playing for the memory of his pals, a man who was never booked, a modest man, an incredible midfielder, a World Cup winner, a player who became synonymous with his country and with the game itself.

He was, back then, the equivalent of Michael Jordan in the 1990s. Everyone in the world seemed to know his name. Just saying it was enough to engender respect and even affection for England and for United.

And then there was Best, El Beatle, a dynamic, charismatic genius. And there was Law, a goalscorer supreme. And if it is wonderful to remember all that now and to pore over all the glorious tributes that have been written about Charlton since his death on Saturday by those who knew him and those who saw him play, it is also impossible not to feel a stab of sadness about the decline that has fallen upon United in the last decade.

United under Sir Alex Ferguson upheld the memory and the spirit of Charlton’s United and even if things were more complicated and Ferguson was a more divisive figure than Busby and English football had grown more tribal and more divided and less generous in its recognition of greatness, they were still worthy standard-bearers for our game.

Their team during the 1968-69 season was full of stars, including some big names like George Best, Nobby Styles, Nobby Styles and Dennis Law, with Sir Matt Busby leading the side 

Sir Alex Ferguson (left) was one manager who brought United close to their former glory, winning two European cups while in charge of the side

Your browser does not support iframes.

But as they go into tonight’s Champions League game against FC Copenhagen at Old Trafford and as the old stadium prepares to make its own emotional tributes to Charlton, the sense of loss will extend even deeper than the mourning for one of the club’s greatest heroes.

The loss of Sir Bobby is bound to concentrate minds not just on the way things were but on the way they are. The reality is that, as United search for the victory against the Danes that they need to maintain their chances of staying in the competition following an abject start, it is sad to see how far they have fallen. 

It is a club now in decay. A club defined by the image of a leaking roof. A club unloved by American owners who are using it as a cash-cow and continue to bleed it dry, owners that will not let it go and whose decision to sell a share of it to Sir Jim Ratcliffe feels less like a release than a prolonging of the agony.

It is a club that has become a byword not for glory but for dysfunction. Some regard their decline with glee. Some with pity. Some with nostalgia and a regret that things have soured like this.

United have experienced much success in the past 30 years, but of late, they have failed to live up to expectations 

Under Erik ten Hag, United have had a difficult start to the season, currently sitting eighth 

Man United are also in a dilemma over what to do with the notoriously leaky roof at Old Trafford, which has previously left supporters drenched when attending matches

Fans have also made their feelings clear of how the club has been run to their American owners at Old Trafford this season

Erik ten Hag has also had to deal with issues away from the pitch, having fallen out with winger Jadon Sancho 

And if Sir Bobby, Best and Law were once its standard-bearers now it has a captain, Bruno Fernandes, whose defining feature is that he moans more at referees than any other player in our league.

Now it is a club in disarray on and off the pitch, a club brought low by its abject handling of allegations of sexual violence made against Mason Greenwood and Antony, a club where another young player, Jadon Sancho, is in open revolt against his manager, Erik ten Hag.

United sit in eighth place in the Premier League and it does not feel like a false position. They have lost their opening two games in the Champions League, against Bayern Munich and Galatasaray. They stopped being standard-bearers for English football a long, long time ago.

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.

Your browser does not support iframes.

So Old Trafford will mourn Sir Bobby tonight. It will mourn for the way we were. It will mourn for the man it lost. And it will mourn for the club it lost and is fighting to regain. It will mourn for a time, long ago, when it was England’s team.

Source: Read Full Article