SCORER, SCHEMER, LEGEND

Sir Bobby Charlton was one of the greatest players of all time.. but don’t let the gentlemanly manners fool you – he set the standards for all of us, says his former team-mate BRIAN KIDD

BRIAN KIDD was only seven when he first saw Bobby Charlton play for Manchester United.

Just over a decade later, they were team-mates and both scored as United beat Benfica (right) to become the first English club to lift the European Cup in 1968.

The link between their careers continued two years later when Charlton won his 100th cap for England. In the same game, Kidd won his first England cap.

As Sir Bobby approaches his 80th birthday, Kidd’s insight into the sporting legend is revealing.

Kidd says: “There have been some truly great England players. I played with another of them in Bobby Moore. Then you have the older generation of Sir Stanley Matthews and the great Tom Finney.

“But whenever you want to compare England players from different eras you have to accept Bobby Charlton sets the gold standard. Whoever you want to throw in, from any era, you’ve got to set them against Bobby. He was that good.

“And it’s typical of Bobby that when people discuss the truly great players he will recall his old friend Duncan Edwards, who perished in the Munich air crash.

“As Bobby always says, we’ll never know how good Duncan might have been.”

Kidd chuckles as he recalls one of the great goals of English football, breathtakingly despatched by Charlton.

For youngsters from the YouTube generation you can find it by looking up the 1967 Charity Shield, a 3-3 epic between United and Tottenham.

United were 2-0 and 3-2 down. Charlton scored their first two goals and his shot was too powerful for Pat Jennings to allow Denis Law to poach United’s third.

But the strike that epitomises Charlton’s power was United’s second. The move starts deep by their own corner flag. Law sprints forward, sidesteps a challenge and releases Kidd.

The young striker drives forward, crosses from the left and creates a moment when time is suspended. There is no United player in the picture. What will happen next?

Charlton arrives to smash a ferocious, first-time leftfoot strike into the net.

Kidd recalls: “I’ll let you into a secret. I actually miscued my pass. Everybody thinks I squared it to set up Bobby. It wasn’t my best pass but typically, what happens?

“Bobby arrived, smashed it past big Pat and made it look like something we’d perfected on the training ground. We hadn’t, but he was so good he could make a bad pass look great.

“He did something similar in the European Cup final against Benfica. I managed to escape my marker and cut the ball back into the box. Technically it wasn’t the easiest pass to deal with. But Bobby rifled it first time into the top corner for our fourth goal. He made it look so easy.” Kidd, now co-assistant manager at Manchester City, goes on: “Bobby is revered all over the globe. It doesn’t matter where you go, people have heard of Bobby Charlton. “It always make me smile when they talk about him as this ‘Gentleman Bobby Charlton’ as if he’s some angelic, laid-back sort of guy. Believe me, Bobby was a tough, resilient professional who set high standards. “If a youngster made the United first team he had to produce – or else. There was no mollycoddling. If you had been picked by Sir Matt Busby to be in his team then you had to deliver – whatever your age.” Kidd’s recollection is vivid as he recalls his first close-up sight as a teenager of Charlton in training. “The first thing you spotted was that Bobby was incredibly graceful. He floated over the pitch.

“His technical ability shone out. The way he moved, the way he controlled or dealt with the ball. He was fluid.

“He also had the most sensational body-swerve and turbo-powered change of pace to burst away from his markers. And finally, he had that shooting ability. His shooting – with both feet – was sensational.

“And I only realised as a team-mate that Bobby was always talking on the pitch. Giving advice to team-mates, trying to help you.

“And he never hid. No matter how the game was going you’d never see Bobby ducking responsibility. He might have hit a couple of wayward passes, he’d still demand possession and want to get on the ball.

“We could be three or four down and Bobby would always be trying to inspire the recovery.”

As an apprentice, Kidd did the menial jobs around the dressingroom.

Sir Bobby was a World Cup winner and there were some big personalities as well as an emerging superstar in George Best.

He adds: “I always found Bobby shy, reserved. I don’t know if it was the after-effects of the Munich air crash of 1958, but he was always more reserved, more refined than some of the other senior pros.

“You can only imagine how it affected him. Eight United players died in the crash and some were his best mates. It must have been shattering. Thankfully,

Sir Bobby Charlton at 80, celebrating the life of the Manchester United and England icon, is broadcast on BBC1 on October 8, at 10.30pm