IT’S OVER
But Pep insists: No it’s not. There’s a long way to go
JOSE MOURINHO has conceded the title – and admitted Manchester United are now battling to secure a top-four place. With Manchester City holding a 15-point advantage over his side with just 13 games left, United boss Mourinho (left) said: “We need points to be the first of the last. We have to try to finish second.” But City boss Pep Guardiola refuses to accept the title race is over, saying: “Not yet. There are13 games to go and 39 points to
play for.” But his longtime rival Mourinho admitted: “We were first for a few weeks and then we were always second.
“We’re better than last season in every aspect – points, position, goals scored, goals conceded, so we have to try to stay there.
“The fight is open for second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth, but is practically closed for the first.”
Just five points separate second-placed United from Spurs in fifth, with Chelsea plus Jurgen Klopp (above) and his Liverpool also in the mix.
HE held it together as he reminisced about the Busby Babes and how great they would have become had tragedy not cut them down in their prime.
But when he recalled the coffins of his Manchester United teammates returning to Old Trafford, the glint in Wilf McGuinness’s eyes was replaced by an aching sadness as he fought back tears.
“Even now, it’s very difficult,” said McGuinness, reflecting on the 1958 Munich air disaster, which claimed the lives of eight United players and 23 people in total.
McGuinness, then 20, missed the trip because he was injured, having travelled with Sir Matt Busby’s squad on all their previous European Cup ties that season.
“I was fortunate as I’d been on every trip and it will never ever stay out of mind,” recalled McGuinness (below), ahead of Tuesday’s 60th anniversary of the crash.
“It’s the No.1 thing that’s in my mind – those wonderful lads. The worst experience ever was the plane crash, when players died and some never played again.
“Thinking about how great they were stays in my mind. They were extra special and so young when they died. They would have been the best-ever United team and they would have won everything.
“The sad thing is there wasn’t enough film footage of them. The fans of today missed them. Those players who died were magnificent, some of the best the club’s ever had.
“It was a terrible time. It was like being in a fog when it happened. You think of the ones that went. You don’t think of yourself escaping or not going.
“I’d been on every trip, as a reserve, because Eddie Colman and Duncan Edwards were the winghalves, who were ahead of me.
“They were magnificent players. Eddie was a Salford lad, a great player and my best pal.
“But Duncan was the best player, strong, with legs like tree trunks. He could hit long balls and short balls – he had everything.”
United were back playing 10 days after the tragedy, a team made up largely of reserve and youth team players beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 in an FA Cup tie.
“Some clubs would have gone under,” said McGuinness. “But we had a great youth team and had to bring some of those young lads through early and bring in some players on loan.”
The tragedy took a huge toll on those who survived, including Sir Bobby Charlton, with the coping mechanism back then simply not to talk about what had happened.
There were no grief counsellors to help them through the trauma and McGuinness admitted the tragedy was off-limits when the players who survived returned to the fold. “We didn’t talk about it with them,” said McGuinness, who attended every funeral of his team-mates. “It was mentioned, but only when it had to be. “There must have been many a tear shed, but not openly. They had to carry on. What else could they do? “Bobby was always quiet, but it knocked him for six. It was a long time ago, but I think about it and I wasn’t even on the plane. “So imagine what they were thinking – the ones who survived?” Winning the European Cup in 1968, a decade later, provided some form of closure for United, finally laying their hands on the trophy the Busby Babes set out to win before tragedy struck. “That helped tremendously and we did think of the players we’d lost,” said McGuinness, by then a United coach after injury forced him to retire at just 22. “We thought, ‘This is for them, not for us’. It was special. “They made Manchester United, those lads who died that terrible day.”