‘We were all very close. Red or Blue didn’t come into it’
“IT’S one of those events that make you realise that life itself is a greater game than football.
“It matures you. It makes you realise what life is all about and though it’s difficult to understand at the time, it did actually put football in its place.
“Football was not important in the weeks that followed the crash.”
Those were the words of former City goalkeeper Steve Fleet, speaking about the impact of the Munich air crash, as related to football historian, Gary James, in his excellent book ‘Manchester: A Football History’.
Fleet grew up in Salford, and was a close friend of Eddie Colman, one of the eight United players who died when their plane crashed on take-off 60 years ago.
The tears that flowed in Manchester that day, and for weeks afterwards, were not just Red tears. The whole city mourned, not just the loss of a fine football team, but of the cream of English football, cut down on the verge of greatness.
And the City players, many of them – like Fleet – having lost close friends in the tragedy, suffered the shock and trauma along with everyone else.
City legend Bert Trautmann, on hearing the terrible news, contacted United to offer his services, whether it be interpreting, or simply offering a shoulder to cry on for those left behind.
The wife of Frank Swift, the great City goalkeeper who was one of eight journalists killed in the crash, awaited news of the disaster at the house of Matt Busby.
The two men were former teammates at City, both heroes to Blues fans, and remained close friends. Swift died, but Busby pulled through despite terrible injuries.
Fleet remembers the City players gathering at Maine Road the day after the crash, numb with grief and disbelief, and how Trautmann made a bee-line for him. “Bert understood more than anyone how I felt about losing Eddie,” he said.
“He taught me how to handle grief and come to terms with it.”
No-one had a heart for football, and City players felt the emptiness more than most, only for the FA to insist that only United’s game the following weekend would be postponed.
The City players headed south on the Friday to London, ready to face Spurs the following day – and the players crowded into a cinema in the hopes of seeing the latest newsreel of events in Bavaria.
Fleet said: “You see, we all knew the United players. We’d socialise with them, and they were just like us.
“Bobby Charlton, when he was living in digs, would sometimes come to our house for his tea.
“We were all close – Red or Blue didn’t come into it.”
That last line is worth remembering, especially on derby days.