Ten years have flown by since the death of George Best. There’ll never be another like him but in Belfast the search goes on
SITE 295, section S, Roselawn Cemetery, Belfast. Draped across the grass in front of the black headstone lies a green scarf. There are two ornamental footballs, a poppy and a fresh bunch of red roses. The scarf ’s white l etters spell out: ‘ C’Mon Norn Iron’. The family name on the grave is Best. Here, with his parents Anne and Dickie, rests George Best.
It is near inconceivable to think that 10 fast years have passed since the world heard of George Best’s death in the Cromwell Hospital in London.
Irish football’s version of a state funeral followed, Best’s coffin being taken from his home on Burren Way on the Cregagh estate in east Belfast, via Stormont and up into the snowy hills that cloaked the city that November.
It was said many times in those days that Best would not be forgotten and those words were true. At Old Trafford tomorrow — the 10th anniversary of Best’s passing — there will be a new banner unfurled in his honour at the Stretford End before the Champions League game against PSV Eindhoven.
Elsewhere, Dutch magazine Voetbal
International has eight pages on him in its current English football special.
Meanwhile back in Belfast, back on the Cregagh estate, Best’s face glows from a mural over the old open lumpy field where he used to play. It’s now smooth and fenced in. It’s called the George Best Pitch.
In the Belfast Telegraph and other local papers, Best remains prominent. There are books, films, there was a £5 note commissioned.
George Best resonates. It can be said the Irish are a bit too keen on remembering, but in the post-Paris atmosphere of these days it is striking that many of the streets around Best’s have names such as Hamel, Bapaume, Picardy, Thiepval, Somme.
Best’s forefathers from this area died in northern French towns in the First World War and that ‘C’Mon Norn Iron’ scarf at his headstone is a reminder that the descendants of Best, the Northern Ireland team of today, are going back to France next summer. The 1.8million population — two thirds of Greater Manchester, where Best made his home — makes Michael O’Neill’s managerial achievement all the more admirable.
Another element to this achievement is that Best’s Belfast is not supplying the resources it did once. The three key men in qualification for Euro 2016 were Gareth McAuley, captain Steven Davis and Kyle Lafferty.
None are from Belfast. WITHOUT any knowing reference, they call it ‘best v best’. On the windswept edge of Belfast on a cold Wednesday night, coaches Conor Marlin and Darren Murphy are overseeing Northern Ireland’s young players. The passing is as crisp as the wind. This is year-group 2000, Northern Ireland’s Under 16s. There are 14 of them
her e a nd when asked about George Best 14 hands go up.
When asked about Belfast, there are eight from the city. Only one comes from Best’s area — east Belfast — though amazingly he first lived on Burren Way, Best’s street.
In February of last year the Irish Football Association, motivated by O’Neill and the newly-appointed director of performance, Jim Magilton, created ‘Club NI’. It is a restructuring of youth coaching with the aim of getting the best players across Northern Ireland together much more often than in the past. ‘Best v best — it’s about increasing contact time,’ says Magilton. ‘If you are up against better players, you get better.’
And so three times a week, boys are driven across Northern Ireland to train and play together at places such as the University of Ulster pitches at Jordanstown.
‘In the previous system the boys might meet up once a week for 24 weeks,’ explains Marlin. ‘Now it’s three times a week for 35 weeks. It’s “best v best”, it’s more intensive.
‘We’re also arranging more matches. Our Under 14s played in the Mediterranean Cup this Easter — they were beaten by Real Madrid.
‘Our Under 13s beat Manchester United’s 5-1 in the final of the Milk Cup. A 16-year-old now might play 60 times for Northern Ireland. That’s never happened before.’
Magilton is witnessing ‘ a step up in quality,’ but the former Southampton and Ipswich midfielder and manager is cautious, saying: ‘I’ve been in England 20 years. I’ve seen what it takes.’
From the Glen Road in west Belfast, Magilton joined Liverpool as a teenager and remembers how Belfast was.
‘We were growing up in the Troubles,’
“Arsenal think we have three who can make their academy”
he says. ‘ There were a l ot of restraints. You were aware of what was going on around.
‘There weren’t the facilities, it was still a jumpers-for-goalposts time. It was all run by volunteers and I’m very appreciative of that. There was no coaching, it was just going out to play, get a shirt and go. There was very little training.
‘But there were so many talented f ootballers. Maybe there was method i n that madness. Was George Best coached?
‘Now clubs can travel, you can go anywhere, boys have never been coached more, trained more, instructed more. There’s certainly a lot more thought going into it but it’s non-stop and there has to be a balance.
‘Sometimes we feel there’s “paralysis by analysis”. It’s why coach education is a major thing for us.’
Magilton recalls mid-1980s Liverpool: ‘ What an education. Every day you’d have Ronnie Moran or Roy Evans saying: “Work it out for yourself, the solution is on the pitch”’ and Magilton mentions ‘selfresponsibility’ more than once.
But while the boys at training can hear that, you have to be there. There have been changes in society. Recently the l atest of several reports restated that Protestant working-class boys, a category into which Best, Danny Blanchflower and Norman Whiteside fell, are falling behind academically and in terms of attainment. Then there is the increased profile and activity of Ulster Rugby, whose ground at Ravenhill now overshadows Best’s Cregagh estate, while Gaelic Games (GAA) remains hugely popular on one side of the religious divide.
‘Ulster Rugby have done a tremendous job, theirs is a very positive story,’ Magilton adds. ‘They have a core group of schools involved and they can control what they are coaching from an early age.
‘It’s the same with the GAA. On St Patrick’s Day both rugby’s and Gaelic’s schools cup finals are televised. Football’s isn’t.
‘ In terms of previous Belfast hotbeds for football — the Shankill and Falls Roads — we don’t have exact numbers yet, but anecdotally we feel there’s a drop-off. We have a wider spread, some rural. For all the coaching, there’s still that lack of street footballers.’
On the other side of the pitch this night is a 14 year-old who might fit that description. Small, lithe, from Belfast, he is set to play the young Best in football sequences in a new film. He i s, moreover, already claimed by Liverpool. There are others — one at Chelsea, one at Manchester United, two at Everton and a third being monitored by Arsenal, who are renewing their interest in this part of the world.
‘Arsenal think we have three boys who could go into their Academy,’ says Magilton.
Their names remain withheld, these coaches know how publicity can distort a boy’s expectations.
Belfast is one place where you will not hear anyone talking about ‘the next George Best’. There’s only one.
“More thought goes into it but there has to be a balance....’’