TODAY marks the 50th anniversary of the terrible day when eight Manchester United footballers, the Busby Babes, were among 23 who died as a result of a plane crash in thick snow at Munich airport.
The players were working class lads paid a maximum of £17 a week. So little that some of them lived together in lodgings.
With one eye to a future after football, Duncan Edwards was an apprentice cabinet-maker and captain Roger Byrne was doing a day-release physiotherapy course.
The contrast with today’s over-pampered stars is stark.
Who could have dreamed half a century ago that the game would change so completely in the way it has?
Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson felt the need to plead with today’s fans to be “respectful” during the silence when his club visit Old Trafford this weekend.
Yes, times have changed.
