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You already know all you need to know about the two sides, but what
if they were being represented by an all-time XI, sides made up
of the best to wear the colours since the war, excluding current
players. This is how they’d line up…
MANCHESTER UNITED
The goalie is an easy pick. Peter Schmeichel changed the
way we thought about the art of goalkeeping, just as Gordon Banks
and Peter Shilton had before him. Few have ever commanded their
area like the Dane, a goalkeeper who could destroy the onrushing
striker’s confidence just by his presence. The greatest of
all-time? He’s certainly up there.
At centre-half, we start with Duncan Edwards, a young man
from Dudley who was one of the greatest footballers England has
ever produced, tragically killed in the Munich disaster. Edwards
had the lot, could play at the back or in midfield and had it not
been for his death, it would have been Duncan, not Bobby Moore,
who’d have captained England to the World Cup in ’66.
Bill Foulkes was one of the survivors of Munich who went
on to achieve the European Cup triumph that drove the club on post
1958. A good leader with a strong physical presence, Foulkes, like
Bobby Charlton and Matt Busby, deserved that success more than anyone.
Roger Byrne was a marvelous full-back who perished in the
crash. With 33 caps behind him, he was poised to lead England into
the 1958 World Cup when Munich claimed him, but the legacy of his
quality lives on among United supporters.
Denis Irwin gets in as full-back. One of the bedrocks of Fergie’s
great sides throughout the 1990s, Irwin could play on either flank.
Always composed and in control, he got forward well, was deadly
from free-kicks and penalties, all in addition to doing the fundamentals
well – stopping the opposition.
Three across the middle, including two-thirds of the Holy Trinity,
Bobby Charlton and George Best. Whatever people say of
him never achieving all he could, Best gave more people more truly
memorable footballing moments than any probably any other footballer
in this country. He was a genius on either flank or through the
middle and he could win the ball back as well. Once he’d got
it, nobody could get it off him. Charlton is another legend, the
archetypal box to box player who could play anywhere in the middle
or up front. Incredible energy, wonderful skill and a shot like
a rocket. Walks into the team. And playing alongside them, Bryan
Robson. 90 England caps, could have had 50 more had it not been
for injury. Tireless worker, great ball winner, natural goalscorer,
a worthy successor to Edwards.
Playing just behind the front two is Eric Cantona. A player
of supreme gifts, he was the final piece in the jigsaw for United,
the player who turned them from exciting pretenders to trophy winning
juggernaut. Cantona had vision and skill in abundance and that little
bit of arrogance that a great side needs in its make-up.
Up front, another who was taken from us by Munich. Tommy Taylor
was a wonderful goalscorer whose record remains a thing of wonder,
with 16 goals in 19 games for England. Had he, Byrne and Edwards
gone to the 1958 World Cup, Brazil might not have carried off the
first of their three titles in four competitions. Taylor was a lion
in attack, supreme in the air but good on the deck too. When you
look at the loss United sustained at Munich, you can only have immense
respect for the fact that the club survived at all, never mind prospered
and became the force they did in the 1960s and then again in the
1990s and beyond. It is a club sprinkled with magic.
Not least because they fielded our final choice, their King, the
third man in the trinity, Denis Law. The Lawman was as charismatic
as any footballer that’s ever walked onto the pitch. Brought
up by Shankly at Huddersfield, Denis scored goals from every angle
and every distance in every way you could imagine.
ARSENAL
David Seaman is the obvious choice in goal, not least because
the closest competition, Bob Wilson rates Seaman as an infinitely
better goalkeeper than he was himself. Pat Jennings would have been
in with a shout had he been at Highbury longer, but “Safe Hands”
Seaman is the automatic selection, providing the opposition won’t
be shooting from anywhere near the halfway line or the corner flag.
Laurie Scott almost missed out on the side given that he
played a lot of his football before the war, but he was still a
good enough player after hostilities ceased to play 17 times for
England and regularly for Arsenal. A footballing full-back, with
great pace and a sharp brain. On the opposite flank, Kenny Sansom,
an excellent left-back who made the England place his own. Sansom
was a solid, dependable defender, good getting forward, the archetypal
modern day full-back.
Boring, boring Arsenal was the chant in days gone by as their success
rested almost solely on the defensive disciplines. David O’Leary
was a terrific centre-back for them over a decade or more, but a
player who was much more than a simple clogger. Instead, O’Leary
liked to play the game constructively and build attacks from the
back by playing his way out of trouble. It took Tony Adams
a little while to add that sophistication to his game, for initially,
he was an out and out defender, one of the best in the game. But
Adams continued to develop as a player right through his career,
becoming a Highbury legend in the process.
Joe Mercer is the first selection in the midfield. Mercer
had a footballing brain like few others, as he showed later as Manchester
City manager in their glory years in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
A superb captain in the old mould, willing and able to change the
play on the pitch, Mercer had a good touch, genuine vision and was
a terrific leader who went on to win the Footballer of the Year
award in 1951 against some pretty fierce competition.
A must for the team, the prospect of him lining up along with Liam
Brady really does get the imagination racing. You can look at
any creative midfielder in the Premier League today and none of
them can eclipse the brilliance of Brady in his prime, for he was
a sensational player who could pass over any distance, could score
goals, create goals, the lot. One of Arsenal’s immortals.
George Armstrong got less coverage than some of the more
illustrious names own the years, but he was an Arsenal man through
and through and a real entertainer to boot in one of Arsenal’s
more pragmatic periods in the early 1970s. Good on either wing,
pacy, great close control, Armstrong was an old fashioned winger
and the sort of player anybody would be happy to pay good money
to watch. Played more than 600 games, a figure only surpassed by
Adams and O’Leary, “Geordie” was perhaps the single
most important player in the 1970/71 double side.
Even then, the newspaper coverage went to a lanky, long haired glamour
boy, Charlie George, a youngster who had lived the dream
by coming down off the North Bank to score the goal that won Arsenal
the FA Cup that year, a 25 yarder that screamed past Liverpool’s
Ray Clemence. Often controversial, always in the headlines, Charlie
played between midfield and he forward line, was terrifically skilful
and could, maybe should, have won a host of England caps. You can’t
have an Arsenal side without him.
Nor can you have one without Ian Wright, still, just about,
their top scorer of all time, though that record is there for the
taking for Thierry Henry any time now. Wright was the face of Arsenal
through much of the 1990s, a goalscorer extraordinaire who lived
for nothing other than putting the ball in the back of the net as
often as he possibly could, something he was remarkably good at.
The final choice to play alongside him is a tough one. Frank Stapleton
has his claims as does the impressive but sorely under-rated Alan
Smith who provided such a great foil for Wright over the years and
who taught him plenty about the game. But in the end, Paul Merson
is the man, not least because he and Charlie George can alternate
between midfield and attack, keeping any opposition side guessing.
Sublimely talented, we can only guess what Merson might have achieved
had he not been so beset by personal demons. Given what he did manage
in spite of those trials and tribulations, it’s obvious that
Merse was something pretty special.
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