|
|
 |
| Nickname: |
| Date of
Birth: 26/5/1909 |
| Squad number:
|
| With the Reds: 1935-1940 |
| Height: |
| Weighh |
| Debut: 14th March
1935 v Huddersfield T (A) D1 lose 0-1 (Aged 25) |
| 1st team games:
125 |
| 1st team goals: 3 |
| International caps
with Liverpool: Scotland |
| International goals
with Liverpool: |
| Characteristics: |
| Former clubs:
Manchester City, Manchester United (manadger) |
| Birth Place:
Lanarkshire |
| Honours: |
| Website: |
| |
|
|
|
League |
FA Cup |
Total |
| Seasons |
App |
Gls |
App |
Gls |
App |
Gls |
| 1935-36 |
11 |
1 |
|
|
11 |
1 |
| 1936-37 |
29 |
1 |
1 |
|
30 |
1 |
| 1937-38 |
33 |
|
3 |
|
36 |
|
| 1938-39 |
42 |
1 |
3 |
|
45 |
1 |
| 1939-40 |
3 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
| Total |
118 |
3 |
7 |
|
125 |
3 |
VICTORY AND WARTIME INTERNATIONALS: 1919-20 and 1946 Victory Internationals. 1939-45
Wartime Internationals. No caps were awarded for these matches.
SCOTLAND
1942 v England (three times); 1944 v England (twice); 1945 v England (twice) (7)
|
Transferred from Manchester City in Liverpool for
8,000 pounds in February 1936e
PROFILE
While Sir Matt Busby will always be remembered for
re-building Manchester United and surviving the Munich air disaster he made his name as a
player with Liverpool and enjoyed a life-long friendship with Bob Paisley, whose deeds in
charge of Liverpool make him the most successful manager ever in English football.
A Scotland international from Lanarkshire, Busby joined Liverpool for 8,000 pounds from Manchester City in March 1936 and was made captain. Originally an
inside forward he had been switched to right half earlier in his career. It proved an
inspired decision. Busby's wing half play contained outstanding elegance and grace and his
use of the ball was brilliant.
He was skipper when Paisley signed as a young player from Bishop Auckland in 1939 and
immediately took the new arrival under his wing. When war was declared Busby was among
several Anfield players who joined the King's Liverpool Regiment.
Liverpool decided to make Busby club coach but before he could take up the appointment at
the end of the war, United offered him their vacant manager's job and Liverpool chairman
Billy McConnell persuaded the board to release him.
 The young Matt Busby was on the verge of emigrating to America with
his widowed mother when Manchester City persuaded him to sign for them over a meal in a
Glasgow restaurant. The youngster, a graduate of the Bellshill club that produced James
and Gallacher, was turned from a moderate inside-forward into a top-class wing-half by
City, for whom he played over 200 League games and appeared in the 1933 and 1934 FA Cup
Finals. Liverpool signed him for 8,000 pounds in February 1936, and with Bradshaw and
McDougall he formed an all-Scottish half-back line, one of the best the Reds ever had.
Although he gained only one full international cap. Busby captained Scotland frequently in
wartime games when he served in the Army PT Corps. He played over 100 League games for
Liverpool and was an ever-present in 1938-9. After the war. Busby was offered a post on
Liverpool's staff but, after much deliberation, he accepted an offer to manage Manchester
United. It was the start of a career which saw the agony of the Munich air disaster and
the triumphs of building several great United sides. In 1967, he was awarded the Freedom
of Manchester and a year later, in the wake of United's European Cup triumph, he was
knighted.
Matt Busby was signed by Liverpool in the Spring of 1936 for 8,000 pounds after he
had enjoyed some good years with Manchester City, including winning the F.A. cup with the
Maine Road club in 1934. He was therefore an experienced professional when he arrived at
Anfield and almost immediately took over the No. 4 shirt from Robert Savage. Matt didn't
miss many matches over the next three seasons and was one of two 'ever-presents' (the
other being Jack Balmer) in the 1938-39 season. But like so many of his contemporaries,
Busby's playing-career was cut short by the Second World War.
After Peace was declared in 1945 and with his playing days over at the age of 36, Matt
Busby was offered a job on the coaching-staff at Anfield but chose instead to take the
manager's post at Manchester United. It was a bold step for him to take with no previous
managerial experience behind him and of course his achievements at Old Trafford were
astonishing. In a modern time when too many people seem to be obsessed with the rivalry
between the two cities of Liverpool and Manchester, it is often forgotten or not even
known by younger supporters that Matt Busby ever was a Liverpool player but in the period
immediately before World War Two he - along with Tom Bradshaw & Jimmy McDougall -
formed an all-Scottish half-back line that certainly ranks with the best the club has ever
had in those three positions at any one time in its history. Matt Busby had played 118
League matches for Liverpool (and 317 in all) when the 1939-40 season was abandoned after
just three games. |
