I WAS A BUSBY BABE
Source: www.speakup.com.br
Language level: C1 ADVANCED
Speakers: Jason Bermigham (American) Mark Worden (British accent)
A long with Real Madrid and Barcelona, Manchester United is one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world. Bobby Charlton, George Best and David Beckham are just some of the footballing icons who have worn the team’s famous red jersey.
Last year the club celebrated an important centenary, that of its first game at its famous ground, Old Trafford. To find out more about this great club, we met with Wilf McGuiness, a former player, coach and manager. Like Bobby Charlton, Wilf McGuiness was a “Busby Babe,” one of the young players signed in 1950s by the team’s famous Scottish manager, Matt Busby
Wilf McGuinness
(Standard English/Manchester accent)
I joined Manchester in 1953, after captaining Manchester, Lancashire and England Schoolboys, and I stayed with them for 18 wonderful years. I made my debut when I was 17, I won a championship medal at 19, I won a full England cap when I was 20, but when I was just 22, I broke my leg, finished my playing career, so I was taken on the staff as a trainer and coach. One of my happiest moments came when I was 31 years of age, and the great Matt Busby called me into his office: he said he was retiring and I was to be the next manager of Manchester United!
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Unfortunately, Wilf’s tenure as manager was short-lived but he stayed close to the club and today he helps out with its hospitality programmes. Certainly, Wilf McGuinness, who was born in 1937, played football in a world that was very different from that of today’s millionaire stars:
Wilf McGuinness
The actual feeling of playing on Old Trafford was brilliant, and we played a lot you know, of games, and we got great crowds with youth team games and reserve games, so even before we got in the first team, we…we got this buzz, you know, of the fans loving you and it…wasn’t s much “it’s just Manchester United,” these were out, like family, we were a family, and together, we worked together, played together, went out and enjoyed ourselves together, that’s how it was. But playing at Old Trafford, we felt, “This is the start of, you know, they’re a great club, this is what we’re part of.” When we were 17, that’s the earliest we could sign, the top wage we earned, or we could earn, until we were 20, was £6 during the season and £5 during the summer. In the ‘50s, in those days, because the wages you couldn’t change a club for better wages because the maximum was £20, we used to dream of maybe, if we earned enough money, we could be a newsagent or a landlord in a pub, you know, that sort of thing. That was our dream!
HAPPY MEMORIES
But he has loved every minute of his football career:
Wilf McGuinness
I’m so delighted, and I’m very lucky, more than anybody else, I think, because I was one of the “Busby Babes,” I was a trainer, I was a coach, then the manager, then I left, came back in 1992, and started going on tips and so forth with them, so it’s been wonderful. We just mix, and we mix with the fans as well which is wonderful.
