Duncan Edwards

Been reading a biography of him this week.I never saw him play [he died at the age of 21,2 years before i was born] but judging by the comments of some of his peers,he must have been some player.I do remember Bobby Charlton and he was a hell of a player,but according to people like Armfield,Venables,Docherty and Bobby himself,Duncan was a class above him even.Armfield reckoned that England would have won at least one more world cup if the Munich air crash had not happened-there were other players killed like Roger Byrne,Tommy Taylor,Eddie Colman etc who would have formed the backbone of the England team probably up to the early seventies.Certainly interesting to debate what the future of English footballl would have been if an overnight stay had been arranged instead of the tragic attempt to take off.As someone growing up in the sixties,i'd love to have seen what would have happened-does anyone on here remember much about Big Duncan and the rest of the players so sadly killed at Munich?

I'm far too young to have seen him play, but my Dad saw him and his assessment was that he was the finest British footballer he'd ever seen - better than Moore, Best, Charlton or anyone else you care to name. My old man said something similar - that the Munich Crash cost this country some of the greatest talents it's ever produced and if it hadn't happened, England could have dominated the 60's and early 70's with ease.

Only saw them in televised games, Edwards and Tommy Taylor were widely and rightly regarded as worldbeaters and were a tragic loss.

Saltash green has also heard opinion of older folk lucky enough to see him play. Saltash green was informed Edwards could have gone on to be the greatest of all time

I have always been interested in the Busby Babes and Munich after reading "The Day a Team Died" by Frank Taylor when I was a kid.

The Babes were a great team and Edwards stood out by a mile as the best player. Bobby Charlton is widely regarded as the greatest ever English player but he admits he could not get close to Edwards. Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews used to say the same thing as well. In an era where international caps were not handed out like confetti, Edwards managed to get 18 by the time he was 21. Had he survived I think he would have captained England for a long long time and there might well have been a few more stars above the 3 lions on the England shirt.

England also lost a few other players at Munich. Roger Byrne was the outstanding full back of his generation and Tommy Taylor was the leading centre forward. In an era when Division One was full of English players this was no mean feat. Eddie Colman was a rising star and would have won a lot of England caps. David Pegg had won an England cap but was on the way out at United. Billy Whelan was another outstanding player who would have been a household name had he lived.

Maybe the legend of Duncan Edwards exists because he died so young. Would people talk about him in the same way if a knee injury had ended his career? And in the 50s and 60s there were plenty of great players who did not have the impact internationally that their club form indicated they would. But the thing I always go back to is that even though Bobby Charlton was a rising star for the Babes, he was a long way from being the best player.

I was at Highbury the Saturday before Munich,with my mate and I think 65000 others.

Duncan Edwards still young but already a giant in the game was one of the "Busby Babes" that died,.... others were...Geoff Bent,Roger Byrne,Eddie Colman,Mark Jones,David Pegg,Tommy Taylor and Billy Whelan.

Survivors included....Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower...neither played again,Bobby Charlton,Bill Foulkes,Harry Gregg,Kenny Morgans,Albert Scanlon,Dennis Violet and Ray Wood.

Matt Busby was in hospital for two months having had the last rites read twice before recovering,spent time in Switzerland recuperating before coming home to watch United play in the 1958 FA Cup Final.

23 of the 44 people on that plane died.

I will never forget that time as a eighteen year old.