Tcrh My Manchester United Years Volume 1 (v. 1)

Nice Guys Finish First

Review

Bobby Charlton. European Player of the Year. European Cup Winner. World Cup Winner. Unofficial Ambassador for British Football. Director of the richest club on earth.

Without any other drama this is a story to tell. But Bobby Charlton also survived the Munich disaster that decimated, and then defined, Manchester United. He shared a day of joy at Wembley with his brother and then fell out with much his family for over two decades.

Sir Bobby has a story to tell. And he tells it with the common sense approach that has marked his life.

Unfortunately this decency doesn't translate all that well on the page. Other footballers who achieved less and couldn't hope to have Charlton's longevity as one of the games true statesmen have more compelling stories to tell: the self destruction of Best or Gascoigne, the triumph over addiction of Adams or the journeyman travails of Cascarino are better reads.

That, perhaps, says more about society than it does about Charlton. For there is nothing fundamentally flawed about this book.

I could have lived without quite so many "Nobby Stiles can't see all that well" anecdotes. But Charlton writes movingly about the air disaster that haunts him and throws light on his relationships with Law and Best - the Holy Trinity of opposites that illuminated the Theatre of Dreams.

Jack Charlton once said that his brother didn't smile after Munich. This book suggests otherwise. This is the story of contented man who has lived a decent life and treated Kipling's twin impostors just the same.

Unfortunately for those of us who willingly revel in the murkier, flashier aspects of the global game the book, unlike the man, suffers for that essential decency.

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