Jack and Bobby: A story of brothers in conflict - Leo McKinstry

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level, Bobby further incurred the disapproval of Matt when the manager found out that he, Shay and Wilf McGuinness were planning to open a nightclub in Manchester. McGuinness explains, ‘Wherever we went, there were always a lot of girls around, especially because Shay was a good looking lad. We thought we could make some money out of our popularity.’ So in the summer of 1959 negotiations were started with local businessman Nipper Leonard to take over his nightclub in Queen Street, with an agreement concluded late one night. Yet when McGuinness turned up at training the very next morning he was confronted by an angry Busby: ‘What’s this I’ve heard about you buying a nightclub?’ McGuinness continues, ‘I could not believe how he knew because it was after midnight when we had reached the deal. By 9.45 the next morning it had got back to Matt. But he had a lot of informers all over the place. He warned me: “I think you three go into enough nightclubs without owning one. Just take a look at your contracts.” We had to have permission if we wanted to go into another business. That was the end of it. It was never discussed ever again.’

      Nor, in his less serious youth, did Bobby always show the commitment that was later to mark him out as a model professional – especially if he was not being supervised by Jimmy Murphy. ‘I used to clown around with Dave Pegg and Eddie Colman. Even when we were training we used to lark about. Our trainer, Tom Curry, was getting old and he couldn’t get around with us kids. He used to have a terrible time with us ducking out of training periods,’ said Bobby in an interview in 1961. John Docherty says that Bobby, for all his quietness, was just like any other young lad. ‘He would sometimes get pissed out of his head. I remember after a European Cup game, in 1957, we were in a nightclub, chatting up a few birds. Then an argument started and all of a sudden we’ve wrecked the place. Bobby was involved in that. He was no different.’

      Interestingly, Jack and Bobby were probably closer in this period than they were at any other time in their lives. After years of moving in different directions, their lives were now dominated by the same adventure into professional football. At last they had something truly in common, and they began to enjoy each other’s company. Jack would travel over to Manchester or Bobby to Leeds. Sometimes, they would go to David Pegg’s house in Doncaster. Together, they played golf, went to the pictures or the pub, listened to Bobby’s collection of records, took girls on dates or even went fishing, more happily than they had ever done in childhood. On occasional Sundays, Bobby would drive with Jack to Ashington to see their parents – this was when Bobby, before the rift with his mother, was still very happy to visit his home town. In a reflection of this better relationship, when Jack got married to his girlfriend, Leeds shop-worker Pat Kemp, in January 1958, Bobby was his best man at the wedding. As Jack told the journalist Norman Harris, ‘It was not through convention but because he was my best friend.’ Yet even in the new mood of harmony, some still detected a sense of distance between them. Laura Crowther, the daughter of Jack’s landlady in Leeds, saw Bobby on his regular visits and knew the Charlton family well. She told me, ‘Bobby came over a lot and stayed here the night of the wedding. But I’ll tell you something, he and Jack never appeared close. He was very quiet, still seemed a bit of a mother’s boy and that would get on Jack’s nerves.’

      With Leeds having won promotion in 1956, Jack and Bobby played regularly against each other in the last four years of the 1950s. In one game at Elland Road in 1958, Bobby humiliated Jack by nutmegging him. ‘Come back, you little bugger,’ cried Jack as his younger brother raced towards the goal. But Jack has always maintained that he felt no jealousy towards Bobby, only delight in his achievements at United. What he did feel envy towards was the glamour of Bobby’s club compared to his own. ‘It didn’t worry me at all when our kid began to get write-ups as the greatest thing since the Archangel Gabriel. All I was jealous about was the club he had joined – Manchester United. I was jealous about their success, their traditions, the way people thought about them as a team. That’s the way I wanted people to think about Leeds,’ he said in 1970. John Giles recalls, ‘I met Jack at Old Trafford a few times because he would come over and see Bobby. I used to feel a bit for him then, because he was out of it, while Bobby was starting to do so well. I don’t think Jack liked the way that he was always referred to as Bobby’s elder brother. I don’t think it was jealousy – he was proud of Bobby and wished him all the best – but he found it awkward.’

      Though he was sympathetic to Jack, Bobby could not have been happier in his own position. He loved the whole unique atmosphere of the Babes, their special companionship on and off the field. Tragically, that idyllic life was about to be shattered.

      The United players were in high spirits as they gathered at Manchester’s Ringway airport on Monday 3 February 1958, ready for the long flight to Yugoslavia for a vital European Cup tie.

      The Busby Babes were in the form of their lives, having just achieved a sensational victory over Arsenal at Highbury two days earlier. It had been the most exhilarating game of the season, with United 3–0 up at half-time before winning 5–4. And victory had been won in the daring style that epitomized the Babes. Never once, even after Arsenal had equalized, did United seek to consolidate in defence. Instead, they stepped up their attacks, with Duncan Edwards and Eddie Colman continually driving through the midfield, while Kenny Morgans and Albert Scanlon mesmerized the Arsenal full-backs as they tore down the flanks. ‘They just kept coming at us, and the score could have easily been 10–7. It was the finest match I ever played in,’ said Arsenal keeper Jack Kelsey. Bobby Charlton, fast becoming a regular member of the side, played his part in this dramatic win, scoring United’s second after a brilliant run by Scanlon. Charlton later gave this description of the goal, recalling how exhausted he was by the hectic pace of the game: ‘After reaching the corner flag, Albert crossed a perfect pass for me. My breath was coming in great gasps and my stockings were sagging around my ankles, but somehow I managed to muster some reserve strength to hit the ball into the back of the net.’

      United might have been enthralling crowds at home and across the continent, but, with typical narrow-mindedness, the English football establishment had not approved of the foray into European competition. When the European Cup was established in the 1955/56 season, the Football League refused permission for the reigning champions, Chelsea, to take part. It was the same insular attitude that had prevented England participating in the World Cup before 1950 and its spirit was encapsulated by the words of Alan Hardaker, League Secretary, about continental football: ‘too many wogs and dagoes’. But Matt Busby, a far more cosmopolitan, expansive figure than most League mandarins, had no time for such an isolationist mentality. So when United were crowned champions in 1956, Busby defied the League and took up the challenge of Europe. The first season proved memorable. Through a string of brilliant performances, most notably a 10–0 demolition of Belgian champions Anderlecht at home, United reached the semi-finals, where they were narrowly beaten by the mighty Real Madrid.

      Now there was a chance of reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup again. Making the second visit of that season behind the Iron Curtain, having earlier beaten Dukla Prague, United took a 2–1 lead into their away fixture with Red Star Belgrade. Though Bobby had played the previous year against Real Madrid at home, this was to be his first trip to Europe. His naivety about travel led to some ribbing from his team-mates, as Jackie Blanchflower recalled: ‘He had been kidded about the shortage of food in Eastern Europe and packed his suitcase with biscuits and sweets.’

      But, in taking such precautions, Bobby had not been as foolish as his colleagues imagined. For when the team arrived from Manchester after an uneventful flight, they found Belgrade to be a city of depressing bleakness and poverty. The icy grip of totalitarian communist rule could be felt everywhere, as Albert Scanlon recalls: ‘We arrived in Belgrade at Monday teatime and went to this hotel. For some reason there were armed guards on every floor. By the time we got our meals they were stone cold. After we unpacked, a few of us went out for a walk and we saw people wearing shoes from old car tyres. It was incredible, and in all the shops people had to queue for everything. On the whole, Belgrade was a dismal place with not much to do and nowhere to go.’

      The arrival of the United team was the most exciting event to happen in the city for years. As the team

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