Past, present and future collide as Manchester giants square off in Premier League

LONDON – There is a weight of history and responsibility hanging over Sunday’s 191st Manchester derby match. For United, it has been a week of mourning,

for Bobby Charlton,

the last of the Busby Babes, who 10 years after the Munich air disaster of 1958 led the club to their first European Cup. 

In 70 years of association with the club as player, then powerful director, Charlton lived a storybook football life. But as someone who lost eight teammates in the crash on an icy runway, three of them in David Pegg, Eddie Colman and Duncan Edwards his closest friends, he carried himself with a clipped, melancholy dignity. In public, his warmth was kept for United and football itself.

And as the man who helped bring Alex Ferguson to the club in 1986 and then held faith in the legendary manager’s troubled early years, United fans have so much to thank him for.

So does English football as the best, most creative player in the Three Lions’ 1966 World Cup win at Wembley. That some, admittedly young, City fans chose to celebrate his death as it was revealed at 4pm last Saturday was regrettable but speaks to the nasty, partisan edge that can creep into football rivalries.

That such behaviour took place on the same day City paid tribute to Francis Lee, Charlton’s England teammate, a star of the clubs’ 1960s rivalry who died on Oct 2, added to the stupidity. 

There will be 3,000 City fans at Old Trafford on Sunday, and nothing less than the best behaviour will be expected though, in 2008, on the 50th anniversary of Munich, the City contingent was exemplary in showing respect for those lost.

That Frank Swift, perhaps City’s greatest player of the early 20th century, a former goalkeeper by then working as a journalist, perished at Munich, quietens most, but not all. Munich chants, these days thankfully less prevalent, have long sullied City fans’ reputation. 

A City squad close to full strength, though still minus Kevin de Bruyne, will face a United team who won their last three matches, if only by a whisker. Brentford, Sheffield United and FC Copenhagen were each decided by late heroics.

United are a club living on their nerves, with

Jim Ratcliffe’s partial takeover

an ongoing process, and chief executive Richard Arnold expected to leave if that goes through. Jadon Sancho, a £73 million (S$121 million) signing, continues to be

exiled from the team

after his schism with Erik ten Hag. One report suggested he now eats his training-ground lunch in his car.  

On Tuesday, it was

Andre Onana and Harry Maguire who were match winners.

Both players have been deluged by criticism. “I want to help the team and get the club back to where it should be,” said Maguire, who the Dutchman tried to sell in the summer.

Even if Pep Guardiola’s Manchester derby record is not perfect,

United winning 2-1

the last time they met at Old Trafford in January, City are where United want to be. Reviving Charlton’s glory days remains a significant distance away.