Welcome to my hub dedicated entirely to the great Sir Matt Busby, which I hope will grow to become the most informative source of information about 'Mr Manchester United'. Believe it or not I am not a Manchester United fan, this is just a sincere tribute to one of football's biggest legends. Sir Alexander Matthew 'Matt' Busby (26th May 1909 - 20th January 1994) was a Scottish born football player who is most noted for his successful spells as manager at Manchester United Football Club between 1945-1969 and 1970-1971. As of yet Busby is the longest serving manager in the clubs history, even exceeding Sir Alex Ferguson,

Sir Matt was born in a tiny pitmans cottage in the village of Obirston, a small mining village of North Lanarkshire, the house had just two rooms. Amazingly Busby's parents, Alexander and Nellie Busby, were told by the doctor soon after his birth that "A footballer has come into this house today". Busby's father was to be killed by a German sniper in the first world war, leaving Busby without a father at a young age; he also lost three uncles to the same war. Busby would often accompany his father down the coal pits but always had, from a very young age, an aspiration to become a footballer. As a teenager, Busby's mother applied for a visa to move to the USA, a move which at the time would have ruined any chance of Busby becoming a professional football player. Luckily, there was a nine month wait for a Visa and during that time Busby found himself playing part time football for a team called Denny Hibs. It took just a few games for Denny Hibs before English second division side Manchester City snapped him up, meaning that Busby could pursue his dream.

Busby was 17 when he signed up to Manchester City, who at the time were competing for promotion from the second tier of English football with a hope of regaining top tier status. Busby was given a one year contract worth £5 a week - a deal that was signed on 11th February 1928. Within the contract was a provision that he could leave at the end of the contract and join his mother in the United States if he decided that he wanted to. Luckily for football he decided to stay after this year and finally made his City debut on 2nd November 1929 in a 3-1 win over Middlesbrough. He ended that season with a total of 12 appearances, scoring 5 goals, playing mainly at inside left.

The then City manager, Peter Hodge, later decided that Busby's best position was from the half back line; a move which saw Busby playing some of his best football and resulted in a keen interest from local rivals Manchester United for his signature. United at the time were unable to pay the £150 fee that City demanded and so Busby remained a City player, where he would remain until 1936. During his time at City Busby played 226 league games, scoring 14 goals, as well as being part of some very good City cup runs. The team reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1932, before losing in the 1933 final and finally winning the trophy in 1934. Busby's Manchester City career was to come to an end in 1936 after his lost his place in the team to the emerging Jack Percival, before Manchester United gave him a lifeline and paid £8,000 for Busby.

Busby made his debut for Liverpool just two days after signing, on 14th March 1936, in a 1-0 defeat away to Huddersfield Town. One month later he scored his first goal for the Reds against Blackburn Rovers, a goal which helped earn the team a 2-2 draw. He soon made the number 4 shirt his own, with Ted Savage losing his place in the team, and hardly missed a game over the next three seasons and was made club captain as a result of his great consistency. Another player that was to become a great manager, Bob Paisley, joined the club in 1939 and it was Busby that took the young Paisley under his wing and showed him the ropes; this led to a great lifetime friendship between the two which extended to their management days. Busby's Liverpool career (and professional career) came to an end at the start of the second world war when, along with most of the Liverpool squad, he signed up for national service with the King's Liverpool Regiment.

During the war he played games for a number of clubs including Chelsea, Middlesbrough, Brentford, Reading, Hibernian and Bournemouth; these games are not recognised in British football as official professional appearances. He also made 7 unofficial appearances for Scotland in games against England during the war, during which the Scottish team won only once. This was to add to his only official International cap against Wales in 1933. Busby served as a football coach in the Army Physical Training Corps throughout the war and in 1944, when professional football was almost ready to return to Britain, he was offered the job as Assistant Manager at Liverpool. Busby rejected the offer however as a result of a disagreement with the clubs board about how football should be played and they subsequently allowed him to pursue other options.

In the knowledge that Busby had already been offered a job by Liverpool, the Manchester United board offered the job to Busby by addressing a letter to Busby at his regimental address. United's 'fixer' at the time, and a close friend of Busby's, Louis Rocca advised the board to leave the decision to Busby and give him time to think over the move. The letter referred only to 'a job' rather than the managers job in case the job offer was to leak to Liverpool officials. A few months later in February 1945 Busby turned up at one of the Manchester United chairmens businesses, still dressed in his army uniform, to discuss the letter with the chairman. Busby insisted that he trained the players, picked the team on the matchday and dealt with buying and selling the players, such a role was unheard of in football until that point. The chairman of the club offered Busby a three year deal, which was then turned into a five year deal after Busby argued that it would take 5 years for his plans for the club to show dividends. The chairman, who was called James W. Gibson by the way, subsequently agreed to the unprecedented deal. The contract was signed on the same day, 19th February 1945, although he did not take over practically until October of that same year. During the period between he returned to finish coaching in the Army and took their football team to Bari, Italy, where he watched a training session lead by former West Brom player Jimmy Murphy. Busby offered him the job as assistant manager at United, which Murphy accepted there and then.

Busby and Murphy immediately made a big impact at United and by the 1946/47 season they had led the team to the runners up spot in the top tier of English football, one place behind Liverpool where Busby could have been working as a mere Assistant Manager. The team subsequently finished runners up again in 1948 and 1949 and they won the FA Cup in 1948. They frustratingly finished 2nd again in 1951 before finally winning the league championship in 1952. By this stage the team had begun to age and new players had to be found if United were to sustain their place as one of England's best teams, the media expected Busby and United to spend large sums of money on replacing much of their squad; Busby had very different ideas. Instead of simply buying up the best players of his rivals, Busby instead sought out the most talented 16 and 17 year old players in amateur youth teams around the country. The players that Busby brought through in this era included Billy Foulkes, Jackie Blanchflower, Liam Whelan and Duncan Edwards. All four of those players were to become footballing legends. Duncan Edwards was to become, arguably, the best English player of his era and broke the record for the youngest full England international at the age of 18 - a record that remained for 40 years.

Throughout the early 1950's the youthful Manchester United team were to pick up the nickname the 'Busby Babes' and the team developed into a fine one, culminating in two successive League Championship titles in 1956 and 1957 and were runners up in the 1957 FA Cup Final. The youngsters became so successful that Busby made just two major signings in over four years, centre forward Tommy Taylor and goalkeeper Harry Gregg. Busby's team were seen to have started the 1957/1958 at there very best, a major force to be reckoned with and full of ambition to win the League Title, the FA Cup and the European Cup; but then disaster struck.

On the way home from European Cup game against Red Star Belgrade on February 6th 1958, their plane crashed on the runway at Munich airport. 23 people were killed at the scene, including 7 United players and 3 club officials. Duncan Edwards, United's star player and one of the best players in the world, died two weeks later from his injuries; two other United players suffered such severe injuries that they never played football again. Sir Matt Busby himself suffered severe injuries and was twice read his last rites before finally recovering from his injuries enough to leave hospital after two months. In the meantime the team was managed by assistant manager Jimmy Murphy who led the team to the FA Cup Final just three months later, which Sir Matt managed to attend, unfortunately United's massively weakened team failed to win against Bolton. Murphy handed back the reigns to Busby for the 1958/1959 season and Busby was given the task of rebuilding the devastated club. He also took temporary charge of the Scottish national team for two months, giving future United player Denis Law his first Scotland cap.

After the crash Busby had a monumentus task to try and remain at the top of English football by building a side around Munich survivors including goalkeeper Harry Gregg, Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes. Busby had to go against his previous business principles and buy much of his new look team from other clubs; he did a good job in the transfer market however and brought in players including David Herd, Albert Quixall and the future club legend Denis Law, as well as developing the raw talent of a young Nobby Stiles; Busby had given Law his Scotland debut not too long before signing him. It took a while for United to rediscover their trophy winning form, with a four season barren spell following before another FA Cup success in the 1962-1963 season. In 1964 Busby discovered quite possibly his biggest young talent ever; George Best. Best was to become one of, if the not the, best player of the decade and his signing was the catalyst that brought success back to Old Trafford. They were league champions again in 1965, the first time since the Munich tragedy, and won it again two years later in 1967.

The biggest success in Busby's career, at least in terms of football honours, came in the 1967/1968 season which ended in European glory with his only European Cup win. A year later he handed over the managerial reigns to one of his former players Will McGuiness who lasted just a few months in the job. The sacking resulting in Busby briefly returning to his previous duties as manager but the move was temporary as he never intended to remain in the role permanently. After retiring Busby moved to the boardroom where he remained a director of the club for 11 years before being made club president in 1982.

Sir Matt Busby was given a testimonial game in August 1991 during which a Manchester United side featuring new stars, including Mark Hughes and Steve Bruce, took on a Republic of Ireland XI team. The game was a competitive one and finished in a 1-1 draw. Busby died of cancer in January 1994, aged 84, and was buried in Manchester alongside his wife who had died 6 years prior. The gravestone is located in Southern Cemetary, Manchester, and is still visited by Manchester United fans who pay tribute to the legend. Amazingly, Manchester United secured an astonishing treble success with a European Cup win on the day that would have been Sir Matt's 90th birthday; they then won the European Cup again in 2008 - marking 50 years since the Munich Disaster.

Sir Matt Busby Way, formally known as Warwick Road North, is the street on which Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium sits. It was renamed Sir Matt Busby Way in 1993 in tribute of their great former manager; it was to be a fitting final tribute for a man that passed away less than a year later in January 1994. The road operates as a normal public highway at all times, except for five hours on a match day. It runs for a total of 420 metres. Two years after his death the club unveiled a bronze statue in tribute of the great man, in 2008 this was joined by a statue of three members of his teams - George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton. The second statue is fitting because the players are all facing the great man.

Player (Manchester City)

• FA Cup 1933/34

Manager (Manchester United)

• First Division (5 Times): 1951/52, 1955/56, 1956/57, 1964/65, 1966/67
• FA Charity Shield (5 Times): 1952, 1956, 1957, 1965, 1967
• FA Cup (2 Times): 1947/48, 1962/63
• European Cup (1 Time): 1967/68