Paddy Crerand

Last updated : 30 September 2007 By Editor

From the Telegraph:

"Coming here was a breath of fresh air," he recalls. "In those days, when you went out in Glasgow, mention Celtic in the wrong place and you were in trouble. They'd ask you what school you went to first question when you went for a job. And if you said, St anything, you had a problem: 'No RC or Irish may apply' said job adverts. The great thing about Manchester is, sure there's rivalry, but you can have a laugh here. I remember once I was in my car in the city centre and this great big Roller comes alongside me. Inside was Bernard Manning, a massive City fan, I knew him very well, got on with him great. And he looks across, sees it's me, sticks his thumbs up, beckons me to wind down my window. So I do, and he winds down his window, leans over with a big friendly grin on his face and says: "Eff off you red bastard" and drives off. I couldn't drive for laughing. You'd never get that in Glasgow now would you?"

"Denis Law arrived about six months before me and he loved to play all over the park, like Wayne Rooney now, coming deep, picking up balls. Matt wanted him right up front. So he bought me to pass the ball up to Denis on the last man's shoulder. That was the instruction: 'Pat, pass the ball to Denis'. It was a transformation in his game that worked, he scored loads and loads of goals." So effective was the tactic, so purposefully did he stoke the engines of the great side of the Sixties that an adage was coined among United fans: "If Pat Crerand plays well, United play well."

"Ach no, that was a fallacy," he says. "Come on, look at the other players in that team. I enjoyed people saying it, obviously. Though if you think about it, the logic meant if we got beat, I was to blame."