KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Best

Leave aside he played for Manchester United some things transcend club loyalty.

There is a movie next week in cinemas about George best

Certainty probably the games greatest character and quite probably the worlds greatest player. I am lucky to have seen him play. Of course a career cut short by alcoholism which we can't ignore. Seen a trailer looks a great film. If you are of a generation where this was before your time this might be worth a watch

My Grandad used to say he was the best he'd ever seen.

That clip when he chinned the defender and the camera pans back on him with the guy out cold and George shaking his hand trying to cool his knuckles was brilliant

Probably the best I have seen albeit I was young the greatest ever ? Bit hard to say as he had more or less retired by 26 and being Northern Irish we never saw him at the very top of international football but pretty sure he would have been brilliant them. I remember quite often other teams used to have two players marking him

I'd love to see that film. He was one of the all time greats.

'I spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on drink and women, the rest I just squandered' George Best.

And there was the famous Cruyff nutmeg.

Asked if he believed Cruyff was a better player, Best laughed and replied: "You're kidding, aren't you? I'll tell you what I'll do tonight… I'll nutmeg Cruyff, the first chance I get."

Best's prophecy came true. Five minutes into the game, he dipped a shoulder twice and slipped it between Cruyff's feet.

As Best ran around to collect the ball and run on, he raised his right fist into the air.

He scored a hatrick from left back. He got a bit embarrassed scoring so many so went left back for the second half.

There's some players who you just enjoy. No matter who they play for.

I think he was

I have his book "Dirty baths and hard tackles" (mightn't be exactly right and I can't be arsed to go to my reading room to look it up) but it's a great read. In technical terms George was a one off, none came close except maybe Stanley Mathews, but best was mercurial, fast, strong and flamboyant on the pitch huand off the pitch, in a way that none could match. In my mind he's always associated with the great singer; Victoria de Los Angles whose time and careers coincided, both of them shone like shooting stars in the firmament, before burning themselves out way 0before their time. What I often wonder could George Best have achieved had he played for a proper club? (-:

For me, the greats have longevity and do it over the years, in good and bad times, he never did that.

George Best getting a liver transplant and then wasting it by pickling himself was disgusting.