Roger Byrne

Manchester United have enjoyed more than their fair share of great players down the years, but none has been more committed to the cause than the subject of this biography, Roger Byrne. Brought up in Gorton, a working-class suburb of Manchester, Byrne was at first a promising wing-half, later even turning out at centre-forward, but he came into his own as a left full-back fir United and England. Indeed so committed was he to his position that he threatened to leave United unless Matt Busby returned him to the position following an experimental period on the left-wing. footballers were woefully underpaid. Indeed, Byrne and his team-mates refused to take part in a BBC film under the working title 'training with the Champions' because the players were not going to paid enough. However despite these clashes with authority, Byrne remained fiercely loyal to his manager, team-mates and the club's growing army of supporters. By 1958 he and Matt Busby had forged a team of great talent and great resource only for the Munich air disaster to take the Babes away. Who knows how good Roger's team could have become if fate had not intervened?