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BEST FORGOTTEN
Did anyone else get fed up with the dreadful Kelly chat show on UTV last autumn featuring our former winger, Georgie Best? I watched it for a while, but in the end switched off in disgust and went off to get my beauty sleep. There was George Best, looking dreadfully emaciated; in fact he looked like death warmed up. Beside him was his latest blonde. In front of him was Kelly’s invited “celebrity” audience. It was the audience that got up my nose.

It was clear that most of them had never been to a football match in their lives. Of those who had, many had clearly never gone back to an international at Windsor Park once Georgie Porgie had retired. Their purpose in being on the show was to worship at the shrine of Ulster’s greatest ever footballer. I would not have been surprised if the audience had all risen up together and bowed their foreheads to the floor before the ex-player, chorusing “We are not worthy!”. The whole show was dreadfully embarrassing.

Now I am not one to kick someone when he is down. I am glad that George is obeying his doctor and defying death at long last. I am delighted that he now has a home in Northern Ireland. I am glad that he has found a good woman to put up with him. All of us wayward males can thank God if we have found the woman of our dreams, for often she is more than we deserve. However it annoys me dreadfully when people see the history of the game in Northern Ireland as consisting of George Best and nothing else. He only played thirty-seven times for our team. He should have played more often. He did give us one unforgettable game when he beat Scotland single-handedly in 1967. But in the other games he turned on the brilliance only in fits and starts.

Of course I loved to see George in a green shirt putting the fear of doom into opponents from Bobby Charlton to Johan Cryuff. But my first loyalty is and has always been to the Northern Ireland team. Unlike the folk with short memories who formed the audience on the Kelly show, I recall being shattered too often by the news that Northern Ireland had to into yet another crucial World Cup or European Championship game without their one genius, because George could not make the trip.
Many so called “experts” have said that it is a shame that George, being from Belfast, never played in the World Cup finals. Well the opportunity did present itself. Among the celebrity guests in the audience at the Kelly show was Billy Bingham. Billy mentioned the fact that he had taken a look at George in 1981 in the hope that he might make a comeback in a green jersey in the crucial World Cup qualifying matches of that year. However, Billy had concluded that George was not up to it. On the Kelly show, George agreed at once that Billy was right not to bring him back. If only George had looked after himself! Veteran though he was, he could have gone to the 1982 World Cup finals and graced the world stage in a green jersey. But he missed out and Bingham’s Braves had to do the business without him, which they did with remarkable success. But perhaps with a fit George Best they would have bowed out in the semi-final rather than the quarter-final.

Let’s face the facts about George Best’s international career. In 1972 after he had gone absent without leave, Northern Ireland beat England at Wembley without him. From 1980-86 we qualified for the World Cup finals twice and won the British Championship twice without him or any similar genius. George scored nine times for Northern Ireland, but so did Norman Whiteside. A case could be made that Big Norm’s contribution to the team in his day was greater than Bestie’s in his. I am not saying that Norman was a better player, only that he achieved more for Northern Ireland.

In fact it is worthwhile comparing Best with Bingham, the man he replaced in the number seven shirt. Bingham played fifty-six times for Northern Ireland. He looked after himself and continued playing international football until the age of thirty-five. As for his achievements as our manager, his record speaks for itself. So don’t expect me, or any other dedicated Norn Iron fan, to start worshipping at the shrine of Bestie. Unlike Kelly’s so-called “celebrities” we support Northern Ireland with or without a genius in the line-up.