Jack and Bobby: A story of brothers in conflict. Leo McKinstry

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      Despite such prodigious talent, Bobby was not immediately selected for the first team on becoming a professional. There had been talk that after an astonishing run in the reserve and junior sides, when he hit 56 goals in 47 games, Bobby might be included in the line-up of the side that had won the First Division Championship in 1955/56. The Manchester Evening News reported on 10 April 1956: ‘Manchester United just want one more thing from Matt Busby before the end of a great championship season. They want to see shooting star Bobby Charlton in a First Division setting for the first time. Some of Charlton’s goals in the reserves have been acrobatic feats that no other English footballer would attempt.

      Manager Busby is not one to keep youth – or the customers – waiting longer than necessary. He is sure to give Charlton his chance, either against Sunderland on Saturday or in the wind-up game against Portsmouth.’

      But the call-up never came, and his mother, with her keen sense of her favourite’s worth, was infuriated by what she interpreted as a wilful snub to Bobby. She decided that, since both Matt Busby and Jimmy Murphy were Catholics, then religious prejudice must have been the cause of her son’s exclusion. As she wrote later, ‘I’m not the type to dwell on my thoughts, so I grabbed the bull by the horns. I went to Matt and asked him straight: “Is Bobby being left out because he isn’t a Catholic?” I could not have been more blunt. Neither could Matt. I knew from the expression on his face that I had really offended him. “How could you even think something like that? You are an intelligent woman, Cis. Don’t ever ask me anything like that again.’” In fact, Cissie had, in her blundering way, been correct in believing that there was a strong Catholic influence at Manchester United. The city’s large Irish population identified with the club; over the years many of the best young players, such as Nobby Stiles, were drawn from local Catholic schools, while Matt Busby, in the words of his biographer Eamon Dunphy, ‘was the most prominent Catholic in Manchester public life, a symbol of the faith to which he belonged, a Catholic admired and respected, around whom his co-religionists could rally’. Where she went horribly wrong was in believing that religion played any part in team selection. If it had, why would United have gone after George Best, who was brought up in a Free Presbyterian family in Belfast? It was always talent that mattered with Matt, not background.

      Soon after the beginning of the next season, in October 1956, Matt proved Cissie’s error by finally giving Bobby a place in the first team in the match against Charlton Athletic. Interestingly, Bobby was just a few days from his 19th birthday when he made his League debut, whereas Jack, always regarded as the inferior footballer, had been more than a year younger when he had his first game for Leeds. But that, of course, had been in the Second Division in a much less effective side. The news of Bobby’s selection was proclaimed by Tom Jackson in the Evening News: ‘It’s happened at last. Bobby Charlton, 18-year-old “wonder boy” of Manchester United’s reserve and FA Youth Cup-winning teams and pride of the Old Trafford nursery, steps out on the big soccer parade for the first time tomorrow. Who is this boy Charlton whom Don Revie describes as “one of the most complete footballers one could ever wish to see”? Well, he’s another of the Matt Busby finds from schoolboy international football who has made great strides through United’s junior and Youth Cup teams. He’s not big physically, standing 5 feet 8 inches and weighing around 11 stone 8 pounds, but he combines a fierce shot with an uncanny positional sense.’ After a nervous start, Bobby lived up to this star billing in his debut, scoring twice with typically powerful shots in United 4–2 victory. Sir Matt Busby wrote this account of the game: ‘Bobby began his debut as if he was in his bare feet kicking a hot potato. He “got rid” too quickly, very hard but too quickly. That must have been the only spell in which Bobby Charlton was ever nervous on a football pitch. The nerves did not last many minutes. Suddenly, he began to play his own game, and his own game was slipping gracefully past two opponents as if they were stakes in the ground, putting in a good pass or whacking a terrific shot.’ A great League career had begun. It was to last another 17 years.

      There were two important physical legacies for Bobby from this debut. The first was the immediate realization of how exhausting League football could be. ‘When the final whistle blew at the end of the match, my legs felt like rubber and I wondered where my next breath was coming from. I could not for the life of me understand how Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney had gone on playing for so long,’ he wrote in his 1967 book Forward for England. Now he saw why Jimmy Murphy had pushed him so hard on the training ground. The second was that he gained complete confidence in his left foot. The fact was that Bobby was not fully fit for the game against Charlton, having badly injured his right ankle playing against Manchester City reserves three weeks earlier. Though the swelling had gone down, the ankle was still giving him real discomfort on the eve of his debut. But so determined was Bobby to play that when Matt asked, ‘How’s the ankle?’ he lied and said, ‘It’s great.’ That was enough for Busby. So Bobby went into the match virtually carrying his right foot – and did so for the next fortnight. He maintains, however, it was an invaluable experience, as he told George Best’s biographer, Joe Lovejoy: ‘It was enforced practice really. I probably would not have done it without the injury, but it did improve my left peg a lot. My “other” foot was never that bad, but it’s amazing how, when you’ve only got one to use, your whole technique – your timing, your positional sense and your thinking – has to change.’

      Bobby had actually taken the field that October afternoon as Lance Corporal Charlton, for by 1956 he was in the middle of his National Service. When he had been summoned to join the army, he had been told by Busby to apply for the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. This was because their base was in Shrewsbury, not too far from Manchester, so Bobby could still play at weekends. But when he had finished his basic RAOC training at Portsmouth, he received his orders to go out to Malaya, where the British Army had been fighting a long campaign against the communist insurrection led by Ching Peng. The threat to young servicemen was very real, for almost 500 of them lost their lives during this 12-year conflict. In a sense of panic, Bobby phoned Old Trafford to explain his predicament. He was told not to worry: ‘We are certain your orders are to travel to Shropshire, not Malaya. It will be sorted out,’ the club informed him. Manchester United obviously had friends at the top of the War Office. The next day, Bobby was instructed to take the train to Shrewsbury.

      After his initial bout of anxiety, Bobby spent two uneventful but physically demanding years at the RAOC barracks there, humping around shells, equipment and crates of bullets. ‘I didn’t like the army simply because it seemed to be interfering with my progress as a footballer,’ he said later. But this was hardly true. Bobby was allowed almost as much leave as he wanted to play for United. Furthermore, he was part of a brilliant army team which would have beaten most sides in the First Division. Its players included internationals like Dave Mackay, Cliff Jones, Graham Shaw, Alex Parker and the England keeper Alan Hodgkinson. Above all there was Duncan Edwards, who happened to be serving in the same Shrewsbury depot as Bobby. Just as he had done at Mrs Watson’s digs in Manchester, the giant, kindly Duncan looked after Bobby. ‘Duncan was a year older than I was and he took charge of me the moment I arrived in the army camp. He had my billet arranged and everything. When he showed me to the billet, he noticed there was a spring sticking out of the bed. “We can’t have that,” he said. It was a great big iron bed, but he hoisted it over his shoulder, mattress, frame and all, and went off in search of a better one for me,’ recalled Bobby.

      Still in the army during United’s championship-winning season of 1956/57, Bobby played in 14 League matches, as well as the Cup Final against Aston Villa, in which Peter McParland’s vicious, jaw-breaking challenge on keeper Ray Wood probably cost United the Double. When Wood had to go off for treatment, Bobby was an obvious candidate to take his place between the posts. He had always loved keeping in practice sessions, and, according to Bobby Harrop, ‘He could have been a professional goalkeeper. We used to stay out after training, I would go in goal while he shot and then we would change over. I said to him, “You could be a keeper.” He had it all, speed, good reflexes, could cover the ground and deal with crosses and chips.’ But on this occasion at Wembley, United captain Roger Byrne signalled the Ulsterman Jackie Blanchflower to take over.