The football world is preparing to pay tribute to those that died in the Munich air disaster 50 years ago.
Football pays tribute to United stars killed 50 years ago
'If they are good enough they are old enough.'
That is the message on one of Manchester United's best-selling T-shirts for half a century.
The words are those of Sir Matt Busby, and the fact that they are as pertinent is today's Manchester United team is perhaps the club's greatest legacy.
United have never been more successful.
Sir Alex Ferguson has won nine Premier League titles, the FA Cup a record five times and the European Cup in the treble-winning year of 1999.
Yet all of it can be traced back to Busby and the foundations he laid back in the 1950s and 1960s when his courage and vision built and rebuilt the club and guided it through the tragedy of the Munich air crash in which 23 people died, including eight of the 'Busby Babes'.
Fateful
Munich has become one of those iconic moments in 20th Century history. It is recalled with the same sense of gravity and loss by many quarters as the assassination of President Kennedy and the death of Princess Diana.
And the famous Old Trafford clock which bears the fateful date 6th February, 1958, is testament to the fact that Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman, Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Liam 'Billy' Whelan will never be forgotten.
Nor should we forget that eight journalists also died, including Frank Swift of the News of the World who was also a former England and Manchester City goalkeeper.
Football supporters who believe the Munich crash prompted a wave of sympathy which turned United into the most famous, glamorous and powerful football force should marvel at the steely men who built the club on uncompromising ideals of style and attacking play.
The founder of it all was Busby, who spent two months fighting for his life in a German hospital confronting his demons and his feelings of guilt before returning to build another side capable of conquering Europe.
It is easy to forget that in the inaugural year of the European Cup, 1955-56, England had no representative because the Football League leant on league champions Chelsea not to take part.
They tried to do the same with United the following year, refusing to assist with fixture congestion caused by lengthy travelling times in Europe.
Busby defied them. He embraced Europe as an adventure.
Greatness
He believed his young, talented side were pioneers on the cusp of greatness - so much so that after winning the league in successive years he was to say: "In all modesty, my summing up of 1955-56 and 1956-57 must be that no club in the country could live with Manchester United."
Whatever you think of the monster the UEFA Champions League has turned into today, you have to concede Busby was a visionary.
Just as even their critics would have to concede that United have always stayed true to the entertaining ideals of their father figure.
We will never know whether the 'Busby Babes' would have won the European Cup, although sense says they would have stopped Real Madrid from winning the competition in its first five successive seasons.
What we do know is that Busby's new team did win it a decade later and that the legacy lives on.
Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea supporters understandably will have other ideas, but how appropriate if Ferguson and his current side could once more lift the European Cup in Moscow in May and dedicate the triumph to Busby.
There could be no more fitting way to honour the legendary 'Babes'.
