Sammy McIlroy was the last of the Busby Babes.
The Belfast boy, who followed in the wake of George Best across the Irish Sea, enjoyed a 13-year career at Old Trafford after joining the Reds as a schoolboy in 1969. As Manchester United once again look for a manager capable of building on the legacy left by Sir Alex Ferguson, the man who saw how the club unravelled to such an extent after Sir Matt Busby’s departure that they were relegated just six years after lifting the European Cup is in a unique position to talk about what now needs to be done.
Certainly, when it comes to explaining the constant references to United’s DNA, this mystical essence that has become a well-worn soundbite trotted out by people in the Old Trafford boardroom who couldn’t tell Billy Meredith from Bill Foulkes, then McIlroy has experience that stretches across six decades from one legendary manager to another.
