Ten years on from the passing of George Best, former teammate David Gaskell looks back on their time playing together.
Gaskell played with George during the Irishman’s first few years in the United first team and rates him as up among the top players that he played with or against: “George was one of the best without a doubt that I ever played with. I played against Real Madrid three times and he could hold his own with anybody.
“He was very good, he could defend, he could attack and he would never shirk a tackle. For the five years that I played with him he was a quiet guy, a good lad. He wasn’t boozing and if he was he was keeping it very quiet.”
David made 120 appearances for the United first team between 1956 and 1966 and also played alongside the legendary Duncan Edwards in his early days at the club. When asked who was better, Duncan or George he says: “Well they were different, Duncan was a six foot, 15 stone tank. George was a ten and a half stone wet through genius, you can’t compare the two.
“They were both very much at the top of the game, it’s difficult to compare players. They used to reckon that Alfredo Di Stefano was the best thing since sliced bread, he played centre forward for Real Madrid for years and I thought George was a better player than him and Puskas put together.”
