Dion Fanning: Manchester United trying to awake from the haunting dream of history

Tributes in memory of Sir Bobby Charlton are laid outside Old Trafford. Photo credit: Nick Potts/PA Wire
On February 6th, 1998, Manchester United’s squad and management arrived at Manchester Cathedral to mark the 40th anniversary of the Munich disaster.
United’s players walked into the cathedral in their club blazers with Alex Ferguson ahead of them. Bobby Charlton, a director of Manchester United, was there too. He had survived the tragedy and he represented permanence, the important thread between the past and the present.