Taylor salutes 'true legend' Best

Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, remembered George Best as “one of the true legends of the game”.

He said: “Obviously our sympathies go to his family and his friends but I think it’s the football family which will be grieving most of all.

“I think everyone will feel they have lost a bit of themselves because George is one of the true legends of the game.

“Fathers and grandfathers will tell their children about how good he was and really there is no comparison.

“He would be in anybody’s all-time great 11. I remember playing for Bolton against Manchester United early in George’s career.

“Our game-plan was to keep (Denis) Law and (Bobby) Charlton and David Herd quiet because George was so young and nobody really knew a lot about him.

“After 20 minutes, I broke my nose and had to go off. I had it reset but when I went to come back on our manager said: ‘Don’t bother, we’re already 5-0 down and it will look bad if we have 11 players on.’

“Needless to say it was George who had done all the damage.”