Best of a very ordinary Hibs bunch

Published on Sunday 15 November 2009 23:04

EDINBURGH football was at a low ebb as the end of the 1970s neared. Hearts were down in the First Division, having been relegated the previous season, and by November in the 1979-80 season Hibernian were in grave danger of going the same way.

Something had to be done to lift the gloom, and Hibs chairman Tom Hart came up with a three-word answer: sign George Best. It was the fag-end of Best's career as well as of the decade, but the former Manchester United player still managed to enliven the Scottish game during the all-too-brief time in which he was on the books at Easter Road.

Fulham were keen to offload Best, and as soon as a few stumbling blocks such as the need to repay a 10,000 loan to the player were out of the way, the deal went through. An ankle injury would delay Best's debut for his new club, but he officially became a Hibs player on 16 November 1979 – exactly 30 years ago today.

Hart obviously hoped Best would help the team, but he knew that financially he could hardly lose. He paid Best 2,000 per week, convinced Hibs would recoup that and more as attendances soared. He was soon proven correct.

Best himself made all the right noises when he signed, even if, in retrospect, his words have an ironic ring to them. "Hibs are a young side who are going through a tough time," the 33-year-old said. "I think they need someone older to settle them down." True to his word, Best was indeed soon settling his new team-mates down – at a table in the Jinglin' Geordie, a city-centre pub, where he was photographed in an advanced state of inebriation.

In the case of Hibs manager Eddie Turnbull there was also a contrast between what he said and what he perceived. "I am absolutely delighted," he stated.

"It is an injection for us. There are fans in Scotland waiting to watch him play, but we will gain on the field as well as at the gate."

In reality, Turnbull had had little or no hand in signing the player, and felt Best's presence would disrupt his attempt to get the team out of the doldrums. Just as Hart's prediction of increased income came true, so did Turnbull's fear that a team with Best involved would never make sustained progress.

The unlikely alliance began happily enough, as Best scored on his debut at St Mirren, albeit in a Hibs defeat. For his first home appearance, against Partick Thistle a week later, a crowd of more than 20,000 packed into Easter Road, and were rewarded with a Hibs win.

A few still-cherished highlights followed. There was his goal in a draw with Celtic, the one he laid on in a match against Rangers, the drink he took from a beer can thrown on to the pitch during the latter match.

But it could not last. For a start, Best's fitness was not what it was. Described in his Belfast youth as having "the physique of a toothpick and the pallor of a chip butty", he was by this time as plump as a big beef tomato with a complexion to match.

And, even at a time when drink was an accepted part of Scottish football culture, Best took it to excess. One weekend, in the spring after he signed, it all came to a head.

The night before a Sunday cup match against Ayr, Best was invited to join the French rugby team for a spot of socialising after their game against Scotland. He was still there the following morning, in no state to play.

Hart, disillusioned, made an announcement after his team's match. "The marriage between Hibs and George Best is over," he said. "The divorce took place at three o'clock."

The declaration was premature. Best was forgiven, as he had been by so many managers and friends throughout his career, and went on to play another handful of games for the club before he went off to ply his trade in California for San Jose Earthquakes.

In fact, he outlasted Turnbull at Easter Road. The manager, himself a Hibs legend thanks to his days as a member of the Famous Five, was sacked in April 1980. Best's last game for the club came all of seven months later.

Assessed in terms of how little it achieved, Best's stay at Easter Road was short and inglorious. He did not save Hibs from relegation, he continued down the same self-destructive path that would end in his premature death a quarter of a century later, and he arguably played his part in getting Turnbull sacked.

Yet he inspired great affection in his team-mates, and he showed supporters flashes of the brilliance which had once made him among the greatest players on the planet.

"We all grew to like George and I think he liked us," says Tony Higgins, now a players' union official, in Flawed Genius, a new book about some of the wayward greats of the game. "We were average players who shared the dressing room with someone who had assumed the mantle of a superstar. If he thought we were rubbish, he never said so."

&#149 Flawed Genius: Scottish Football's Self-Destructive Mavericks by Stephen McGowan is published by Birlinn, priced 14.99.