Hibee legends recall Best of times at club

Published on Friday 25 November 2005 12:19

GEORGE Best's career as a Hibs player may have been short-lived - but his time at Easter Road was as colourful as the rest of his life.

Tom Hart, Hibs chairman of the time, pulled off one of the greatest signing coups in Scottish football, snapping up the wayward former Manchester United and Northern Ireland superstar from Fulham.

It was a move made following a suggestion from Stewart Brown, the late Evening News football writer, and came when Hibs were struggling in the League.

The ins and outs of his transfer were closely followed but even when Best walked into the Easter Road dressing-room his new team-mates were stunned to find the superstar Ulsterman in their midst.

Any initial resentment over his arrival - on a reputed 1500 a match financed entirely by Hart - was quickly defused as the Hibs chairman doubled the bonus system on offer.

If there was an aura and a superstar status surrounding Best - his first home match against Partick Thistle attracted a crowd in excess of 22,000 - it didn't follow him through the dressing-room door.

Tony Higgins, a team-mate and now general secretary of the players' union, today recalled: "We'd heard some rumours that a big name was coming but it was only when George arrived that we believed it.

" But despite his reputation, George was a very quiet guy, there was nothing fancy about him, he was down to earth, a professional football player like ourselves."

Although Best quickly became "one of the boys" at Easter Road, it was just as evident he lived a totally different lifestyle to the others in manager Eddie Turnbull's side.

Higgins said: "On a Monday morning you'd ask the guys changing beside you what they'd been up to after the game on the Saturday morning.

"George used to disappear back to London after games and I remember on Monday asking him what he'd done. He'd been at a party with the likes of Rod Stewart, Britt Ekland, John Lennon, Roger Moore and Michael Caine.

"Obviously his was a vastly different lifestyle - but among the players he didn't expect any favours, he was a real decent guy."

Despite his career being on the wane, the crowd that day against Partick Thistle underlined the pulling power the charismatic star still retained. Higgins said: "We were getting crowds of around 8000 or 9000 but there were more than 22,000 that day - and I'd bet the vast majority of them were there just to see George.

"He was the first football film star, the first of the David Beckhams. In the 1970s Hibs had been fairly successful and we were used to dealing with foreign visitors to Easter Road because of our involvement in European competition.

"But with George in the side there was hardly a day went by without an overseas camera crew following the latest development in his life.

"He was far from being a normal football player."

Sadly, Best's battle with the demon drink was also all too evident to his new team-mates and, ultimately, it led to a series of showdowns with Hart, who once famously declared: "The marriage between George Best and Hibernian Football Club is over."

Twice Best failed to turn up for matches against Morton but a major fall-out came when two members of Turnbull's staff went to his Princes Street hotel one Sunday only to declare him "unfit to play" in that day's Scottish Cup tie against Ayr United.

In fact, it was said, Best had been on a drinking binge - champagne of course - with Jean-Pierre Rive, the captain of the French rugby side which was staying in the same hotel having played Scotland at Murrayfield on the Saturday.

Hart, who gave Best numerous chances, was later to admit he had covered up for his wayward star on each occasion by saying he was injured, photographs even being taken of him on the treatment table to confirm the story.

Despite having an implant in his stomach in an effort to prevent him drinking, his team-mates soon realised that if they saw Best take a "couple of vodkas" on the rare occasions they went for a drink after training he'd be "off on the razzle" and that they wouldn't see him for a few days.

Higgins said: "I felt sorry for Willie Murray that day against Ayr. About 18,000 people turned up and he was booed when he ran out with the No 11 on his back because they'd all turned up to see George."

It was another chapter in the sad decline of one of football's greatest-ever talents, but there were still glimpses of what Best had been. Higgins said: "Looking back now, George was beyond his best. He still had the ability to play 30, 40 or 50 yard passes with either foot but the dribbling for which he was renowned had gone.

"Initially there was disharmony in the dressing-room because we understood he was getting 1500 or 2000 a game. But Tom Hart doubled our bonus system for accepting the George Best phenomenon and that took away any resentment.

"And it was clear in the early stages it was well worth it with the crowds which turned up."

Higgins last saw Best before he had his liver transplant, describing his appearance as "dreadful," and reminding him of another footballing legend Jim Baxter who suffered an early death thanks to his inability to resist the bottle.

He said: "It's all very sad. The unfortunate thing is that while you can get another liver, alcohol takes a grip of your body and you can't get a new body."

Although an alcoholic, Higgins recalled Best's ability to have a laugh at himself. He said: "I remember playing Rangers at Easter Road when we beat them 2-1. In those days dark holes would open up on the terracing as fights broke out. George went to take a corner and the Rangers fans started throwing cans of beer at him. Rather than react George picked one up, pretended to take a sip from it and put it down by the touchline.

"It defused the whole situation, they started clapping him for that touch of humour he had."

Despite the gulf which existed in their lifestyles, McNamara and Best became firm friends, so much so that he returned to Edinburgh to feature in the Easter Road star's Testimonial Match against Newcastle United.

McNamara said: "George was a lovely, lovely man. There were no airs or graces about him. He was well accepted and got on with all the boys.

"There was no 'Billy Big' about him, he wanted to be part of the dressing-room although he was earning many times our wages."

And McNamara believes Best should be remembered for his skill as a football player and the pleasure he brought millions of fans rather than for his well-documented battle against drink which has left him perilously close to death in a London hospital three years after receiving a liver transplant. He said: "I know a lot of people will go over the top about the transplant but it shows how much of an illness alcoholism is in that it's grip means you still feel the need to drink."

Like Higgins, McNamara recalls Best's short period playing for Hibs with affection.

He said: "During my Testimonial Match George and David McCreery, who later played for Hearts, were having a go at each other despite having been team-mates for Northern Ireland.

"George Smith, the referee, called George to come to him for a word. George pointed to the crowd and told him: 'They haven't' come to see you, they've come to see me'.

"He then spotted me out of the corner of his eye and quickly added: 'And Jackie'.

"My favourite saying of George's was that he'd spent all his money on women, drink and fast cars and had squandered the rest.

"But it is a very sad day, a terrible shame when you consider all he contributed to the game."

Best's Hibs career

AFTER a glittering career with Manchester United in which he scored 210 goals in 525 matches, George Best played 47 games and scored ten times for Fulham before joining Hibs. In all he played 25 games for Hibs, scoring just three goals. Here are all Best's games for Hibs (league except where stated):

1979

November 24:

St Mirren 2, Hibs 1 (Best scored)

December 1:

Hibs 2, Partick Thistle 1

December 8:

Kilmarnock 4, Hibs 0 (friendly)

December 10:

Hibs 3, Leicester City 2 (friendly)

December 22:

Hibs 2, Rangers 1

1980

January 5:

Kilmarnock 3, Hibs 1

January 12:

Hibs 1, Celtic 1 (Best scored)

January 15:

Leicester 0, Hibs 2 (friendly)

January 26:

Meadowbank Thistle 0, Hibs 1 (Scottish Cup, Tynecastle)

March 1:

Rangers 1, Hibs 0

March 8:

Berwick 0, Hibs 0 (Scottish Cup)

March 15:

Dundee 3, Hibs 0

March 25:

Hibs 2, Dundee 0 (Best scored, last goal for Hibs)

March 29:

Celtic 4, Hibs 0

April 2:

Hibs 0, Dundee Utd 2

April 5:

St Mirren 2, Hibs 0

April 12:

Celtic 5, Hibs 0 (Scottish Cup semi-final, Hampden)

April 16:

Aberdeen 1, Hibs 1

April 19:

Hibs 0, Dundee United 2

Season 1980/1981

September 9:

Dundee 1, Hibs 2

September 20:

Hamilton 1, Hibs 1

September 24:

Hibs 2, Clyde 1 (League Cup)

October 4:

Dunfermline 0, Hibs 2

October 8:

Ayr United 2, Hibs 2 (League Cup)

October 11:

Hibs 2, Falkirk 0 (Best captain)

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