Sir Matt Busby death location

The legendary manager whose wisdom and inspirational leadership spanned four decades died here at a private hospital in Cheadle in Cheshire. He died on Thursday 20th January 1994 aged 84. He'd been admitted to the hospital to have a blood clot removed from his leg but died of a stroke. His wife Jean had died six years earlier after lived in a fog of dementia. He left two growth up children - Sandy and Sheena - and some grandchildren.

Perhaps he was lucky to live for so long. He could have easily died aged 49 in the Munich Air Disaster. On board the plane that crashed on take-off were 44 people - 23 died and 21 lived. He was badly injury in the crash - badly enough to twice receive the Last Rites. Lying in a hospital bed for weeks he wasn't told about the extent of deaths until doctors considered him strong enough to accommodate the news.

Many a person would have retired but Matt applied the football principle of fighting until the end to himself and fought on with fortitude. Though he'd lost a team that promised to be one of the greatest generations of players in English football history he set about rebuilding the club. It took about a decade to start recovering past successes and Man U won the European Cup in 1968. Behind the facade things were never the same again after the crash in Munich.

I visited the hospital one a sunny Sunday morning and didn't see anyone else on foot. Every person I saw was in an expensive car - to be expected I suppose as it's the largest private hospital in the UK outside London. Ironically Alex Ferguson was treated here following a brain tumour. The actress Pat Phoenix died here. I'm sure lots of cameras were watching me so I didn't get to close.

Matt's two children are no longer alive. Sandy died at his home in Hale Barns of a heart attack aged 78 and Sheena died in hospital aged 82.