Best up for transfer

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33093, 7 December 1972, Page 28

Best up for transfer

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MANCHESTER. George Best, the wayward soccer genius, was yesterday put on the transfer list by his club, Manchester United. The club’s board of directors announced their decision after meeting to consider Best’s absence from training four times in the last two weeks. The 26-year-old Northern Ireland soccer star, rated the best player in Britain, was reported to be in London. Best has been with United

for 12 years and was in its team which won the European Champions’ Cup in 1968.

The announcement may spark off the biggest transfer battle in British soccer history, although some clubs will be cautious about signing Best after his recent misbehaviour, both on and off the field.

Apart from missing training, Best was also in trouble on the field when he was sent off in Northern Ireland’s World Cup match against Bulgaria last month. This dismissal earned him a threematch suspension from World Cup games.

But at his peak, Best would be worth, in the present inflated transfer market, close to £300,000 ($640,000), well over the British record transfer fee of £225,000 which Derby County paid Leicester City for D. Nish earlier this year. The “Sun” named Derby, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspurs and Everton as already showing interest in buying Best. The Manchester City player, Mike Summerbee, spoke to Best during the afternoon, before the announcement, and the “Daily Express” quoted him as saying: “George was very upset. He looked a shadow of himself and at one stage talked about going to New York. “He said to me, *1 feel I cannot do it anymore. I don’t feel as though I want to go on. I don’t want to be just an ordinary player*.”