Manchester United legend Sammy McIlroy has paid tribute to his former manager Frank O’Farrell, who has passed away aged 94.
O’Farrell was manager at Old Trafford from June 1971 to December 1972.
“It’s very sad news,” McIlroy told TalkOfTheDevils. “He gave me my debut in 1971 and I’ll always be grateful for the belief he showed in me and the help he gave me at the age of 17. I’ll always have great memories of him. I was a young kid just coming in to the team to play with my heroes and it was Frank who made that dream come true. I’ll never forget that.”
It is often forgotten due to the problems that happened towards the end of O’Farrell’s reign, but United were top of the First Division moving into Christmas, playing some great football – George Best scored a memorable hat-trick against West Ham, another against Southampton, and a famous solo effort against Sheffield United in this period too. O’Farrell, with his assistant Malcolm Musgrove, were credited with revolutionising training at the Cliff.
“We were scoring goals, we were top of the league, everything was rosy,” McIlroy says. “George was performing and everything looked like it was moving in the right direction. The problems then came in, especially with George, and I think Frank especially suffered through that.”
Though O’Farrell suffered the misfortune of being sacked just eighteen months into his reign, what is mostly remembered by those who knew him and worked with him was the dignity and class with which he conducted himself.
“He was one hundred percent a really good man,” says McIlroy. “He came into the club with a good reputation having done well at Leicester. It was a massive task to follow Matt Busby but he came in and my first impression of him was that he was a proper gentleman, there’s no doubt about that.”
