Bill Shankly took one look at the teenage Denis Law and wondered whether the positive reports about this scrawny Aberdonian with National Health Service glasses could possibly be true.
But then, he witnessed the mesmerising talents of the Scot with a ball at his feet and quickly understood that all the hype was justified.
That was in the late 1950s at Huddersfield Town and the duo moved on elsewhere, Shankly to Liverpool and Law to Torino in Italy. But the old warhorse never forgot his first impressions of his compatriot and was determined to sign him if the Anfield board could raise the money.
The youngster, for his part, said: “I was quite prepared to follow Bill anywhere and when he left Huddersfield, he told me it was 99% certain that I would follow him to Liverpool if he had his way. He was one of the best people and one of the greatest motivators whom I ever met in the game.”
As the fabled Shanks said: “My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Had Napoleon had the same idea, he would have conquered the bloody world. I wanted Liverpool to be untouchable.”
Sadly, for him, his directors couldn’t or wouldn’t fund the transfer, so it transpired that Law was snapped up by Manchester United for a then record fee of £115,000 – and he put pen to paper on the contract on July 12 1962.
The Lawman was just 22 with a burning ambition to make waves, collect trophies, represent his country on the international stage and leave his mark on the sport for ever. The rest, as they say, is history.
Law’s name is synonymous with the Red Devils these days, and he and family have lived in Manchester for more than half a century, but he still had to get accustomed to the set-up at Old Trafford, despite knowing and respecting the manager Matt Busby and players such as Bobby Charlton.
It wasn’t the first time he had been at the stadium either. As a star-struck teenager he had travelled to watch them in poignant circumstances four years earlier and he talked about that experience later in his career.
He recalled: “The first time I ever attended a game at Manchester United, after the Munich air crash in 1958, it was more of a pilgrimage for me.
“I made the journey from my digs in Huddersfield and shelled out eight times the value of the ticket – the first and only time in my life that I paid black-market prices. The face value was half-a-crown, but I handed over £1, a huge slice of my meagre wages. It was a rip-off, but I was genuinely there and what an emotional occasion it was for everybody inside the ground.
“The programme listed the teams as usual, but almost every other name for Manchester United was A N Other. That showed the extent of the tragedy.
“It was a First Division game against West Bromwich Albion and Shay Brennan scored two goals on a day when the Midlands side was rolled over in a display of incredible emotion with players and fans shedding tears.
“Between then and signing for United, I had been back once with an Italian League side and once while I was briefly at Manchester City. But this was different: I was now a United player and a very expensive one, too.
‘I didn’t know how to get to ground’
“That didn’t go to my head, though, as I went straight back to my old digs with a Mrs Atkins, where I was made very welcome and given chicken curry.
“However, I had to be driven to Old Trafford on my first day because I didn’t know how to get there. I’d never been to the ground other than in a coach, and my digs were on the other side of Manchester in Withington, where I stayed until I got married (later in the same year).
“Still, I was back in English football and I was absolutely raring to go.”
Busby, who had almost perished during the Munich conflagration, was as much of a surrogate father to Law as Shankly had been. Both legendary bosses realised that while the skinny Scot might have been regarded as a soft touch by some opponents, he was actually as fragile as a moose.
And while there were complications over dealing with Torino which meant the transfer was delayed – including the possibility of Law being sold to Juventus for £160,000 – he felt at home as soon as he marched through the club gates.
He said: “Quite often, you feel like a complete stranger that first day you walk into a new club, but Old Trafford was not like that at all for me.
“I knew Matt from his days coaching Scotland, I knew Bobby, for whom I had the highest respect. There was also a familiar Aberdonian accent from the teenage Ian Moir, who was standing in for Bobby (who was injured).
“Despite this, and all the important games I had played, it was still a nerve-racking time, my first match at Old Trafford. In front of the Stretford End.
“But thankfully, I got off to a good start against West Brom on August 18 and the team did even better as Davie Herd put us one up within a few minutes of the kick-off. I added a second when I glanced Johnny Giles’ perfect cross past the goalkeeper after just seven minutes. We felt like world-beaters.
“Or at least we did at half-time. Only to allow West Brom to fight back and escape with a 2-2 draw which summed up our inconsistency.
“I mean, we’d shown our capabilities in pre-season friendlies, drawing 2-2 with reigning European champions Benfica in Manchester and beating Real Madrid 2-0 in the Bernabeu, the first British team to do so.
“But still, in my first year at the club, we were nearly relegated. We were good one moment and rotten the next. So it was a strange old campaign.”
There were no more tribulations for Law at Old Trafford as the Sixties progressed. He won the Ballon d’Or in 1964 – the only Scot to have done so – and enjoyed a string of honours at home and in Europe.
Nowadays, though he is 82, he is still feted in his home city and a statue was unveiled in his honour by Sir Alex Ferguson last November.
But he has never forgotten how Shankly and Busby spotted the potential and boosted him all those years ago.
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