Meanwhile, at club level, the full flowering of United’s youth talent was imminent, with Edwards leading the charge. What the Busby Babes delivered in 1955/56 is still one of the outstanding achievements in English football history: a title won by 11 points, in an era where two points were awarded for each victory. The side’s average age was just 22.
In 1956/57 they did it again, this time by a mere eight points, while also competing in the European Cup and reaching the FA Cup final. In the final full season before Munich, Edwards was simply at the peak of his powers, and salutes to his greatness littered the football press. At 20 years, he was already a two-time English champion, an England regular, and the inspirational heart of one of the greatest club teams ever seen in Britain.
“He is the greatest player of his age I have ever seen,” admitted Busby. While Tom Finney, another of the true greats of this era, already deemed him worthy of consideration to be named the greatest wing-half of all time.
But, of course, Busby didn’t always use Edwards in his favoured position. In the FA Cup quarter-final away to Bournemouth in March ’57, Edwards started at centre-forward due to the absence of striker Tommy Taylor, but then dropped back into central defence from the 10th minute, after Mark Jones was stretchered off. Despite the one-man deficit, the Reds came from behind to win 2-1.
When he did play in his preferred position, wing-half – analogous to central midfield nowadays – he was nothing less than a titanic figure in United’s side. Arguably the Babes’ greatest performance came on 6 February 1957 – exactly one year before the crash – when they overturned Athletic Club’s 5-3 first-leg lead in the quarter-final of the European Cup.
After a remarkable 3-0 victory had been completed, the Daily Express’s Desmond Hackett called Edwards “the boy of this man’s match” who had “inspired this England Soccer armada”. The Daily Herald labelled him a “dreadnought” who had “obliterated his inside-forward but still found time and place to charge up into the firing line”.
