Fri 17 Jan 2025 21.01 GMT
I think it would be the same among any Manchester United fan and among any football supporter he’s he was a hero he was a world class player he was the original King of the stretford end and and he’s passed away after a great life I just spoke to Brian kid one of his
teammates about 20 minutes ago and Brian said he was slight Dennis with the Heart of a Lion an unbelievable finisher he scored every type of goal he said to me if you’re ever wide don’t look up just put the cross in early if I’m not there it’s my fault he was using usually there
so Matt loved him we all did he was the king of the stretford end and I thought they were lovely words from from Brian and United fans uh have just be very very very sad there’s not one Statue of Dennis Laura Old Trafford there’s two one of them’s in the Stratford end one
of them’s alongside his former teammate George best and so Bobby Charlton all three of them were European player of the year can you imagine that all three of them in the same team in the same position they’re all slightly different they’re all heroes and Dennis didn’t
just serve Manchester United with distinction he served Manchester City very well in in two spells he went to Torino and it was very rare for British players to go abroad and each time attracting record fees because he was that good he was a world class Striker and Hudders field town as well he had an
edge to him he he could look after himself Dennis but he was re renowned for his his goals and the fact he could score every type of goal and very proud to be from abedine a real working class hero there’s another statue of him there as well Sir Alex Ferguson would talk of
him as being one of his Heroes but he settled in Manchester with his family they were very very well regarded and he was quite a private person and I interviewed him several times as a journalist and he was always very interesting I knew his daughter die much better and my condolences go out to his
family to to Diana and to Robert lovely people really well respected people and completely proud of their father the husband as you would be what a life he had and very sad right now but Dennis Liv until 84 he played in some of the best teams the first English team to win the
European Cup not that he’d celebrate the englishness of it because he was a a proud Scott and scored goals where wherever he went fans loved him real hero of the for end and it it’s very very sad and the sentiments I’m seeing when I’m speaking to people and getting
messages and looking at social media they’re exactly the same he was a universally adored and respected football figure you can hear the warmth in your voice as you remember Dennis Law Andy I know that you know all of the old Manchester United Legends you’ve spent
time with them personally he was a real character away from the game as well oh he was yeah you didn’t forget it you know remember meeting him a week before Manchester United won the treble in 1999 and he had a book out so he had to leave his house he had to come and
meet people like me and once he’ moaned about it and moaned a little bit more he started talking what a career he had fanso sing son of a fisherman from abedine played for his country at the age of 17 football legend it was clear to see and people would still sing songs
of Dennis Law now and Eric kenau was called The King and canar is a great player but if you say that to fans of a certain generation they just shake you their heads and look at you dismissively and say there was only one king and I do know the older players and and and
i speak to the older players um I wrote paty Ken’s autobiography with him and the stories about Dennis in that were enough for a book by themselves and some of them involved his goals obviously some of them involved his scraps obviously and those meetings against leads United in the 60s and 70s fans
smiled cuz he great leads team as well and Dennis could mix it he could use his feet he could use his elbows but fundamentally a really really good person and it comes after sbobby Charon one of his teammates passed away George best obviously passed away some time ago
and you know when I when I called Brian kid to tell him because we did know the news by out before it became public his words much more relevant than than mine I’m too young really to remember seeing Dennis Law play I only knew him after after he’d stopped playing but what a
life and and that should be celebrated because it’s very sad right now but You’ seen this outpouring of of tribute and respect for him because of his standing in World football he was one of the best strikers in the world proud son of abedine and isn’t that wonderful yeah a
balandor winner as well Andy and just seems an all out andout goal scorer you look at the the list of Manchester United goal scorers and he’s there third with only sbobby sharton and Wayne Roney ahead of him he’s joint top of Scotland’s goal scorers alongside Kenny
Dal gash it’s just seems like he had an incredible eye for goal and ability to convert those chances yeah and he was spotted at at 14 years old he’s a real working class hero he grew up in a a ten block in in abedine and Huddersfield got him and he went there and he absolutely impressed
everybody and went in for a big fee from Huddersfield first of all to Manchester City and then then to Italy played for Scotland 55 times scor scored 30 goals and people just remember him as someone who won the lot he he played in that first English team to win the European
Cup and he left City because he said he wanted to play in a more successful team and that’s why he went to toino I think that was a summer of 61 110,000 that was a record transfer fee for a British player at the time and he had his scrapes in Italy and it wasn’t
easy the times were completely different then there was no internet technology was totally different it was involved in in a car crash as well put a transfer request in and and then he came back to to Manchester but not to city but but United then he did get to City again 7
for 74 and there’s that very famous footage of him scoring at Old Trafford as Manchester United was sent down and people say that Dennis Law sent United down United were going down anyway because results had already decided that but he didn’t celebrate didn’t celebrate
scoring against Manchester United filled him with sadness what Manchester United had become because they gone from being the champions of Europe in’ 68 to a team that were relegated what six years later but he stayed in Manchester his family stayed in Manchester Diana his daughter
works for Manchester United for a long time she’s really good at a job she assisted Alex Ferguson with the media and she very close with the class of 92 absolutely wonderful girl wonderful family and he was a wonderful footballer Dennis Law wasn’t at Manchester United
when the Munich air disaster happened in 1958 but he was one of the players that helped rebuild the club towards that European Cup winning 68 signed for them four years later later and Manchester United are very good at remembering their history and their historical
players how do you think they’ll Mark the passing of Dennis Law um suitably Manchester United are really good at this not just with players you know Dennis’s wife was at the funeral of cath fips the the receptionist who served the club so well um only last week United
are good at this United’s ties with history are so strong and it’s a great attraction of the club and it’s a great appeal it’s a reason a lot of people support Manchester United and that should never be severed these people are legends they should be looked after and
the club was very different as you rightly say when he moved back to Manchester 1962 it was only less than four years um after the immunic care disaster crowds were down the team hadn’t won anything but they did win um the FA Cup in his first season because he was joined by Paddy crand and when
they weren’t arguing with each other him and cren they were actually quite good footballers working together and worked out they they could be quite effective so won the FA Cup in 63 League champions in in 65 in ‘ 67 and then 1968 United won at Wembley they they beat Benfica and that was a
decade after Munich Dennis had some injuries he missed out on some key games in his time but just just a wonderful wonderful human and even though he was so strongly tied to Manchester because he lived there he ties with abedine were never forgotten he did a lot of charitable work and
i know abedine fans who are completely in awe of of Dennis Law even though he didn’t play for them and Huddersfield town as well he played there for Four Seasons so he was at Huddersfield at the time of the the Munich a disaster but his goal scoring record you know 6869 was not a good season for
Manchester United at all he scored 30 goals and when they won the league G um 6465 39 goals the season before 6364 46 goals and the records are just incredible and if he would have stayed at one Club he been the club’s record goal scorer um but 237 goals um for Manchester United in 404 games it’s not
a bad record is it something to be very very proud of yeah incredible numbers there and Andy I’m not sure if you have managed to see this yet just before you joined us but Liverpool have uh uh sent a reply on X to the statement that Manchester United released they said
Sending condolences from all of us at LFC Dennis was a rival player but so highly thought of as Bill shankley once said Dennis Law could dance on eggshells our thoughts are with Dennis’s family and friends at this very sad time and it seems uh because the character of the
man as you’ve been so warmly talking to us about that he was popular un un verely despite the fact that he would have caused so much pain to these rival fans because of how brilliant he was on the pitch yeah I’ve seen sweets um from from my own tweets and one of them was
from a big Liverpool fan nickol saying he would have been the king of the cup if shankley would have got his hands on him and Scotland produced amazing managers and amazing footballers of that time when you considered relatively small um population and some of them
they were going to Liverpool they were going to United kend was going to Liverpool and he ended up at United mcari was going to Liverpool and he ended up at United but Liverpool had great teams as well and they were Fierce Rivals but they always always used to speak to each other Bill shankley used
to ring um Dennis Lauren Pat cren on a Sunday to talk about the weekend’s games and this is obviously in the days of landline and they might be uh generous with some of the misinformation they gave to a rival manager but absolute respect these people were were Kings of
the game and if you didn’t like him because you’re a rival fan you knew you respected him in in the the parlament of the modern youth he was some baller so 237 goals for Manchester United only Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney ahead of him two statues at Old Trafford if you were to have some
mythical League table of all time Legends where would he sit surely right at the top near the top oh yeah he’s top five absolutely I mean he played in the best the team that the won the European Cup is goal scoring record is uh the only Manchester United player with two statues as as we’ve said
don’t complete hero you know fans might argue among themselves whether best was better or Charlton was better or the modern day fans might have their argue but what a nice argument to have Undisputed worldclass footballer but as good as that a really good um person as
well someone who scored very well on the Great Vine in Manchester and as I’ve said he was he was Private he did like to be at home he didn’t like too much of a fuss to be made but he also stayed in touch with a lot of his former teammates and they talk about a loyal friend he
watched football um you know it it was it was in his blood wasn’t it he watched it all the time and the tributes that are coming in and I’m seeing some of them because this is very fresh news as well they’re they’re absolutely fitting and it’s lovely that Liverpool are doing
that and Manchester City you know they were served by him so well in in in two spells so big big figure in the world of football and it’s a great loss yeah Andy you’ve mentioned as well the the Holy Trinity the United Trinity of L best and Charlton and now unfortunately they have
all passed on you think as Chris was referring to earlier that there might be something by the club to really respect the incredible achievements that the three of them made together as well yeah there already is and it’s lovely that they’ve been alive and and seen
this there is a statue outside the most prominent side of Old Trafford called the the Holy Trinity and people go and see it and stand by it and have the photo taken by it before every single Manchester United game and in that statue you’ve got Bobby Charlton holding
the football George B looking like the coolest man in the world but the man in the middle is Dennis LW pointing up like he used to do when he scored the goals smiling and people would talk about the way he he he’d grab his cuff um when he was when he was celebrating or even when
he was playing and and that appealed to a lot of people you speak to a lot of Manchester United fans and and Dennis Law was their best ever player they’d say things like yeah we know George was better looking but Dennis was the one who wanted you to get the goals and
they’ have these utterly pointless arguments that make the football world go round and round but all coming from a place of real love and and affection and Manchester United they do Mark the heroes well they remember the heroes well they should never be uh forgotten these Heroes the fans do it well the club do it well and you know you could easily be saying to me do you think there might be a statue of him well there’s already two can’t say any better than that what a man