Best's run with Cork among many regrets

Emmet Malone looks back on a short, three-match career in the League of Ireland.

In a career that included as many lows late on as it had highs in the glory days, George Best's short stint at Cork Celtic might easily, and happily, be forgotten.

Between equally brief spells at Stockport County of the English fourth division and the LA Aztecs of the North American Soccer League, he played three utterly forgettable games for the Turner's Cross outfit, earning around £600 per game before being dropped when he failed to travel for an important league game against Waterford United, citing a bout of "flu".

By signing the then 29-year-old, Celtic were following the fashion of the time, with many league clubs here bringing over well-known stars whose better days were well behind them. In the case of the Northern Ireland international it was Bobby Tambling, a long-time hero at Chelsea, who had provided the link.

A match-to-match deal was struck, and Best flew into Dublin on December 27th, 1975, the day after his last of three games for Stockport. He was picked up by Celtic manager Paul O'Donovan, who brought him to Cork for the game against Drogheda United.

The European Cup winner was unimpressive as Celtic's run of three successive wins came to an end with a 0-2 defeat, and he admitted to being disappointed.

But he explained that, "It is difficult playing with a club for the first time, it was the same with Stockport."

If things on the pitch failed to meet expectations, there were no complaints at the turnstiles where Celtic did well. The game had been moved to Flower Lodge in anticipation of a big crowd, and sure enough some 12,000 showed up, paying around £6,000 to see the once great player in the flesh.

To put the money into perspective, The Irish Times that week carried a recruitment ad for a financial controller with an American multi-national willing to pay £6,000 per annum, while "realistically priced" new houses in Bray cost just short of £7,000.

The club was initially coy as to whether the arrangement would continue, and officials initially claimed to be ignorant even of how much they had made from the game.

"We don't know how much we took on it," claimed club secretary Donie Forde.

When the loot was finally counted, it was decided that it was indeed worth bringing Best to town again, and so he was flown in for the game with then champions Bohemians on January 10th. Again Best (who was "uncommonly well fleshed around the hips", as then Irish Times soccer correspondent Peter Byrne put it) was poor, but 8,000 people paid more than £5,000 to see the game, which the home side won 1-0.

That Celtic would not benefit from a bumper gate in an away game, unless there was an arrangement, meant that Best was not required to travel to league leaders Finn Harps.

But Shelbourne were apparently willing to hand over part of their receipts to the visitors, and so on January 18th the northerner took the field at Harold's Cross for what turned out to be his last game in a Cork jersey.

Around 5,500 people paid £3,100 to see the game (Shelbourne's average gate at the time was £350), which the Dubliners won 2-1. Irish Times reporter, Derek Jones, who covered the match, described it as "easy money for a player who showed he simply did not want to be involved", and the headline on the report read "Best at his worst as Shelbourne win".

Nevertheless, the club seemed ready to persist with the arrangement, particularly as Celtic were due to play Waterford United the following week and Bobby Charlton had made his debut for them on the day of the Shelbourne match.

There was a good deal of interest in the potential clash, but in the event Best cried off with his flu and Celtic boss Paul O'Donovan concluded from this, as well as his performances, that the player, "appeared to have lost interest in Irish football".