I used to drink in the same pub as a bloke who'd been a regular at Old Trafford in the 60s and 70s. He'd started going in about 1965 as a very young lad, taken by his dad. Told me that he'd always get passed to the front of the terrace with all the other young kids while his dad would stand at the back with his friends. After the games when he was chatting with his dad, he'd often describe a goal that Best had scored, maybe beating a man and sliding it under the keeper, only to be told by his dad that Best had in fact beaten four men and hammered it into the top corner. The young kids at the front had seen one goal, and as the Chinese whispers made it to the back of the terrace, the older blokes with the restricted view heard about a very different one.
That kind of sums up Best for me. He's quite possibly the finest British footballer of all time (I'm open to arguments in favour of John Charles, Bobby Charlton and Kenny Dalglish too) but also perhaps the most over-hyped. When Ryan Giggs scored that goal against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final in 1999, Denis Law said on Sky Sports the nest day "That's very good Ryan, but George Best used to do that every week." Except he didn't. The simple facts borne out by his goalscoring record prove that. Manchester United fans and other dewy-eyed old sods rank him alongside Di Stefano, Puskas, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo... They're wrong. He might just get into the tier down from that, alongside Eusebio, Beckenbauer, Platini, Maldini, Iniesta, etc... Even typing that out feels generous though. And if he'd looked like Ralph Coates, you'd barely hear about him these days.