'Best ever'

"They would have been the best ever United team - in fact they were the best ever. They would have won everything," said McGuinness, who attended all his teammates' funerals.

"But then the crash happened and eight were killed and two never played again. It was a very difficult time, even now," he added, with tears welling in his eyes.

United, featuring the likes of Bobby Charlton and George Best, with Busby still in charge, famously lifted the European Cup at Wembley in 1968.

"We did think of the players (after the 4-1 European Cup victory over Benfica) and said: 'This is for them - it is not for us, it is for them'," said McGuinness.

"Really, the players who died, they made United," added McGuinness, who was on the United coaching staff when the Red Devils won the European Cup and later managed the club.

There is a clock at Old Trafford stuck at four minutes past three, the time when the plane crashed and the club has a "Munich Tunnel" that includes an eternal flame in memory of those who died.

But McGuinness, who at the tender age of 31 was handed the unenviable task of managing United after Busby stepped down, said it is a shame that the Busby Babes are lost in time.

"They (the young) missed them," said McGuinness. "There wasn't enough footage of them, they were magnificent players."

He describes a different era, far removed from the wealth and glamor of the Premier League.

"I couldn't have a car, they wouldn't let us," said McGuinness, grinning. "Duncan (Edwards) rode a bike to training as he couldn't afford a car.

"The coaches, Bert Whalley (who also died in the crash) and Jimmy Murphy, were magic with us, they knocked us and bullied us into being players.

"I liked being pushed around because it meant I learned how to do it to the others. We trained sometimes in the Old Trafford car park, where we kicked ourselves to death."

McGuinness pays special homage to Murphy for pulling the side together in the aftermath of the crash, and to Busby - who twice received the last rites from a priest - near death.

Agence France-presse