Erling Haaland could never match Denis Law

‘Talent is plentiful’, said Laurence Olivier. ‘Skill is much rarer’. Although the great actor was talking about the stage he was really acknowledging the nature of what Ken Tynan called ‘high definition’ performance. And in the world of football, there were few performers so highly defined as Denis Law.

The tributes paid to ‘the Lawman’, who died on Friday at the age of 84, may surprise those too young to have seen him play for Manchester United. He kicked his last ball 51 years ago, retiring in 1974 after representing Scotland at the World Cup. Fans raised on that overheated global phenomenon, the Premier League, must take on trust the evidence supplied by those who caught him in his pomp. 

Was he that good, the once and future ‘King’ of Old Trafford? Oh yes. Ignore words like ‘legend’ or ‘icon’, which have been worn bare by repetition. Better by far to consider something an orchestral musician said of Arturo Toscanini: ‘It was worth being born to have been conducted by that man’.