Tony Dunne: Versatile full-back who helped Manchester United’s Holy Trinity to flourish

Ireland has produced finer footballers than Tony Dunne, but they can be counted on the fingers of very few hands.

The Dubliner was a relatively unsung but supremely efficient full-back in Sir Matt Busby’s third and last great Manchester United side, a thoroughbred performer in his own right yet content to be part of a solid supporting cast to the sumptuous attacking trinity of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best.

Rarely, if ever, did the Ireland international make a headline as the Red Devils lifted the European Cup, two League titles and the FA Cup during the 1960s, but whenever he was absent, which wasn’t often, he was sorely missed; and when he was eased out by new manager Tommy Docherty in the 1970s, he was still the club’s most effective flank defender by a vast distance.

The teenaged Dunne was barely known in England when he was identified by Busby as a major talent and signed from Shelbourne in the spring of 1960, shortly after helping the Dublin club beat Cork Hibernians in the final of the FAI Cup.

United handed over £3,000 for the slim, wiry rookie, plus a subsequent appearance-related bonus which stretched the fee to £5,000, small change even in an era of comparative austerity far removed from the bloated obscenity that is the modern transfer market.

For that modest outlay, the Red Devils enlisted a player whom Busby would one day describe as the best full-back in the world.

The Stretford End had its own sobriquet for Dunne. They dubbed him “the King of Ireland”, yet never had there been a more disarmingly modest monarch. Certainly it suited him that, despite playing 535 times for one of the planet’s most prominent sporting institutions, he was not burdened with the requirements of stardom.

There were no frills to Dunne’s game and, surrounded as he was by ultra-gifted colleagues, there didn’t need to be. But he was as quick as the wind and, while he was no hatchet man, there was a sharp edge to his tackles when needed. Above all, he played with acute intelligence, frequently anticipating danger and snuffing it out before United’s goal was threatened.

Because of his extreme pace, Dunne was ideal as the “last man” at the back. If his winger should give him the slip, not a common occurrence, the Irishman would make up lost ground and deliver a second challenge with astonishing alacrity, while invariably he offered crucial cover on the rare occasions when central defenders were pulled out of position.

His distribution was neat and efficient but rarely expansive. His instructions were to win the ball, then give a simple pass, usually to playmaker Paddy Crerand or to Charlton, so that the creative magic could commence. Ironically, as he discovered eventually after leaving United for Bolton Wanderers, he was capable of shouldering far more constructive responsibility and he blossomed as a veteran all-rounder at Burnden Park.

When Dunne had checked in at Old Trafford, he had joined a club still in the early stages of reconstruction following the ravages of the Munich air disaster of February 1958.

Though later he would liken his arrival in Manchester to entering a blind alley, making a step into the great unknown, the dark-haired, quietly spoken newcomer settled quickly and worked prodigiously to make an early impact, frequently putting in lengthy sessions of extra training to hone his craft.

The Dunne dedication was to reap rich and rapid dividends. In his first October in England, he was called up for his senior debut against Burnley at Turf Moor, deputising at left-back for his injured countryman Noel Cantwell. So swiftly and effectively did he take to life in the First Division that he had cemented a regular berth by the middle of 1961-62.

He was versatile, too, as he demonstrated during the following term, when he excelled on the right flank of defence to accommodate left-sided skipper Cantwell in the FA Cup Final victory over Leicester City.

Towards the end of 1963-64, though, Dunne reverted to the left and formed a productive full-back partnership with Shay Brennan which would endure through the triumphant league campaigns of 1964-65 and 1966-67, and culminate in May 1968 when United beat Benfica to lift the European Cup.

However, while many of his teammates on that balmy and emotional night at Wembley would never see their pomp again, the Irishman remained at the peak of his powers. Certainly, in the strife-torn years which followed, when Wilf McGuinness, Frank O’Farrell and Tommy Docherty assumed the managerial helm in quick and turbulent succession after Busby’s retirement, Dunne maintained his lofty standard.

That was still the case in the summer of 1973, when the 32-year-old had just played an enormous role in preserving temporarily the Red Devils’s precarious top-flight status. But Docherty, seemingly set on forging a new side with minimal links to the Busby era, elected to dispense with his services.

At least one leading London club was keen to offer employment, but Dunne threw in his lot with Bolton Wanderers, where he was to underline his worth with five more years of impeccable service.

During that time, no longer in the shadow of great players, he began to express himself more fully on the field. Now, instead of laying off the ball almost as soon as he received it, he showed he could carry it forward ambitiously and pass with penetration.

In that mode, he emerged as a father figure in the exhilarating side managed by Ian Greaves, another former United full-back, which won the Second Division title in 1977-78.

Still Dunne was not finished, retaining his place with the Trotters in 1978-79 and deriving huge satisfaction from helping his new club perform a league double over the Red Devils before he retired.

For such an immensely accomplished performer, who captained his country and was voted Irish Footballer of the Year in 1969, Dunne might have been expected to amass considerably more than his 33 full caps. But for many seasons Busby guarded him jealously, not being eager to risk him in the green shirt when his presence was so crucial in the red of United. Also, during the early 1970s his international career stalled briefly following a disagreement with manager Liam Tuohy, before resuming during the reign of his former Old Trafford comrade Johnny Giles.

After leaving Bolton as a player he spent the summer of 1979 with Detroit Express before returning to Burnden as a coach, then serving as the Trotters’s assistant manager to Stan Anderson before following Bill Foulkes as the manager of Steinkjer in Norway.

During the 1980s he returned to England, setting up a golf driving range at Altrincham in Cheshire, and running it for more than two decades before retirement.

Dunne was rarely anything other than amiable, though occasionally in conversation he revealed the depth of his distaste for top-level football’s transition from sport to big business. He knew that if he had been operating in the 21st century he would have been a multimillionaire. That didn’t make him bitter, but it did make him shake his head in bewilderment.

Anthony Peter Dunne, footballer, born 24 July 1941, died 8 June 2020