But, as we reflect on his passing at 78, perhaps the greatest trick of all was one Stiles learned as a bespectacled, bloody-kneed, gap-toothed kid from the cobbled Collyhurst streets, dreaming of emulating his idol Eddie Colman, the doomed Babe whose boots he buffed to a sheen after arriving as an apprentice in 1957. “The trick,” he wrote of those formative post-War years in his exceptional autobiography, “was always to get on with life – nobody ever said it would be easy.”
Getting on with life: a rule of thumb to which he cleaved as closely as he shadowed the great Eusebio at Wembley in May 1968, helping United reach European glory against Benfica; the standout of an Old Trafford career spanning 11 seasons and 395 games, a stint that also yielded title-winning medals in 1965 and 1967.