Nijinsky they dubbed him at Manchester City, after the champion racehorse, although his team-mates might also have been nodding towards the leading dancer of the Ballets Russes, the brightest star of his day. Colin Bell, who has died at the age of 74, was adopted by his very own Diaghilev, Malcolm Allison, a coach whose mission to mould his protégé into a great footballer succeeded triumphantly. The tributes that anointed Bell, renowned for his remarkable stamina and ability to score goals from midfield, as the finest player ever to represent a club now among the world’s richest told no lies.
Between March 1968, when he ran Manchester United ragged at Old Trafford, scoring a goal in a 3-1 victory on the way to City’s first league title for 32 years, and 12 November 1975, when they beat United 4-0 at Maine Road in a League Cup tie, Bell was the finest all round player in the land. He was 29 that misty evening, an established England midfielder with 48 caps. It wasn’t Martin Buchan’s tackle that did for him so much as the locking of studs in the turf, which turned his knee round. Despite his brave efforts to return two years later there could be no proper recovery, and a career of symphonic proportions ended in a minor key.
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