h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

He hung on in there for far longer than anyone expected, but the final whistle has just blown on the life of George Best.

A wonderfull talent who brought joy to millions.

'nuff said.

A sad day for football.

A very sad day for Northern Irish football.

A magical talent - p1ssed up the wall. You can only make so many apologies for a man.

Still as he once said - "If I could have my time again - I'd do exactly the same."

I'm afraid that I have no memory of George Best the player. My childhood was dominated by headlines of Best the piss-head etc. That's a shame.

Either way, 59 is too young an age to die.

I am getting a trifle p****d off with all this agonising. Yes, he had a great deal of talent and played fantastically for a fairly short period of time.

What annoys me about him so much is that there is a family out there who are one member short because Best got a new liver which he proceeded to abuse! That liver could have been put to a much better use in my opinion.

Sorry to put a damper on this thread but that is how I feel about it.

Enjoyed the minute of applause we had at Almondvale for him yesterday. It was a different way to honour someone.

I think too much has been made of the abuse of his new liver thing. Yes, his operation was done privately, but the process of picking who gets which organ is not a queue you can jump.

At some point he was deemed ill enough to qualify for transplantation. Therefore he would receive a liver if one which was suitable came available. There is no saying that the liver he eventually received would have fitted someone else on the list.

True he started to screw up the new organ, but as he'd paid for the operation, it was his to screw up.

Actually the consultant is a football fan and he donated his time, and the hospital waived the bill.

Really? I didn't know that.

Now I wonder if they're going to be as generous over his, what, 7 week stay in intensive care? The bill for that is going to be comfortably in excess of £2,000 per day.

They "could not discuss individual financial agreements" - however as he was bankrupt - his homes were owned by his ex-wives - and he had very little in the bank.