Who are the greatest players in Manchester United’s history? The Athletic gave Andy Mitten the task of compiling his top 25, and we are counting them down this summer, in reverse order. He explains his thought process here.Paddy Crerand was a fiery, combative midfielder who played 397 times for Manchester United between 1963 and 1971. He was often alongside another tough-tackling club great, Nobby Stiles, who racked up 395 appearances. They scored 15 and 19 goals respectively but their job was protecting those behind and supplying some of the best forwards in the world in front of them.Crerand was born amid the sometimes squalid and crime-infested streets of the Gorbals area of Glasgow, to Sarah and Michael, of Irish and staunch Roman Catholic faith. Their family had travelled from Donegal. Crerand was two when his father, on fire watch at a shipyard, was hit and killed by a Luftwaffe bomb. Crerand’s older brother John — a Rangers fan in an area and family of Celtic supporters — died from rheumatic fever aged 12. Paddy missed him terribly. His mother Sarah drove him on.Crerand was determined to escape from the harsh environment of the Gorbals, a period of family tragedy, religious bigotry and unforgiving 12-hour shifts at the Clyde shipyard where he had to prepare steel plates for welders. He wanted to fulfil a dream.As a teenager, he was scouted by his beloved Celtic. Sarah cried tears of joy when he was offered a contract. Starting out in the reserves under Jock Stein, he spent six years at Parkhead, operating in the shadow of a dominant Rangers team.Proudly left-wing politically, Crerand became Celtic’s best player, met wife Noreen — the “best-looking girl in the Gorbals” — and was friends with the hard-drinking, Protestant Rangers star ‘Slim’ Jim Baxter. He signed for United in 1963, five years to the day after the Munich air disaster, as part of Sir Matt Busby’s plans to build another great side.