Ian Greaves was a member of Matt Busby’s celebrated squad of Manchester United players that illuminated English football in the 1950s but would then be destroyed by the Munich air crash in 1958.

As one of the “Busby Babes”, Greaves played as a left back in the final 14 games of the 1955-56 season in which Manchester United became league champions of England with a dazzling team of young players that included Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton.

Greaves was due to fly out with the United team in February 1958 to play Red Star Belgrade, but was dropped from the team at the last moment, a decision that probably saved his life. His replacement, Geoff Bent, was killed, along with seven other United players, after the plane crashed while trying to take off at Munich Airport where it had stopped for refuelling after United’s 3-3 draw in Belgrade. Twenty-three people died as a result of the crash.

Amid a surge of public sympathy, Greaves took his place in the even more youthful team that returned to playing action soon after the crash, while their manager remained in hospital fighting for his life. Remarkably, United, patched up with youth players and reserves, made it to the 1958 FA Cup Final with Busby, by this stage out of hospital, leading the team out at Wembley. It was a story that fulfilled all the romance of the competition but United could not quite make the dream come true. Greaves was in the side that lost 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers, a team he would later manage.

Ian Denzil Greaves was born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1932. He made his debut for Manchester United in 1953 and would go on to play 67 times for the club until 1960. He later played for Lincoln City and Oldham Athletic before injury cut short his playing days in 1963.

Having played for one of the greatest managers of all in Busby, Greaves launched his own career as a manager at Huddersfield Town in 1968. Where his predecessors, including the great Bill Shankly, had failed, Greaves succeeded when, in 1970, he led the team to its first promotion to the top flight in 14 years. He kept Huddersfield Town in the first division for two seasons but then the club suffered successive relegations and Greaves left the club, amid a boardroom struggle, in 1974. It has not returned to the top flight of English football since.

Greaves was soon back in football as assistant manager to Jimmy Armfield at Bolton Wanderers. Armfield then left to take over as manager of Leeds United after Brian Clough’s controversial departure after just 44 days. Greaves took over a club with a great tradition — four times FA Cup winners — but one that had been languishing in the lower divisions for ten years.

In building up a successful young side, he launched the careers of a future Bolton manager Sam Allardyce — a hulking, uncompromising centre half — and Peter Reid — a diminutive, tough-tackling midfielder who would go on to play for England. Such players provided the platform for the prodigiously talented Frank Worthington to flourish. Greaves had managed Worthington at Huddersfield and needed all his famed management skills to get the best out of his brilliant but often wayward and hedonistic forward.

Under Greaves, Bolton narrowly missed out on promotion to the top tier in 1976 and 1977, and reached the semi-final of the League Cup in 1977. The following season the club won promotion to the First Division. They preserved their top division status in 1978-79 and famously beat local rivals Manchester United home and away. But Greaves was sacked early in 1980 with the club deep in relegation trouble — a decision that was unpopular with many Bolton supporters despite the club’s plight.

A 13-month spell as manager of Third Division Oxford United followed before First Division strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers turned to him to rescue them from the threat relegation in February 1982. Greaves took over a club in turmoil off the pitch as well as on it, and he could not save Wolves from the drop. He left after six months in charge, with the club bankrupt.

After this bruising experience, he had claimed to have turned down offers from higher-placed clubs before taking over at Fourth Division Mansfield Town in 1983. During his six seasons there, the club gained promotion to the Third Division in 1986 and won the Freight Rover Trophy in 1987.

He is survived by his wife and daughter.

Ian Greaves, footballer, was born on May 26, 1932. He died after a long-running illness on January 2, 2009, aged 76