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Manchester United's emblem
Manchester United F.C. (originally Newton Heath LYR F.C.) is an English football club based at Old Trafford, Greater Manchester.
Formed as Newton Heath in 1878, as the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath, becoming Manchester United in 1902.
Whilst traditionally amongst the stronger clubs in England, since the beginning of the 1990s Manchester United have, under manager Alex Ferguson achieved a degree of dominance in domestic competitions unseen since the great Liverpool F.C. sides of the mid 1970s and early 1980s.
In 2004, Manchester United qualified for the group stage of the Champions League for the ninth successive year, breaking a record held by Norway's Rosenborg. Unlike those Liverpool sides, however, Manchester United have been largely unable to transfer their domestic dominance to European competition; in fact qualifying for the European Cup final, like Steaua and Reims, on only two occasions in their history.
Their last success in this competition was in 1999, when they came from behind in the last minutes of the UEFA Champions League final to beat Bayern Munich 2-1. United also won the League and FA Cup in that season, a "Treble" achievement unprecedented in English football.
History
The 1958 Manchester United team was nicknamed the "Busby Babes". On February 6, they were flying home from a European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade when the plane crashed on takeoff in a snow storm in Munich, Germany (see Munich air disaster). Eight team members were killed, and 2 players suffered career-ending injuries. Amongst the dead was Duncan Edwards, a 21-year-old who many believe was on his way to establishing himself as one of England's greatest players ever. A survivor, Bobby Charlton would help lead England to the Football World Cup in 1966.
The Early Years: 1878 - 1939
The story of Manchester United begins in 1878 when employees of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company's Carriage and Wagon Works requested permission and sponsorship from their employers to start a football team. Permission was given, and Newton Heath LYR (which stood for "Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway") was born, playing at a pitch on North Road.
Initally they played against other teams of railway workers, within their own company and against teams from other companies, but in 1885, they entered in the Manchester Cup competition and reached the final. The next year, they won the competition.
By 1887, football had expanded and small, local leagues existed all over Britain. However, by 1887, meetings of representatives from several clubs were taking place with a view to establishing something on a larger scale. In 1888, the Football League was formed with 12 teams, consisting mostly of nothern clubs.
The Football Alliance
Although Newton Heath were not good enough to join the League, they were quickly outpacing their local competition. Newton Heath spent the first ten months of 1888 unbeaten at their home ground. However, the idea of inter-town football had caught on, and in 1889, a group of twelve clubs, Newton Heath among then, formed the Football Alliance. They finished eighth.
The next year, Newton Heath began to sever their railway ties, dropping "LYR" from their official name, and setting up an office in Oldham Road, near the pitch. However, strong connections remained intact, although they no longer were sponsored by the company, most of their players were still LYR employees.
1892 proved to be a successful season for the "Heathens", as they finished second to Nottingham Forest after losing only three times all season. That same year, the Football League enlarged and, with the merger of the Alliance, divided into two divisions. Newton Heath and Nottingham Forest were invited to join the First Divison. They finished last and needed a win against Small Heath in the playoff against the Second Divison champions to preserve their First Division status.
In 1893, the team moved to a new ground in Bank Street, Clayton, next to a chemical plant. It was said that when Newton Heath were losing, the plant would belch out acrid fumes in a bid to affect the visitng team.
The 1893/94 campaign, however, was no better, and they once again played in the Test Match, against Liverpool. This time Newton Heath were defeated 2-0 and had the dubious honour of being the first team to be relegated to the Second Divison.
Bankruptcy
The financial situation only worsened, dragging down their on-field play. They managed only a 10th place in the 1901 season and with ticket sales flagging and debts mounting, the club decided to hold a four-day bazaar to raise money. One of the attractions was a St. Bernard dog, which escaped on one of the nights after the bazaar had closed.
It was the escape and recapturing of the dog which led to the meeting between team captain Harry Stafford and John Henry Davies, who would lead a group of businessmen. Together, they came up with £2,000 to save the club from bankruptcy.
On 28 April 1902, Newton Heath was replaced by Manchester United Football Club, and John Henry Davies became the club president.
In 1903 the club took another important step in hiring their first real team manager, Ernest Mangnall, a charismatic publicist who knew how to work the media. Under his leadership, the team finished third in the Second Division. The following season, Manchester United set a record when they went 18 games undefeated between September 1904 and February 1905.
Mangnall created United's first successful side with a series of signings, eventually winning promotion in 1906 and reaching the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. Among these signings was Billy Meredith, the legendary winger who was probably the greatest player of that era.
However, the building of the team was accelerated by a bombshell inquiry by the Football Association into Manchester City. The FA had discovered that City were making illegal payments to their players, and banned seventeen players from ever playing for City again - the backbone of the team which had won the 1904 FA Cup. City was forced to auction off most of their players, open to any team interested.
Ernest Mangnall pre-empted this by directly approaching the players he wanted. Although it incensed some other teams, he managed to sign star defender Herbert Burgess, Alec "Sandy" Turnbull, and Jimmy Bannister. It paid off, and Manchester United won their first League Championship in 1908.
The next year, FA Cup success would follow as they beat Bristol City in the final 1-0. Sandy Turnbull scored the only goal and Billy Meredith was named man of the match.
"The Outcasts"
For years since the formation of the Professional Footballers Union, tensions had mounted as players were unable to get their employers to recognise them as unionists. Things finally came to a head before the 1909/10 season when the League decided to ban, without pay, any player who was a union member.
The move inflamed the players, Manchester United's especially. They refused to give up union membership. Most clubs turned to amateurs to replace their professional players, but United were unable to sign enough. It was during this period that the famous "Outcasts FC" photograph was taken. Finally, the day before the season was due to begin, the League gave in, removing the suspensions and recognising the union.
Old Trafford
1909 was also a milestone for United for another reason. John Henry Davies once again lent financial support by lending £60,000, a huge sum at the time, to finalise the team's move to Old Trafford. They played their first game there on 19 February 1910 as Liverpool spoiled the celebrations with a 4-3 win in a close game.
Ernest Mangnall's leadership brought United to their first successful era. They would be the first winners of the Charity Shield in 1908, win the FA Cup in 1909 and the League again in 1911. The Charity Shield victory in 1911 would be the end of this era and Ernest Mangnall would leave the next year for Manchester City.
United would stumble without their charismatic manager, narrowly escaping relegation in 1914, before the Football League was suspended at the outbreak of World War I, during which Sandy Turnbull was killed in France.
Post World War I
The League resumed in 1919, but United only managed 12th place. The worst was yet to come and in 1921/22, they won only eight of 42 games and were relegated. Billy Meredith had also left in 1921, following Ernest Mangnall.
United finally returned to the top flight in 1925, finishing second to Leicester City. But in 1927, one of the great builders of Manchester United died. John Henry Davies, who had saved the club from extinction and brought them to Old Trafford, passed away and was replaced by G H Lawton as club president.
A new manager, Herbert Bamlett, was appointed but his reign was not a successful one as United slowly slipped in the standings, finally finishing bottom of the league in 1931 and being relegated after starting the season losing twelve times in a row. The finances were once again in a mess, and Herbert Bamlett lost his job. The players had gone to collect their wages on Christmas week and told there was no money available. Another financial bailout was needed.
Enter James W Gibson, who was approached by a Manchester sportswriter, Stacey Lintott. He met with the board and offered to help on condition that he became chairman and could choose his directors. They had little choice but to agree, and Gibson invested £30,000 into the club. A new manager was found, Scott Duncan, one of the new breed of managers who were retired players, now common, but an innovation in those days.
Scott Duncan
In 1934, United were at the lowest point in their history. On the final day of the season they were placed second-last in the table with their final match away against Millwall, who were one point ahead. With destiny in their own hands, they beat Millwall 2-0 and stayed in the Second Division by one point.
The next season saw an improvment as Duncan's new signings began to gel. United finished 5th, and they announced their return to the top flight with a shout as they won the Second Division title in 1936 after being unbeaten in the last 19 games of the season.
Their joy was short-lived, however, as they were relegated back to the Second Division the next season. Scott Duncan resigned.
United picked themselves up, however, finishing runners-up in 1938 and returning to the First Division. They would stay there for 36 years; after placing 14th the next season, World War II broke out.
Matt Busby
The Second World War saw Old Trafford destroyed by German bombs on 11 March 1941. In 1945, Matt Busby, former captain of Manchester City, was appointed manager. He was ahead of his time, and is thought to have been the first manager to go out on the field with his players during trainings. A series of astute signings added on to the nucleus of the squad, and he began the youth system that would later pay big-time dividends.
League football resumed for the 1946/47 season and United finished second. They would repeat this twice, and though disappointed by this failure, they did deliver the FA Cup in 1948. It was the first of many trophies to come.
League success finally came in 1952, with United, led by Johnny Carey, demolishing second-placed Arsenal 6-1 on the final day of the season and finishing four points ahead of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Their offensive power was evident as they had scored 95 goals compared to Arsenal's 80.
The Busby Babes
The next season saw the introduction of the Busby Babes as the Championship team began to lose steam. David Pegg, Jackie Blanchflower, Dennis Viollet, Duncan Edwards, and Bill Foulkes all made their first appearances in the 1952/53 season. They finished 8th in 1954 and fifth in 1955 before finally breaking out and destroying the competition in 1955/56, clinching the title by a 11-point margin. The team's average age was 22. Only two players in the 1956 team, Roger Byrne and Johnny Berry, were also around for the first Championship four years earlier.
One of the stars of the team was Duncan Edwards, who set the record as the youngest player ever to be capped for England when he played against Scotland at the age of 17 and 8 months. The record stood for almost 50 years before being broken in 1998 by Michael Owen. His legendary status, no doubt added to by his tragic death, is best measured by the fact that he placed 6th in a 1999 poll of Manchester United fans, asking them to name the top 50 United players of all time.
The Championship was defended successfully in 1957, though the dream of the League and FA Cup Double was crushed along with goalkeeper Ray Wood's cheekbone after Aston Villa's Peter McParland smashed into him six minutes into the final at Wembley. United lost 2-1.
1956 was also a milestone year, as United defied the League authorities to take part in the European Championship (now the Champions League). The League had previously successfully pressured Chelsea not to take part out of fear that they would not be able to cope with the schedule, and sent a letter forbidding United to take part. However, The Football Association supported Matt Busby and United became England's first representatives in Europe.
United's first European match was away to Belgian champions Anderlecht, and they pulled off a respectable 2-0 win. However, fans at the return leg in Maine Road (European matches could not be hosted at Old Trafford until the semi-finals as floodlights were not installed) saw an absolute destruction derby. Anderlecht never knew what hit them as United scored ten goals without reply.
United beat Borussia Dortmund and Athletic Bilbao in much closer circumstances, having to come back against Bilbao from two goals behind in the second leg, before falling to mighty Real Madrid in the semifinal.
"Munich"
The Busby Babes seemed destined to dominate the soccer world for time to come and had captured the imagination of the fans; already they had proved themselves both at home and in Europe. The 1957/58 season opened with talk of a treble - The League, the FA Cup, and the European Cup. But fate had decided it was not to be. On 6 February 1958 the BEA Elizabethan plane carrying them home from Belgrade crashed on takeoff in Munich and the dream was over.
The Busby Babes' last match on English soil was played in a thrilling game at Highbury, where they were in full swing, playing with offensive flair and creativity to win the thriller 5-4. It was the last that England would ever see of the Babes.
United arrived in Yugoslavia to meet Red Star Belgrade in the second leg of the quarter finals. The first leg in Manchester had ended in a 2-1 win for United. United scored three goals quickly, but by the end Red Star managed to claw back to level it 3-3 after 90 minutes. The Reds went through to the semi-final 5-4 on aggregate.
The plane, a chartered aircraft, left Belgrade and stopped at Munich to refuel. Takeoff had to be aborted twice because of boost surging, a common problem in the Elizabethan. The problem was caused by too rich a fuel mixture, which causes the engines to over-accelerate. The problem was exacerbated by the altitude of the Munich airport.
The pilots were able to control the surging on the third takeoff attempt, but as they reached the V1 "decision speed" (afterwhich it is unsafe to abort takeoff), the airspeed suddenly dropped. The aircraft left the runway, crashed through a fence and into a house. The left wing and the tail were ripped off and the starboard side of the fuselage hit a fuel tank and exploded.
Officially, the cause of the accident was build-up of snow on the runway which had caused to aircraft to lose speed and crash.
Mark Jones, David Pegg, Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Eddie Coleman, Liam Whelan, and Tommy Taylor were killed instantly. Club secretary Walter Crickmer, and coaches Tom Curry and Bert Whalley were also killed. Duncan Edwards, Matt Busby, and Johnny Berry were critically injured, and Duncan Edwards would die three weeks later. Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower survived but never played again. Four other passengers and two of the crew were also killed, as were eight sportswriters travelling with the team. It was the most tragic day football had ever seen.
Rebuilding
The first problem was to get a team out for the next match, a home game against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup. United had signed several players to be able field a team, though Bill Foulkes and Harry Gregg managed to play. Driven by an emotional crowd, they won 3-0.
Matt Busby eventually recovered after hovering near death and the mammoth task of rebuilding began. One of the survivors of Munich, Bobby Charlton, would play a critical role.
Life and football goes on
United struggled in the League after Munich, winning only one of their last 14 matches and finished in 9th place. However, they pulled together for the FA Cup matches and made it to the final, but lost to Bolton.
The next season, with some injured players, including Dennis Viollet, returning to the line-up and surviviors like Bobby Charlton stepping up, United managed to finish in 2nd place without needing to dip into the transfer market. A period of rebuilding followed the next year with several significant signings, including Denis Law, Pat Crerand, and Noel Cantwell. Despite a poor 19th place in the 1962/63 season, United managed to beat Leicester 3-1 at Wembley to win the FA Cup.
Back at the top
The FA Cup win brought the Reds back into European competition and set the stage for what stands till today as United's most humiliating European defeat, a 5-0 trouncing at the hands of Sporting Lisbon which capped off a mid-season collapse, with United losing in the FA Cup semi-final after playing three exhausting replays in the quarters against Sunderland.
However, 1963 also saw the debut of George Best, completing the trio of Charlton, Law and Best that would power Manchester United to the triumphant heights of the 1960s. United finished second that season, then won the League in 1964/65 by goal average over Leeds. The rebuilding was complete, Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes were the only Munich survivors in that team.
That season was significant in other ways too, as England were hosting the 1966 World Cup and had announced that Old Trafford would be among the stadiums to be upgraded at the government's expense.
1965/66 was a disappointing season. The Reds finished fourth in the league and were knocked out by Partizan Belgrade in the European Cup and by Everton in the FA Cup. However, United won another league title in 1966/67, qualifiying them for the European Cup the next season and laying the groundwork for the climatic triumph of that era.
Champions of Europe
The run to the European Cup began easily enough, and the Reds cruised past Malta team Hibernians for a 4-0 win on aggregate. A tough, physical series against Sarajevo was next, followed by Gornik Zabrze from Poland. United won 2-1 on aggregate and then came the semi-final match that was just as, if not more important than the final itself - two matches against the mighty Real Madrid. Real played a defensive game in the first leg at Old Trafford, stifling the offensive magic of the Reds. United managed a 1-0 victory, but it was a very small advantage to take into the Santiago Bernabeu.
Denis Law was suffering from a knee injury, so Busby decided instead to call up the veteran defender Bill Foulkes. The game started badly for United as Real Madrid ran circles around them, leading 3-1 at half-time, 3-2 on aggregate. United came back strongly after the break and pounded the Real defence to no avail for half an hour until David Sadler levelled the aggregate score. Then Bill Foulkes played the hero as he buried a pass from George Best into the goal. It was the only goal he ever scored in European competition, though it was probably the most important.
United were through to the final and faced Benfica at Wembley. In many ways it was an emotional day, Matt Busby's journey finally coming full circle after the tragically aborted promise of the Busby Babes. It was also a testament to Matt Busby's skill in judging talent, as only two of the 12 players in the line-up that day had cost transfer fees to acquire.
Bobby Charlton scored, and Jaime Gracia equalised. Benfica piled on the pressure in the dying minutes and it took a brilliant reflex save from Alex Stepney to deny Eusebio the winning goal. United managed to hold out until extra time. Then George Best finally broke free of the stifiling marking of the Benfica defence and scored. Benfica were reeling and Brian Kidd, celebrating his 19th birthday, put another in the net. Kidd would later be part of another successful United team, this time as Alex Ferguson's assistant manager. Bobby Charlton finished off Benfica with a high shot for a 4-1 victory and United became the first English team to win the European Cup.
Noted players
Successful Managers
Achievements
- League Championships: 15
- 1908, 1911, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1965, 1967, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003
- FA Cups: 11
- 1909, 1948, 1963, 1977, 1983, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004
- League Cup: 1
- UEFA Champions League Championships: 2
- UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1
- Intercontinental Cup: 1
- European Super Cup: 1
- FA Charity Shield/Community Shields: 15
- 1908, 1911, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1965*, 1967*, 1977*, 1983, 1990*, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003 (*as joint holders)
- BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award
Fans Organizations
Fanzines
External link
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nl:Manchester United
ja:マンチェスター・ユナイテッド
pl:FC Manchester United
simple:Manchester United F.C.
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