Manchester
United 1878-2000
The
Early Years
In 1878 a football team was founded,
it was called Newton Heath LYR, they had a small pitch to play on in North
Road, in 1886 Newton Heath won their first ever trophy, the Manchester
Cup. Newton Heath played in a yellow and green jersey, which was many years
later copied for United's away jersey.
In 1888 the football league was
formed, with 12 teams, Newton Heath were not among them, but in 1889 they
joined with 11 other clubs who were not quite good enough for the football
league to form the football alliance. In their first season Newton Heath
finished eighth. These two leagues became the first and second division
in 1892. The club was invited to join the first division and did. After
narrowly escaping relegation that season, in 1893-94, Newton Heath did
go down, at the hands of Liverpool. On 28 April 1902, thanks to a man called
John Henry Davies, Newton Heath ceased to exist and Manchester United FC
were born. In February 1910 United moved to a new ground, Old trafford.
Despite the changes the club continued to struggle getting promoted and
relegated often, and struggled through some tough financial problems. But
in 1937-38 United won promotion to the first division, they were to stay
there for 36 years. In 1939 war broke out and football was suspended and
in 1941 Old Trafford was blitzed, the stadium was nearly totally destroyed
and United weren't to play there again until 1941, United were forced to
play their games at Man. citys ground, Maine Road, But good times were
to come as in October 1945, a man called Matt Busby took over as manager.
The
Busby Era
Almost immediately after Busby's arrival,
success followed. United won the F.A. Cup in 1948 after a 4-2 win in the
final against Blackpool. The team began filling with great players such
as Jack Rowley, Stan Pearson, Johnny Carey and Jack Crompton, later more
great plyers came into the side like Duncan Edwards, Bill Foulkes, Eddie
Coleman,Tommy Taylor and a young Bobby Charlton.
United won the league in 52, 56 and 57, even greater success seemed sure
to follow, but tragically on Friday, 7 February 1958 after a European Cup
match against Red Star Belgrade, the team were flying home from Munich
Airport. The team's plane twice failed to take off, on the third attempt,
the plane again failed, this time it crashed. 23 players, media and staff
perished in the accident and Matt Busby was lucky to escape with his life.
The eight players who lost their life were Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor,
David Pegg, Roger Byrne, Eddie Coleman, Geoff Bent, Mark Jones and Liam
Whelan. The Busby Babes were no more. Matt Busby started the long road
to rebuilding the club after he recovered, In the years that followed more
stars appeared in the team Crerand, Giles, Herd, Stiles and three names
that will be forever remembered by United fans, Charlton, Law and Best.
United again started to become a major footballing force, they won the
F.A. Cup in 63 and won the championship in 65 and 67. 1968 was a great
year for United and Busby. For years the European Cup had narrowly escaped
Busby and his team, but on 29 May 1968 thanks to a 4-1 victory over Benfica,
United won the European Cup for the first time. After completing his dream,
Busby moved upstairs to become general manager of the club.
Life
after Busby
In the years that followed Busbys move
out of the managers job, hard times also came upon United. The Managers
that followed felt it hard to live up to the legend of Sir Matt and the
fans and the board were not prepared for failures after the success of
the late sixties. Wilf McGuiness was first to try a take over the unenviable
task, he was in the managers chair for 20 months, then Frank O'Farrell
took over, he lasted 2 years before being sacked. Tommy Docherty now became
manager. During all this the stars had become restless. Fans favourite
George Best was forgetting more and more about the football and disappearing
to get up to different things off the field. Charlton retired in 1972 and
Law went to arch rivals City, and ironically it was Law with a typical
cheeky backflick that would score the goal against United to seal their
relegation in 1974. Thankfully United bounced straight back, winning division
2. United lost in the F.A. Cup final of 1976, but like Docherty said United
were back the very next year, beating Liverpool 2-1 in the final. This
was United's first major trophy since 68, but later in 77 an affair between
Docherty and the physio's wife was made public and the board had no alternative
but to sack him. Dave Sexton arrived after Docherty, and stayed in the
job until 1981, when Ron Atkinson took over. Atkinson brought in some big
names, Bryan Robson the biggest. Atkinson brought the F.A. Cup to United,
they beat Brighton 4-0 in the 1983 cup final replay. Ron Atkinson almost
became the first manager at United since Busby to win the league in 85,
but a late collapse saw Everton take the title. United got their revenge
in the F.A. cup as they beat the toffees 1-0 thanks to a goal from Whiteside
in extra time. Atkinson sold an upcoming star, Mark Hughes, and things
went downhill from there, he was eventually sacked in November 1986. The
Chairman, Martin Edwards appointed a new manger, Alex Ferguson.
The
Fergie Years
The man from Govan in Glasgow set about
on the path to bring success back to Old Trafford. It was not all good
times though, the supporters and the chairman wanted the league for the
first tine since 67 and after Fergusons first three seasons and no trophies
the board had the axe poised, but an F.A. Cup win against Crystal Palace
in 1990 saved his job. Ferguson was bring fresh new faces in and disposing
with old ones. Brian McClair, Steve Bruce, Andrei Kanchelskis, Peter Schmeichel,
Paul Parker, Gary Pallister and Paul Ince all arrived, Mark Hughes returned
from Spain and the youth team Fergie installed was starting to produce
real talent with Lee Sharpe and Ryan Giggs, while Strachan, McGrath and  Whiteside
exited Old Trafford. United won the League Cup in 91 and narrowly missed
out on the title again in 92. The 92-93 season saw the start of the premiership
and the arrival of a frenchman from Leeds called Eric Cantona. This purchase
helped United finally win the title, good times had returned. Fergie did
not stop bringing in new players, Roy Keane arrived from Nottingham Forest
for a record amount. On 24 January 1994 Sir Matt Busby died, the red half
of Manchester mourned the loss of one of the greatest managers football
had ever seen. But the football did not stop, United went on to win the
league and cup double, beating Blackburn to the premiership and thrashing
Chelsea 4-0 in the F.A. Cup final. In 94-95 despite the arrival of 7 million
Andy Cole, Blackburn won the title from United by a single point. In the
next season Cantona provided the inspiration as he returned from a ban
for attacking a fan at Crystal Palace. Cantona scored crucial goals as
United again won the title and in the F.A. Cup final, the frenchman scored
four minutes from time to beat Liverpool and win United the double again.
In 96-97 Cantona again proved instrumental as United won the title, but
at the end of the season Eric Cantona announced his retirement and the
footballer who was at the centre of Uniteds road back to success left United.
United suffered the loss as they won nothing in 98. Ferguson decided money
must be spent, over 25 million left United as Jaap Stam, Jesper Blomquist
and Dwight Yorke arrived. These proved to be inspired buys. During his
12 year reign the European Cup was the one trophy which elluded Fergie.
With three games to go in 1998-1999, Fergie had a chance to win three trophies.
United beat Spurs 2-1 to clinch the title for the fifth time in seven years,
then United beat Newcastle 2-0 to win the F.A. Cup again, just one game
stood between Manchester United and a unprecedented treble,
the European Cup final against Bayern Munich. Bayern took the lead and
looked to have won it, but as the game went into injury time, substitute
Teddy Sheringham levelled the scores and unbelievably a minute later, another
substitute Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored and won the European Cup for United.
United fans all around the world celebrated. United continue their quest
for more silverware, but the lucky fans should remember the clubs origins,
on a small pitch in North Road with a team called Newton Heath LYR in 1878.
|
