Manchester United was formed in
1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of
the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR)
depot at Newton Heath The team initially played games
against other departments and rail companies, but on 20 November 1880, they
competed in their first recorded match; wearing the colours of the railway
company – green and gold – they were defeated 6–0 by Bolton Wanderers' reserve team.
By 1888, the club had become a founding member of The
Combination, a regional football league. Following the league's
dissolution after only one season, Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football
Alliance, which ran for three seasons before being merged with the
Football League. This resulted in the club starting the 1892–93 season in
the First Division, by which
time it had become independent of the rail company and dropped the "LYR"
from its name. After two seasons, the club was relegated to the Second Division.
In January 1902, with debts of
£2,670 – equivalent to £210,000 as of 2012 – the club was served with awinding-up
order. Captain Harry
Stafford found four local businessmen, including John Henry
Davies (who became club president), each willing to invest £500
in return for a direct interest in running the club and who subsequently
changed the name; on 24 April 1902, Manchester United was officially
born. UnderErnest Mangnall, who assumed managerial duties
in 1903, the team finished as Second Division runners-up in 1906 and secured
promotion to the First Division, which they won in 1908 – the club's first
league title. The following season began with victory in the first ever Charity Shield and ended with the club's
first FA Cup title. Manchester United won the First Division for the second
time in 1911, but at the end of the following season, Mangnall left the club to
join Manchester City.
In 1922, three years after the
resumption of football following the First World War, the club was relegated to
the Second Division, where it remained until regaining promotion in 1925.
Relegated again in 1931, Manchester United became a yo-yo club,
achieving its all-time lowest position of 20th place in the Second Division in
1934. Following the death of the club's principal benefactor, J. H.
Davies, in October 1927, the club's finances deteriorated to the extent that
Manchester United would likely have gone bankrupt had it not been for James W.
Gibson, who, in December 1931, invested £2,000 and assumed control
of the club. In
the 1938–39 season, the last
year of football before the Second World War, the club finished 14th in the
First Division.
In October 1945, the impending
resumption of football led to the managerial appointment of Matt Busby, who
demanded an unprecedented level of control over team selection, player transfers
and training sessions.Busby led the team to second-place league finishes in
1947, 1948 and 1949, and to FA Cup victory in 1948.
In 1952, the club won the First Division, its first league title for 41 years. With
an average age of 22, the media labelled the back-to-back title winning side of
1956 "the Busby Babes", a testament to Busby's faith in his youth
players. In 1957, Manchester United became the first English team to
compete in the European Cup, despite objections from The Football League, who
had denied Chelsea the same opportunity the previous
season.\ En
route to the semi-final, which they lost to Real Madrid,
the team recorded a 10–0 victory over Belgian champions Anderlecht,
which remains the club's biggest victory on record.
The following season, on the way
home from a European Cup quarter-final victory against Red Star
Belgrade, the aircraft carrying the Manchester United players,
officials and journalists crashed while attempting to take off after refuelling
in Munich, Germany. The Munich air disaster of 6 February 1958
claimed 23 lives, including those of eight players Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Duncan
Edwards, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Billy Whelan –
and injured several more.
Reserve team manager Jimmy Murphy took over as manager
while Busby recovered from his injuries and the club's makeshift side reached
the FA Cup final, which they lost to Bolton Wanderers. In recognition of the
team's tragedy, UEFA invited
the club to compete in the 1958–59 European Cup alongside eventual
League champions Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite approval
from the FA, the Football League determined that the club should not enter the
competition, since it had not qualified. Busby rebuilt the team through
the 1960s by signing players such as Denis Law and Pat Crerand,
who combined with the next generation of youth players – including George Best –
to win the FA Cup in 1963.
The following season, they finished second in the league, then won the title in
1965 and 1967. In 1968, Manchester United became the first English (and second
British) club to win the European Cup, beating Benfica 4–1
in the final with a team that contained three European
Footballers of the Year: Bobby
Charlton, Denis Law and George Best. Matt Busby resigned as manager
in 1969 and was replaced by the reserve team coach, former Manchester United
player Wilf McGuinness.
Following an eighth-place finish
in the 1969–70 season and a
poor start to the 1970–71 season, Busby was
persuaded to temporarily resume managerial duties, and McGuinness returned to
his position as reserve team coach. In June 1971, Frank
O'Farrell was appointed as manager, but lasted less than
18 months before being replaced by Tommy Docherty in
December 1972. Docherty saved Manchester United from relegation that
season, only to see them relegated in 1974; by that time the trio of Best, Law,
and Charlton had left the club. The team won promotion at the first
attempt and reached the FA Cup final in 1976,
but were beaten by Southampton. They reached the final again
in 1977, beating Liverpool 2–1.
Docherty was dismissed shortly afterwards, following the revelation of his
affair with the club physiotherapist's wife.
Dave Sexton replaced
Docherty as manager in the summer of 1977. Despite major signings,
including Joe Jordan, Gordon
McQueen, Gary Bailey, and Ray Wilkins,
the team failed to achieve any significant results; they finished in the top
two in 1979–80 and lost to Arsenal in
the 1979 FA Cup Final. Sexton was dismissed in
1981, even though the team won the last seven games under his direction.He
was replaced by Ron Atkinson, who immediately broke the British
record transfer fee to sign Bryan Robson from West Bromwich Albion. Under Atkinson,
Manchester United won the FA Cup twice in three years – in 1983 and1985.
In 1985–86, after 13 wins and
two draws in its first 15 matches, the club was favourite to win the league,
but finished in fourth place. The following season, with the club in danger of
relegation by November, Atkinson was dismissed.
Alex Ferguson and
his assistant Archie Knox arrived from Aberdeen on
the day of Atkinson's dismissal and guided the club to an 11th-place finish in
the league. Despite a second-place finish in 1987–88, the club was back
in 11th place the following season. Reportedly on the verge of being
dismissed, victory over Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup
Final replay (after a 3–3 draw) saved Ferguson's career. The
following season, Manchester United claimed its first Cup Winners' Cuptitle and competed in
the 1991 UEFA Super Cup, beating European Cup holders Red Star
Belgrade 1–0 in the final at Old Trafford. A second consecutive
League Cup final appearance followed in 1992, in which the team beat Nottingham
Forest 1–0 at Wembley. In 1993, the club won its first league title since
1967, and a year later, for the first time since 1957, it won a second
consecutive title – alongside the FA Cup – to complete the first "Double" in the club's history.
In the 1998–99
season, Manchester United became the first team to win the Premier
League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League – "The Treble" – in the same
season. Losing 1–0 going into injury time in
the 1999
UEFA Champions League Final,Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored
late goals to claim a dramatic victory over Bayern Munich, in what is considered one of
the greatest comebacks of all time. The club also won the Intercontinental
Cup after beating Palmeiras 1–0
in Tokyo. Ferguson was subsequently knighted for his services to football.
Manchester United won the league
again in the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 seasons.
The team finished as runners-up in 2001–02,
before regaining the title in 2002–03.
They won the 2003–04 FA Cup,
beating Millwall 3–0
in the final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. In the 2005–06
season, Manchester United failed to qualify for the knockout phase
of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in over a decade, but recovered
to secure a second-place league finish and victory over Wigan Athletic in
the 2006
Football League Cup Final. The club regained the Premier League in
the 2006–07 and 2007–08 seasons, and completed the European
double by beating Chelsea 6–5 on penalties in the 2008
UEFA Champions League Final in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. Ryan Giggs made a record 759th
appearance for the club in this game, overtaking previous record holder Bobby
Charlton. In December 2008, the club won the 2008 FIFA Club
World Cup and followed this with the 2008–09
Football League Cup, and its third successive Premier League title. That
summer, Cristiano Ronaldo was sold to Real Madrid for a world record
£80 million. In 2010, Manchester United defeated Aston Villa 2–1 at
Wembley to retain the League Cup,
its first successful defence of a knockout cup competition.
After finishing as runner-up to
Chelsea in the 2009–10 season, United achieved a record 19th league title in
2010–11, securing the championship with a 1–1 away draw against Blackburn
Rovers on 14 May 2011.
