Also
known as Man Utd,
Manchester Utd,
Man United or simply
Man U, Manchester
United are currently
regarded as one of the
biggest and most successful
football clubs in the
world.
Manchester
United were formed during
the year of 1878 as
Newton Heath, and were
elected to Division 1 in 1892.
The years prior to
world war two saw the
League Championship arrive
at Old Trafford twice, and
the FA Cup was also won in
1909. However the club has
been far more
successful since the
conclusion of the war under 2
different managers.
The first
was Sir Matt Busby who
arrived at Old Trafford
in 1945 and won a total of
5 league championships and 2
FA cups. Tragedy
struck the very foundations
of Manchester United when in
1958 their young
team which was known as
the “Busby Babes” were
decimated by a horrific plane
crash. The tragedy
happened in Munich whilst the
team were returning from a
European cup tie in
Belgrade. Busby himself was
almost killed, and his team
which had looked as
though they were to dominate
English football for many
years to come, were no
more.
However ten
years later, Busby had a new
team of young
stars such as Bobby
Charlton and George Best,
which would become the first
English team in history to
lift the European cup. The
achieved this by
beating Portuguese
opponents Benfica 4-1 in a
thrilling final.
A string
of managers followed at Old
Trafford but none
were able to bring the
European silver-ware back to
Manchester, prior to the
arrival of Sir Alex Ferguson
in 1986. It took some time for
Sir Alex to
rebuild the team and it
wasn’t until 1990 when
Manchester United lifted the
FA Cup that the “good
times” were pronounced as
being back at the club. This
was followed by a
European Cup Winners cup
win the following year.
Silverware galore began
arriving at Old Trafford and
Manchester United
became the first team ever
to win the “Double Double”,
when winning both the
league championship and
FA Cup double, two years in
succession. During the
1998/99 season, United
managed the unthinkable
when they achieved the treble
by winning the Premier
League Championship, FA
Cup and European Cup in one
season. The treble earned
Ferguson his knighthood, and
he followed it up
with back to back
Championship titles.
Manchester
United have won the
Premiership for the past 2
seasons running and once
again achieved the double in
2008 when adding the
Champions League to their
trophy cabinet.
