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,
FA Cup
and the
Champions League 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 3 seasons running and
once again achieved the
double in 2009 when also
adding
FA Cup
to their trophy cabinet.
