History of Manchester United

Manchester United started in 1878 as Newton Heath local, they became a professional team in 1885. Their first game in the football league was a 4-1 win over Sunderland Albion.

In 1892 Newton Heath went into the first division. Newton lost their first game 4-3 to Blackburn. In 1895 Newton beat Walsall with 14-0 and this was a record score and still would be.

In 1901 a very rich business man gave Newton a lot of money and they changed name to Manchester United. Manchester United�s first game was a 1-0 victory over Gainsborought Trinity and the first time use of the famous red strip. United was now a very popular football team. When they played their first match at their home arena over 40 000 people were there to see them playing.

During the season 1907/08 United won their first league title. 1910 United moved into their present home Old Trafford. The move brought even more people to the matches, 65 000 people were there to see United against Aston Villa. During the years between the two world wars was United drifting between the 1st and 2nd division. They actually avoided relegation to the 3rd by one point in 1934. Their record at-tendance of 70 504 people was set in the 1-3 defeat against Aston Villa in 1920.

After the war Sir Matt Busby started the youth policy, that Manchester United is famous for. During his time in United they took five league titles and they won the FA cup two times, also coming second nine times in those competitions.

United became the first British team to enter European competitions in 1956/57. Unfortunately this led to the Munich air crash in February 1958. In this crash 8 players of United died. One of the dead players was Duncan Edwards, he was the best football player in Europe during that time. This air crash took United to the hearts of the entire world. From the Munich tragedy it took United until 1963 to take any silverware - an FA cup final victory over Leicester City. This was the start of bril-liant years for United. The famous trio Best, Law and Charlton helped United to two league championships.

This "Munich clock" is placed outside Old Trafford. It�s set on the time
of the Munich air crash to honour the players that lost their lives.

When Sir Matt Busby retired in 1971 United went through various managers, none achieving the success that United fans expected. In 1986 when Alex Ferguson came to United, fans started to hope that United would be one of the best teams in the world again. After a slow start he has led them to the enviable position of being the best team in Britain by far. With the skill of Alex and his team the business acumen of the United management has become the most valuable football club in Europe, and possibly the most supported.

Man Utd after the league title 1997.
Here is the Man Utd team when they are celebrating the league title in 1997.

Here you can see many of the players in Man Utd today.