From McGuinness to Ferguson
However, with the success in the European Cup came a downside. With his ambition now fulfilled, in January 1969 Matt Busby decided that he would relinquish control of the team to become the general manager at the club. Various names were proposed as to whom would be his successor, with Don Revie, the bookies favourite and Dave Sexton, Busby's own personal preference. After three months of deliberation, United settled on the choice of Wilf McGuinness, Busby's assistant during his time as team manager and with the new man installed the side gave a foretaste of future years with a mid-table finish at the end of 1968/69 season. The following year the side finished eighth in the league and made the semi-finals of the FA Cup, but the demands made of a side like Manchester United meant that McGuinness was underachieving in his term at the club and it wasn't long before the axe swung and removed him from his job. With only five wins from their opening twenty-two games, by the Christmas of 1970, the pressure on the manager was increasing with each game he remained in the job; there was even talk of a revolt amongst the older players in the squad. Inevitably it did not take long for him to be removed from his post but United then had the problem of finding a suitable replacement. None of the managers who United wanted to take the job took up the challenge including Celtic's Jock Stein given that they had every right to be mindful of the problems McGuinness had had in shaking off the legacy left the club by Busby's era. The 1970/71 season petered out for the club with another eighth place finish and it was not until the close season that a new man was found for the managers chair when the job was given to Frank O'Farrell.
The change looked to have done the club some good as in his first season in charge, the Christmas period saw United heading the First Division table, clear of the chasing pack by eight points. However, their challenge was not sustained and they once again concluded the season in eighth place. Less than year after leading the table and O'Farrell was out of a job, with United having failed to win any of their first ten league matches at the start of 1972/73 season. Having waited nearly six months to appoint their last manager, the United board acted immediately in appointing a replacement in Tommy Docherty. With the side having languished in the bottom three for a large proportion of the season, Docherty, to his credit, hauled the side free to finish in a comparatively respectable eighteenth place.
He may have saved them from the drop the first time round, but in his first full season in charge at the club, Docherty must soon have realised the state of decline at Old Trafford. The relationship between Docherty and an ageing alcoholic George Best was also rocky. Best had walked out on the club a number of times throughout the years but Docherty had persuading him to return to play at the start of the 1973/74 season. The break would, however, soon come. Prior to their involvement in the Third Round of the FA Cup, Docherty dropped Best from the side and with it ended Best's career at United, as he walked out of the club, never to return. The absence of Best could not have helped the situation and in the final match of the season United suffered their first relegation since 1937, losing one-nil to Manchester City courtesy of a back-heeled goal by the former Old Trafford favourite Denis Law.
Only six years earlier they had been crowned as the champions of Europe, now they would be plying their trade in the second Division amongst the likes of York, Hull and Oxford. Nevertheless, Docherty's side throughout the course of that season showed their class and come its conclusion headed the final table to make an immediate return to football's top flight. The side that re-entered the First Division was in many respects a vastly different side to that which had left it. Docherty had, apparently, succeeded in re-building the ageing team he had inherited and from the start of the season kept with the pace at the top of the table. Good form in the Cup was, however, to be their undoing, as Docherty's inexperienced team could not keep up the fight on two fronts. The side eventually finished in third place in the league and also made an appearance as losing finalists to Southampton in the FA Cup final.
Whilst no-one expected United to lift the league title that year, the loss to Southampton in the cup final came as bitter disappointment. However, the following season United did manage to lift their first item of silver since they collected the European Cup with a two-one win over Liverpool in the 1977 FA Cup final with a goal apiece from Stuart Pearson and Jimmy Greenhoff. Docherty had in part removed some of the Busby legacy, but within weeks of the FA Cup victory was out of a job as United sacked the Scotsman for having an affair with the wife of the club's physiotherapist. Some nine years after first being recommended for the job, Dave Sexton left his post at QPR to take the vacant United job.
The Sexton era would not, as Matt Busby had hoped and Docherty suggested, rekindle the reputation of United as valid challengers for the league title. Over the course of his four seasons in charge at the club, the side managed to finish tenth, ninth, second and eighth, with a losing appearance in the 1979 FA Cup final. A good enough record for some clubs but not for United and at the end of the 1980/81 season Sexton was shown the door.
Into the hot seat came the flamboyant Ron Atkinson, who had previously made a success out of West Bromwich Albion. Almost immediately, he brought in Remi Moses and Bryan Robson from West Brom and in their first season finished third in the league behind Liverpool and Ipswich. Another third place finish in the 1982/83 season was complimented as Atkinson delivered the club his first piece of silverware as United defeated Brighton in the FA Cup final to take the famous trophy for the fifth time. Two fourth place finishes in 83/84 and 84/85 failed to banish the increasing shadow creating by United's inability to actually win the league and despite a further FA Cup win in 1985, one-nil against Everton, Atkinson's job security was starting to rapidly diminish.
Atkinson, however, looked to finally have it right when at the start of the 1985/86 season, United won all ten of their opening fixtures to open up a more than healthy lead at the top of the table over their closest rivals Everton and Liverpool. Come the season's close, however, and it would be Liverpool topped the table, clear of United by some twelve points, as Atkinson's side blew their early advantage to finish in a very disappointing fourth place.
Having come so close the previous season, Atkinson and his side were confident that the next season would see them offering a more sustained challenge for the title. By early November, however, Atkinson was out of a job as his side had failed to repeat their opening form of last season. After their opening fifteen matches had seen them collect just fifteen points to leave them one place above the bottom three, the United board acted to remove Atkinson and bring in their sixth manager since Matt Busby, Alex Ferguson.
Whilst history will record Ferguson's achievements at the club in the same breath as that of Busby's; his early time at the club mirrored that of his predecessors as he failed to immediately produce the one trophy the club craved, the League Championship. Atkinson's poor start was rectified for the club to finish in mid-table and in his first full season at the club pushed his side to a runners-up spot in the league, finishing nine points behind the champions, Liverpool. The following season saw them slipping to an eleventh place finish, whilst the 1989/90 programme saw them mustering a very poor final berth in thirteenth. Were it not for their FA Cup final win over Crystal Palace the pressure on Ferguson might well have rendered him another managerial failure at Old Trafford. The following season witnessed a sixth place finish and with a runners-up spot in the 1991/92 season, notice was posted that United were once again viable challengers for English football's premier prize. The acquisition of Eric Cantona from the previous season's champions, Leeds United, was to provide the catalyst for the 1992/93 season as they finally delivered their first championship success since 1967, finishing ten points clear of their nearest challengers Aston Villa. With Liverpool no longer dominating the English game as they had throughout much of the seventies and eighties, their title slowly passed over to United as in the next season they succeeded in retaining their long-awaited title.
What Busby had never achieved in his time as manager was the League and Cup double. In that respect Ferguson surpasses him as following their title success of 1994/95 the side moved onto the FA Cup final and the chance of their very first Double. They achieved it in style, with a four-nil over Chelsea enough to put Ferguson and his side at the top of the club's history. The hat trick of titles was to elude them as in the next season they were pipped for the title by Blackburn, whilst also losing one-nil to Everton in the FA Cup final. The following season was to see them regaining the title with Ferguson also achieving the Double Double, as his side defeated Liverpool by one goal to nil in the FA Cup final. The 1996/97 season saw them collecting their hat trick of titles pipping Newcastle United to the top for the second year in succession, to pick up their fourth title in five seasons.
With nothing left to prove within the domestic game, Ferguson's goal, like Busby before him, has become the winning of the European Cup. In 1991 his side had lifted the European Cup Winners Cup with a two-nil win over Barcelona, but their performances in the European Cup had left a lot to be desired. In the 1993/94 competition, Ferguson's side failed to make it to the group stages of the competition after being knocked out in the second round by the Turkish champions Galatasaray. Then having been seeded into the group stage for the 1994/95 competition, they went out of the tournament, primarily as a result of a four-nil defeat at the hands of Barcelona. Their next appearance in the competition came in 1996/97 where they again demonstrated that they were not, as yet, a side capable of competing with Europe's finest sides as they were eliminated at the group stage of the competition.
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