From Newton Heath to Busby
The history of Manchester United, however, has two phases.
In the years preceding the start of the Second World War,
the club spent almost half of their time in the Second Division and despite
early championship successes they were not regarded as one of the top English sides.
The post-war period tells a completely different story, however,
with only one year out of football's top flight with an ascendancy that will
see them enter the next century as one of the top sides in Europe and the world.
Like the majority of club sides, Manchester United had to start at the bottom of the footballing ladder when in 1878 the club was formed as Newton Heath.
It was not until 1893 that they made their first appearance in the English Football League finishing bottom of the First Division in sixteenth place,
a feat repeated the following season which with the introduction of the Second Division meant they suffered their first ever relegation.
For the next twelve seasons the club remained trapped in the second rung of English football until their promotion as runners-up in 1906.
Five years earlier they had all but started again with the renaming of the club as Manchester United, a change which resulted in a distinct change in fortunes for the club eventually culminating in their first ever championship success in 1908,
in only their second season back in the top flight of the game.
With a team containing the likes of Billy Meredith, George Wall and Charlie Roberts it was little wonder that in their next season,
despite failing to retain their league title, the side lifted the FA Cup for the first time with a one-nil defeat of Bristol City.
Two years later and the championship was again theirs, eventually edging out Aston Villa for the top spot to take the first ever trophy back to their new stadium at Old Trafford, which they had moved into the season previously. That second championship success was not to continue, as the side that had taken them to glory in such a relatively quick time grew old so did the memories of their triumphs and the 1911 championship would be their last major honour for thirty-seven years. Eleven years later and their decline was complete as they finished bottom of the First Division to end a twelve years stay in the top twenty-two.
From that moment to the start of the second World War the club would spend over half of its time in the lower division punctuated with only fleeting returns to the First.
Given their yo-yo like tendency to move between the two divisions prior to the start of the war,
it was, in many respects, fortuitous that on the re-commencement of the league at the end of the war that Manchester United found themselves in the top flight.
Whereas seven years earlier the side may well have, as was characteristic of their appearances in the First Division, struggled amongst football's top teams;
the side that took to the field was a far more accomplished outfit. In the first five post-war seasons, Manchester United finished in the top four on each occasion,
three times as runners-up. During that run of league form, in 1948 they won the FA Cup for the second time with a four-two win over Burnley at Wembley and in 1952 finally,
after so many close finishes, lifted their long-awaited third championship title. The side was now managed by the Scotsman Matt Busby,
a figure who would come to dominate the club for almost the next forty years. The most valuable player for Busby in that year was the forward Jack Rowley,
whose goals provided, on many occasions, the platform for the side's success. Having broken their forty-one year duck on the championship, the youth of the side betrayed itself
when the side failed to retain the title the following year with a disappointing finish in eighth place. As Busby's team took shape again, their position as one of English top side has never slipped as they managed a top five finish in both 1954 and 1955.
The fulfilment to Busby's inspired management was sealed the following year as they finished eleven points clear of their nearest rivals, Blackpool, to lift their fourth league title. The brilliance of Busby's rebuilding of the side is best emphasised by the fact that only two players, Roger Byrne and John Berry, survived from their previous championship success only four years earlier, with the new side having an average age of just twenty-three years old. Having failed to defend their title on each occasion before, the "Busby Babes" as the side had become known succeeded where their predecessors had failed in holding onto their title in 1957. The season was equally emphatic in their domination, as it had been one year earlier, with Spurs the nearest club to them in the league, short of United's total by some eight points. In retaining the championship, they became the first club to do so since Portsmouth's back to back successes in both 1949 and 1950. With their fifth championship wrapped up, they moved on that season to their first FA Cup final since 1948. They, however, failed in their bid for their first ever league and Cup double losing to Aston Villa by two goals to one. Their success over the year was not only confined to English shores as the side made its debut in the European Cup. In that first year the "Babes" gave Europe a taste of how good a side they were, making it through to the last four of the competition before eventually going out to a superlative Real Madrid side in that penultimate round. The side was clearly on the threshold of converting their domestic dominance into control of a larger stage.
They started in defence of their third successive title in the form that had won the two previous titles and throughout the course of the season looked to be heading for success on three fronts. Fate, however, took control of the situation and turned the side's achievements and potential and mutated them into a disaster that ripped to the heart of the English game. On their way back from their European Cup quarter-final tie against Red Star Belgrade, the plane carrying the United party and that of the travelling Press Corp crashed whilst attempting take-off at Munich airport. Twenty-three people died in the crash, amongst them eight of the United players. In their numbers were the United captain Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor, Billy Whelan and Duncan Edwards. Busby himself was so seriously injured in the crash that doctors, at the time, gave him no more than a fifty- percent chance of surviving his injuries. Control of the team passed temporarily to Busby's assistant Jimmy Murphy, who was given the onerous task of pushing the decimated side towards the hat trick of titles. Whilst public opinion at the time wanted United to lift the title the effect on the side of the disaster inevitably proved to much of a burden and they could do no more than creditably finish in ninth position. Sentiment was again on their side as they made the FA Cup final at the end of the season facing Bolton Wanderers at Wembley, but the weight of a traumatic three months had by now taken its full toll and United lost the match by two goals to nil.
Busby over time slowly recovered from his Munich inflicted injuries and simultaneously attempted the reconstruction of his side. The loss of so many essential players inevitably resulted in a deterioration of United's performance over the next few years as Busby sought to find adequate replacements for his dead stars. Their poorest league performance came in 1963 when they could only finish nineteenth in the final league table, avoiding relegation by just a single point. Paradoxically, whilst their league form was poor to say the least, their progress in the FA Cup gave an indication of what was to follow for the club in the next five years, as they defeated Leicester City, three-one, in the 1963 final to collect their third trophy. On the scoresheet were Herd with two goals and a name for the future, Denis Law, grabbing a third. A runners-up spot in the 1964 championship gave further notice that Busby was on the right path in his reconstruction. The following year and the ascendance of his new side was all but completed, when they lifted their sixth league title, winning it on goal average from Don Revie's Leeds United. Whilst they failed to retain that title the following year, it was a long way from being an unsuccessful season for the club, with a fourth place finish in the league, as well as appearances as semi-finalist in both the FA and European Cup. Busby and his side clearly had nothing to prove on the domestic front, with their goal quite clear in becoming the first British side to lift the European Cup.
Finishing four points clear of Nottingham Forest in the 1967 league programme gave them their seventh title and automatic entry into the following year's competition, though with Glasgow Celtic winning the 1967 European Cup they would now only be seeking the honour of being the first English side to lift the trophy. The dreams that were broken in the wreckage of the Munich disaster were on the verge of being rekindled, with Busby having assembled one of English football's finest-ever sides. A team containing the likes of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, Nobby Stiles would have made any team great, but the inclusion of the young Northern Irish player George Best added a further layer of superlatives to the side that would finally reach the summit of its ability and aspiration.
On the night of the 29th May 1968, in front of 100,000 spectators inside Wembley Stadium Busby's glory was finally crowned as his side beat the Portuguese side Benfica by four goals to one to lift the European Cup. Despite the game being taken to extra-time with the scores level at one apiece, goals in the first period of extra-time from Charlton, Brian Kidd and, inevitably, Best gave the English game a moment in many respects as uplifting as the success in the World Cup final, on the same pitch two years earlier.
In recent years Manchester United have become, arguably, the world's best-known football club.
It has long ceased to surprise anyone, even when visiting the most far flung corner of the world,
that there will be always be somebody wearing the red shirt of Manchester United.
Regardless of whether they even follow the weekly progress of the club,
the club has managed to attract legions of supporters in every continent in such numbers that
no other domestic club side comes close to matching their international fame.
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