Manchester United fc 1878 By Darragh and Liam

Manchester United FC 1878

By Darragh and Liam

Manchester United

Manchester United FC was founded in 1878 as Newton Health LYR FC. The club changed its name to Manchester United. United are based in Old Trafford, Manchester, which they moved to in 1910, eight years after they changed their club name in 1902. Manchester United have won the most English league titles in history totalling an amazing 20 trophies! They have a jointed record with eleven FA Cups, four League Cups and twenty Community Shields. United has also won three European Cups, one UEFA Super Cup, one UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and one International Cup. Manchester United were the second richest football club in the world for the year 2013-2014. United is one of the most supported football clubs around the world. The club has had very good managers in the past such as Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson who have brought great victory and have shown great leadership to the club.

Sir Matt Busby- Sir Alexander Matthew “Matt’’ Busby was a Scotchman who was born on the 26^th of May 1909 in Lancastshire. Before Busby managed United he played for two of their biggest rivals Manchester City and also Liverpool. During his time at City he played in two FA Cup finals and won one of them. His life as a footballer was interrupted by World War II. This was when he was offered the job of an assistant coach at Liverpool but he chose to take the job as manager at Manchester United.

Busby had an amazing team nicknamed ‘The Busby Babes’. They were young and very talented and also gifted with the type of football they could perform on the pitch. Eight of these players died in the Munich Air Disaster in February 1958!- Eddie Colman aged 21, Rodger Bryne aged 28, Mark Jones aged 24, Billy Whelan aged 22, Duncan Edwards aged 21, Tommy Taylor aged 26, David Pegg aged 22 and Geoff Bent who was aged 25. Jackie Blanchflower aged 24 and senior player Johnny Berry aged 31 were badly injured to such an extent that this incident cost them their football careers and they had to hang up their boots. Sir Matt Busby- Died 20^th of January 1994

Sir Alex Ferguson-

Sir Alex Ferguson was born on the 31st of December 1941, he is now aged seventy-three. His birthplace was in Glasgow, Scotland. He managed four other teams before he hit big success at Old Trafford! In 1974 he managed East Stirlingshire. Later on that year he managed St. Mirren for another four years which lead him to manage Aberdeen in 1978 up until 1986. Between this in 1985 he started to manage international teams and managed Scotland for one year after the brief death of Jock Stein, the former manager of Celtic, Scotland. At this point he started to manage Manchester United in November.

Sir Alex is the longest manager to ever serve Manchester United, defeating the record of Sir Matt Busby on the 19th of November 2010! Sir Alex Ferguson has played the manager roll for an amazing twenty-six years at the club and has been very successful winning trophies, awards and setting records. He was knighted by the Queen in 1999 at her birthday honours for his service to the game! Sir Alex Ferguson has won thirty-seven trophies with United alone which is because of his great leadership. Ferguson was very fierce and direct to the players. He would only accept 100% from a player if they wanted to stay at the club. He was the perfect role-model for any manager in any football club all around the world.

Old Trafford-

Old Trafford is the second largest football stadium in the UK, with the largest being Wembley Stadium. It is located on Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England Also known as ‘’The Theatre of Dreams’’ - nicknamed by Sir Matt Busby. It holds an amazing 75,635 people. It is the ninth largest in Europe. It has been United’s home soil since 1910. I have been fortunate enough to have experienced the amazing features at Old Trafford! The atmosphere is excellent and fans are always applauding the players, singing chants and also having a great time.

Roy Keane-

Roy Keane was the type of player who could inspire the whole team. He showed great leadership and also courage on many occasions during his twelve seasons at Manchester United. He was born in Mayfiled in Cork, Ireland. Keane started his career at Cobh Rambelers in the Irish league. His introduction into English football was when he joined Nottingham Forest in 1990. By 1993 his outstanding performance in the midfield area got the attention of Blackburn Rovers and United. Eventually United sealed the deal and signed Keane for £3.75 million pounds! He had an amazing first season at Old Trafford. He also played for the Republic of Ireland’s U21’s in 1991 and later on he played in the main team up until 2005.

Ryan Giggs-

Ryan Giggs has had a very successful career at Manchester United. He was born in Cardiff, Wales on the 29th of November 1973. Giggs is now forty-three years old. He moved from Wales to England at a young age. He joined a club named Dean’s Youth F. Giggs joined United in 1990 making his debut in November against Everton. He was substituted for Denis Irwin, at the age of 17.

Players

Man United FC has had a lot of world class past players that have started young at the club and have went on to be greats, but some also ended their career at the club for example;

Ruud Van Nistelrooy

Ruud van Nistelrooy, The Netherlands striker was 6ft 2in. The clubs he played for were Den Bosch, SC Heerenveen, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Hamburg and Malaga. He played as a striker for Man United and scored 150 goals in just 219 games. He was the fourth highest goal scorer in the Champion’s League with 56 goals.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Another great player who is still around to this day is Ronaldo. He started at the club at the age of 18. Sir Alex Ferguson signed the young great for 12.2 million pounds. Then Ferguson let him go to Real Madrid for a whopping 80 million pound. One of the things he is also known for is that he won the Ballon d’Or in 2008 and went on to win it again in 2013 and 2014. He came second as well in 2011 and 2012. Ronaldo was also good enough to represent his country, Portugal at the 2014 world cup in Brazil. Unfortunately for Ronaldo he couldn’t carry his country to the final to win and he was devastated. Ronaldo scored 118 goals in 244 appearances. The clubs he played for are Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United and now he is at Real Madrid. He has a very unique free kick style as well. He was one of my favourite players and still is.

David Beckham

Beckham was a world class player who inspired the team to never give up and always play their best. He played for Manchester United in 1992-2003. He scored 62 goals in 265 official senior team appearances. The clubs he had played for were Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Millan, LA Galaxy, Paris Saint-German and the English National team which he holds the appearance record for an outfield player. His career lasted 20 years. When he signed for Manchester he was 14 years old. He is also known for a very memorable goal he scored from the halfway line against Wimbledon FC on the 17^th August 1996.

George Best

The Northern Irish man from Belfast who was one of the best players to ever come out of Northern Ireland played as a winger for Man United and was the top goal scorer for five consecutive years, scoring 179 goals in 470 appearances over eleven years. He was one of the best dribblers of all time. He could beat defenders with ease. He unexpectedly quit football at the age of 27 relatively early in 1977 but returned to football for a number of clubs around the world until retiring at the age of 37 in 1983.


Munich disaster


The Munich air disaster happened on the 6^th February when British European airlines flight 603 crashed on its third attempt of taking off on a slush covered run way at Munich-riem, West Germany. On the plane were the Manchester United football team. 20 of the 44 on the aircraft died. They stopped in Munich to re fuel. After refuelling pilots twice abandoned take off because of boost surging in the left engine. Fearing they would go too far behind schedule they rejected the overnight stay in Munich in favour of a third take off attempt. By then snow was falling causing a layer of slush at the end of the run way. After the aircraft hit the slush it ploughed through the fence beyond the end of the run way and the left wing was torn off after hitting a house. Fearing the plane might explode they began evacuating passengers while the Man United goal keeper helped pull people out of the wreckage.

During an investigation the pilot was blamed saying he didn’t properly de-ice the wings on the air craft despite eye witnesses. It was later established that slush caused the crash. At that time Manchester United were trying to become the third club to win three consecutive English league titles. They were just 6 points behind the leaders with fourteen games to go.