Manchester United

The club was founded in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club. The LYR stood for Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway as the team was founded by the carriage and wagon department of the depot at Newton Heath. They played in green and gold and joined a regional league called The Combination in 1888. Newton Heath was in the Football Alliance before The Football League in 1892-93. They dropped LYR from the name and were relegated from the First Division.

In 1902 the club had massive debts and were saved by Harry Stafford, John Henry Davies, and a few other local businessmen. They renamed the team Manchester United on April 24, 1902. They earned a promotion back to the First Division in 1906 and won their first title in 1908. They also won the first ever FA Charity Shield and followed by a FA Cup win in 1910 and another First Division title in 1911.

After World War I, the United were relegated in 1922 and came back up in 1925. James W. Gibson took over the team after Davies died in ad despite going back down in 1931, the team was back in the First Division when World War II put a halt to league play.

Matt Busby took over as team manager coming out of the war, and he also was in charge of team selection and player transfers. Manchester United finished second in the First Division on three straight occasions from 1946-47 to 1948-49. Busby won his first trophy with the 1948 FA Cup and his first league title in 1951-52.

Because of the youth of the team, the average age of 22, they were nicknamed the Busby Babes. They won the First Division in 1955-56 and repeated in 1956-57 to become the first English team in the European Cup. They lost to Real Madrid in the semifinals.

Tragedy struck the team on February 6, 1958, after a European Cup game in Belgrade. The aircraft refueled in Munich, Germany but crashed during take-off, killing 23 people, including eight players. Several more were injured and unable to ever play again and assistant Jimmy Murphy took over for the injured Busby. The team had to be rebuilt, and the replacement team made it all the way to the FA Cup Final before losing.

Busby returned to the manager’s box and rebuilt the team. With the likes of Denis Law and George Best, Manchester United won the 1963 FA Cup and returned to the top of the First Division in 1964-65. They won another title in 1966-67 and in 1968 became the first English team to ever win the European Cup. Busby resigned in 1969 and was replaced by Wilf McGuinness.

After two seasons of struggle, Busby came out of retirement, and McGuinness was relieved of his duties. In 1971 they hired Frank O’Farrell, but he too struggled and was out in 18 months. Tommy Docherty kept the team in the First Division, but they were relegated in 1973-74. They came back up the next year and lost in the 1976 and 1977 FA Cup Finals.

Ron Atkinson took over in 1981 and signed Bryan Robson for a British transfer record. United won the FA Cup in 1983 and also won the Charity Shield They took the FA Cup again in 1985 but slipped down the league standings, and Atkinson was fired in 1987.

United brought in Alex Ferguson from Scotland, and he led the team to a second-place finish in 1987-88. After a struggling season, Ferguson lifted the FA Cup in 1990 and saved his job. They won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup the next season and the European Super Cup. They also won the League Cup for the first time ever in 1992.

Manchester United was one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992-93 and won the first-ever Premier League title. The crown was not only Ferguson’s first but the first for United since 1967. They won their first double in team history with the FA Cup title as well in 1993 and then did it again in 1995-96.

The “Class of 92” fronted by David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Gary Neville led United to another Premier League title in 1996-97. The 1998-99 season is the greatest in team history and one of the greatest for any club team in the world. United won the Premier League title, the FA Cup, and the Champions League for the first-ever Treble. They were losing the Champions League final 1-0 in extra time to Bayern Munich before Teddy Sheringham, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored for a miracle comeback.

United won the Premier League again in 1999-2000 and 2000-01 as the fourth team to ever win three titles in a row. They claimed another title in 2002-03 and took the 2004 FA Cup, a record 11th win as the Glazer Family took over ownership. Another Premier League title came in 2006-07, and they repeated in 2007-08. With Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo leading the way, Ferguson won a second Champions League title in 2008 with a penalty kick win over Chelsea in Moscow.

They followed that with the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup and a 2009 League Cup to go with a third straight Premier League title. They won a second straight League Cup in 2010 and set a record with their 19th league title in 2010-11. United extended that record to 20 titles in 2012-13 before Ferguson retired.

After Ferguson left, United cycled through managers with little success to finish out the decade. David Moyes lasted 10 months, Giggs was an interim manager and United missed out on European competition for the first time since 1990. Louis van Gaal won a FA Cup title in 2016 but was fired two days later in favor of Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho led United to a Community Shield. League Cup and Europa League win but was fired in December 2018 with the team in sixth place. Solskjaer was next, leading the team back to the Champions League. He directed a second-place Premier League finish in 2020-21 but never won a trophy and was fired in November 2021. Interim manager Ralf Ragnick took United to their lowest Premier League finish ever and Erik ten Hag took over for the 2022-23 season.

Manchester United has major rivalries that impact both the fans and the Premier League standings. The most hated rival of United and their fans is the rivalry with Liverpool. The Manchester Derby with Manchester City is another rivalry as the teams battle to turn the city blue (City) or red (United). They have also enjoyed heated rivalries with Leeds United, Arsenal, and Chelsea through the years.