Manchester United Football Club, also known as Man United (also known as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England.
The club plays in the highest division of the English football league, the Premier League. Founded in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club, also referred to as the Red Devils, the team changed its name to Manchester United in 1902.
In 1910, the team moved to Old Trafford, its current stadium, from Clayton, Manchester.
At home, Manchester United holds records for most Premier League victories (20), FA Cups (12), League Cups (6), and FA Community Shields (21).
In international football, they have won the UEFA Champions League three times, as well as the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup once apiece.
When Was Manchester United Football Club Founded?
Manchester United began as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878. The owners of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company allowed the employees to create a football club to keep them in shape and spend their time.
It was one of the most prevalent ways for football clubs to be created at the time, along with churches wanting to keep young men out of taverns.
Newton Heath struggled in its early days. Alf H. Albut was the first secretary, and he worked tirelessly to keep the club going, which attracted some entertaining people in its early days.
Albut was a schemer, known as Newton Heath’s Del Boy. He became the club’s first full-time employee after it joined the Football League in 1892.
A crew of brutes was assembled, led by the brilliantly named Caesar Lleywyn Jenkyns. In terms of his ferocious playing style, the Welsh striker, who previously played for Arsenal, is more akin to Brutus than Caesar.
In 1888, Newton Heath joined the Combination, a league that attempted to compete with the Football League. It failed.
It was established by Crewe Secretary James G. Hall. Crewe had just reached the FA Cup semi-finals, but they were defeated by Preston North End at Everton’s home ground, Anfield.
Football was in its early years. Teams played in a 2-3-5 shape; club managers were known as secretaries, and the team was chosen by a selection committee.
Referees called the game from the touchline, and goalkeepers were referred to as ‘custodians’. Kits were uniforms.
The two-handed throw-in was established in 1882, the crossbar was still a notion and was only a ‘cross-tape’, captains were not adopted until 1886, and goal nets did not yet exist. Professionalism was just recently permitted by the Football Association.
Newton Heath, who wore green and gold, was hardly a model professional. According to the Lancashire FA’s history, the pitch at Newton Heath was “in places hard as flint, with ashes underneath that had become like iron, and in others thick with mud.”
The club itself described it just after the turn of the century as “little more than a clay pit, its surroundings a quagmire.” Newton Heath’s colors changed from green and gold to blue and white.
However, by 1902, Newton Heath’s financial problems had become increasingly apparent. Debt collectors quickly took any money received from matchday ticket sales.
Court cases were heard, and the club was repeatedly handed longer and longer deadlines to raise funds to stay solvent.
According to the Lancashire FA’s history, the pitch at Newton Heath was “in places hard as flint, with ashes underneath that had become like iron, and in others thick with mud.”
The club itself described it just after the turn of the century as “little more than a clay pit, its surroundings a quagmire.” Newton Heath’s colors changed from green and gold to blue and white.
However, by 1902, Newton Heath’s financial problems had become increasingly apparent. Debt collectors quickly took any money received from matchday ticket sales.
Court cases were heard, and the club was repeatedly handed longer and longer deadlines to raise funds to stay solvent.
United has been paying players under the table, paying dubious signing-on fees, and engaging in a variety of other questionable practices, including bookkeeping.
Ernest Mangnall became the club’s secretary after helping the nearby town of Burnley through years of financial hardship.
Mangnall was a fitness fanatic who believed in “the mumbo-jumbo of ball starvation,” according to author Ean Gardiner’s biography of Harry Stafford.
But with the support of Stafford, Davies’ money, and the youthful Louis Rocca, Mangnall was able to bring in a slew of outstanding players. By 1907, United had advanced to the First Division.
In only their second year, 1908, they won the championship with a great backline that included Duckworth-Roberts-Bell, Welsh wizard Billy Meredith on the wing, and Sandy Turnbull up front.
Harry Moger also had excellent goalkeeping skills. After winning the league, United won the FA Cup in 1909.
Mangnall would take command of United while Davies provided the finances for a transfer to the opulent Old Trafford stadium.
The Reds had relocated across the city, provoking some controversy, but now occupy the best football stadium in the country.
Before joining rival City and departing United in 1912, Mangnall claimed yet another league title.
United struggled greatly as a result of the departure of key players and the First World War. They would not fully recover until 1931 when financial problems resurfaced.
This time, James W. Gibson, an army apparel and supply manufacturer, stepped in.
He was approached by a local football writer and agreed to invest money in United. Once again, the club was on its way back to greatness.
It was only transitory, however. However, United had laid the groundwork for success with the establishment of MUJAC, the Manchester United Junior Athletic Club.
It was one of football’s first genuine academies, and it rapidly began producing talented players. Louis Rocca and Walter Crickmer assisted in putting it up and combed Greater Manchester for the finest talent in the land.
Johnny Carey and Stan Pearson were two of the best players to come off the production line.
Both would compete in the 1948 FA Cup final. Matt Busby took over as manager following an offer from Rocca after WWII.
Hitler’s bombers had wreaked havoc on United’s Old Trafford stadium, and Busby joined a struggling club. He took in Jimmy Murphy as his assistant after working with him during the war.
The pair were a formidable force, and their 1948 Cup victory was well deserved. However, Busby soon had to rebuild his team.
Many of the players who contributed to his success were nearing the end of their careers, which had been disrupted by the war.