Sunday, May 4, 2008

Manchester United

HISTORY:-

The club was formed as Newton Heath L&YR F.C. in 1878 as the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. The club's shirts were green and gold halves. They played on a small, dilapidated field on North Road, near the future site of the Manchester Piccadilly railway station for fifteen years, before moving to Bank Street in the nearby town of Clayton in 1893. The club had entered the Football League the previous year and began to sever its links with the rail depot, becoming an independent company, appointing a club secretary and dropping the "L&YR" from their name to become simply Newton Heath F.C.. Not long afterwards, in 1902, the club neared bankruptcy, with debts of over £2500. At one point, their Bank Street ground was even closed by the bailiffs.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON ERA:-(1986-present):-Alex Ferguson arrived from Aberdeen to replace Atkinson and guided the club to an 11th place finish. The following season (1987–88), United finished second, with Brian McClair becoming the first United player since George Best to score twenty league goals in a season.
However, United struggled throughout the next two seasons, with many of Ferguson's signings not reaching the expectations of the fans. Alex Ferguson was reportedly on the verge of being sacked at the beginning of 1990 but a Mark Robins goal gave United a narrow 1–0 win in the third round of the FA Cup over Nottingham Forest. This kept the season alive, and the team went on to win the competition, beating Crystal Palace in a replay in the final.
United won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1990–91, beating that season's Spanish champions Barcelona in the final, but the following season was a disappointment as a late season slump saw them miss out on the league to rivals Leeds United. Meanwhile in 1991, the club floated on the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of £47 million,bringing its finances into the public eye.
The arrival of Eric Cantona in November 1992 provided the crucial spark for United, and blending with the best of trusted talent in Gary Pallister, Denis Irwin and Paul Ince, as well as budding stars like Ryan Giggs, they finished the 1992–93 season as champions for the first time since 1967. They won the double (the league and the FA Cup) for the first time the following season, aided by the capture of Roy Keane, a determined midfielder from Nottingham Forest, who would go on to become the team captain. In the same year, however, the club was plunged into mourning following the death of legendary manager and club president Sir Matt Busby, who died on 20 January 1994.
In 1994–95, Cantona received an eight month suspension for jumping into the crowd and assaulting Crystal Palace supporter Matthew Simmons, who had given Cantona racial abuse as he left the field, in United's game at Selhurst Park. Drawing their last league match and losing to Everton in the FA Cup final left United as runners-up in both the league and FA Cup. Ferguson then outraged the supporters by selling key players and replacing them with players from the club's youth team, including David Beckham, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes. The new players, several of whom quickly became regular internationals for England, did surprisingly well and United won the double again in 1995–96. This was the first time any English club had won the double twice, and the feat was nicknamed the "Double Double. They won the league in 1996–97, and Eric Cantona announced his retirement from football at the age of 30. They started the following season (1997–98) well, but they finished in second place, behind the double-winning champions Arsenal.

THE TREBLE :-(1998-1999):-The 1998–99 season for Manchester United was the most successful season in English club football history as they became the first and only English team to win The Treble — winning the Premiership, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League in the same season. After a very tense Premier League season, Manchester United won the title on the final day beating Tottenham Hotspur 2–1, whilst Arsenal won 1–0 against Aston Villa. Winning the Premiership was the first part of the Treble in place, the one part that manager Alex Ferguson described as the hardest. In the FA Cup Final United faced Newcastle United and won 2–0 with goals from Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes. In the final match of that season, the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final they defeated Bayern Munich in what is considered one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed, losing going into injury time and scoring twice to win 2–1. Ferguson was subsequently knighted for his services to football. Rounding out that record breaking year, Manchester United also won the Intercontinental Cup after beating Palmeiras 1–0 in Tokyo.

PRESENT:~~~

Main team squad == 1.Edwin Van Der Sar (goalkeeper)

2.Gary Neville (right back)

3.Patrice Evra (left back)

4.Owen Hargreaves (midfielder)

5.Rio Ferdinand (central defender)

6.Wes Brown (central defender)

7.Christiano Ronaldo (midfielder)

8.Oliviera Anderson (Midfielder)

9.Luis Saha (Forward)

10.Wayne Rooney(Forward)

11.Ryan Giggs (Left midfielder)

12.Ben Foster (goalkeeper)

13.Par-ji-sung (midfielder)

15.Nemanja Vidic (central defender)

16.Micheal Carrick (midfielder)

17.Luis Nani (Midfielder)

18.Paul Scholes (midfielder)

19.Gerard Pique (defender)

21. Dong Fangzhuo (forward)

22.John O'Shea (defender)

24.Darren Fletcher (MIdfielder)

27.Micheal Silvestre (defender)

29.Tomasz kuszczak (goalkeeper)

32.Carlos Tevez (Forward)

33.Chris Eagles (midfielder)

38.Tom Heaton (goalkeeper)

47.Danny Welbeck (forward)



PRESENT CAPTAIN :~~ GARY NEVILLE-the club captain born in greater manchester since ROBERT BYRNE


CLUB OFFICIALS:~~~


Owner: Malcolm Glazer
Honorary Life President: Martin Edwards
~Manchester United Limited~
Joint Chairmen: Joel Glazer & Avram Glazer
Directors: Bryan Glazer, Kevin Glazer, Edward Glazer & Darcie Glazer
Chief Executive: David Gill
Chief Operating Officer: Michael Bolingbroke
Commercial Director: Richard Arnold
~Manchester United football club~
Directors: David Gill, Michael Edelson, Sir Bobby Charlton, Maurice Watkins
Club Secretary: Ken Ramsden
Assistant Club Secretary: Ken Merrett
Global Ambassador: Bryan Robson
Coaching and Medical Staff
Manager: Sir Alex Ferguson
Assistant Manager: Carlos Queiroz
First Team Coach: Mike Phelan
Technical Skills Development Coach: René Meulensteen
First Team Coach (Strikers): Ole Gunnar Solskjær
Goalkeeping Coach: Richard Hartis (Acting)
Fitness Coach: Tony Strudwick
Strength & Conditioning Coach: Mick Clegg
Caretaker Reserve Team Coach: Brian McClair
Chief Scout: Jim Lawlor
Chief European Scout: Martin Ferguson
Director of Youth Academy: Brian McClair
Director of Youth Football: Jimmy Ryan
Club Doctor: Dr. Steve McNally
Assistant Club Doctor: Dr. Tony Gill
First Team Physiotherapist: Rob Swire

No comments:

Post a Comment