19/04 - 13:00
19/04 - 17:00
19/04 - 17:30
19/04 - 19:45
19/04 - 20:00
19/04 - 20:00
19/04 - 20:00
19/04 - 13:00
19/04 - 17:00
19/04 - 17:30
19/04 - 19:45
19/04 - 20:00
19/04 - 20:00
19/04 - 20:00
From the industry through to poetry, as well as looking at its immortalising paintings, the city of Manchester is proud of its history and of its identity.
Motor city of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, where the deplorable condition of workers would be a object of study to Friederich Engels, who lived in there, and Karl Marx, the city of Manchester saw pop culture icons such as The Smiths, Joy Division or Stone Roses born within its borders, but Manchester United are its most famous and winning symbol.
Newton Heath LYR
Founded in 1878 with the name Newton Heath L&YR Football club and formed by workers and rail workers from Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) in the Newton Heath in Manchester, the club participated for the first time in the English Football League in 1892. By then, it had already become independent from LYR and were just names Newton Heath FC.
In January 1902, with a debt of £2,670 - the equivalent to £210,000 in current exchange - the club faced an insolvency declaration. Captain Harry Stafford gathered together four local investors, including John Henry Davies, who guaranteed the club’s continuity with an individual investment of £500. On April 26, they would change the official name of the club. Manchester United was born.
Pioneers: Davies and Mangnall
Some of the heroes of that conquest had been recruited to neighbours Manchester City, who were suspended for having exceeded the salary cap allowed by the English league, giving birth to a historical rivalry between the two Mancunian clubs.
A year later, the club moved to Old Trafford, their home, their mythical stadium which with time would be known as the “Theatre of Dreams”.
In 1911, Manchester United conquered their second championship, before they saw Mangnall depart for Manchester City, in the first time the Citizens took revenge on the Red Devils.
The club would then enter a stage of slow decline, which would culminate with their first relegation in 1922. To fight off the bad momentum, the club hired Scottish manager Jack Chapman, the first “non-English” to take the Red Devils’ helm, initiating a long tradition between the club and Scottish coaches, which would be a synonym to success.
After returning to the first division in 1925, United would be relegated again in 1931, one year before they paired up with Manchester City, to successfully stop Manchester Central to ascend to the top flight, in order to stop the city from dividing itself in three clubs.
The 1930s would continue with several relegations and promotions, but the club was in the first division by the time the league was interrupted by the Second World War in 1939.
On his first season in charge, Busby drove his players to a runners-up position (the first of four in five years), only to lead the team to FA Cup glory the following year, 39 years after the first conquest.
In 1952 he would win the league after a 41-year in blank. He would repeat the conquest four years later, with a team with a 22-year average which stunned England by scoring 106 goals in one season - a new record - and which would go into history books as the Busby Babes. A new promising phase began in the history of the club.
They took part in the first edition ever of the European Champions Clubs’ Cup and crushed Anderlecht with a 10-0 win before they were knocked down in the semi-finals by Di Stéfano’s Real Madrid.
Players such as Denis Law and Pat Crecarand and, of course, the unmistakable and genius George Best would join Bobby Charlton. The titles would return in 1965 and 1967, but the consecration arrived in 1968, at Wembley, after a 4-1 win over Benfica in the European Champions Clubs’ Cup final.
Complicated years, only softened with a triumph in three editions of the FA Cup, led the club to hire Scottish manager Alex Ferguson, who had led Aberdeen to win a UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, besides three Scottish leagues in a championship always dominated by Celtic and Rangers.
When Ferguson arrived, Man. United had seven leagues in their museum, quite far from the 16 conquered by their bitter rivals Liverpool. In 2011, 25 years after becoming manager of the Mancunian team, United became the English side with more championship titles (19), overtaking Liverpool’s record.
But the first years were hard, with the team continuing their long period without silverware. In 1989, he conquered the FA Cup, his first trophy as the Red Devils tactician, followed by the Cup Winners’ Cup the next year, conquered against Barcelona.
In May 2005, the Glazer family acquired great part of the clubs’ shares, controlling the club under the protest of many supporters, some of which abandoned the club to found the FC United of Manchester.
The club struggled in Europe and domestically, where a new-money Chelsea, controlled by Russian millionaire Roman Abramovich and managed by José Mourinho, “stole” the leadership of English football from the Red Devils.
After two seasons under the domination of the “Special One”, Fergie regained his monopoly after conquering another trophy to exhibit on Old Trafford’s museum.
Ryan Giggs outranked Bobby Charlton in the number of games played with United’s shirt, while Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo wrote new and brilliant pages in the club’s history, such as a 7-1 win against Roma for the Champions League.
Months later, the Portuguese star was sold to Spanish giants Real Madrid for a stunning £83 million, a new world record. However, the club didn’t feel the loss and with a team filled with young talents from all over the world, Manchester United continued to dominate the English panorama, outranking their contenders. In the meantime, they saw their old rivalry with Manchester City resurge after the Citizens were acquired by a billionaire Arab Sheikh.
More than 100 years after their foundation by the humble railway workers from Newton Heath, Manchester United have grown up to become the club with most supporters in the whole world and are currently considered as an example of good management and as a star-making machine. United are the greatest symbol of a centennial greatness of “Made in England” football.
