Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club was formed in Newton Heath in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR F.C., and played their
competitive match in October 1886, when they entered the First Round of the 1886–87 FA Cup. The club was renamed Manchester United F.C. in 1902, and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.
From the beginning of the club's official managerial records in 1892 to the start of the 2022–23 season, Manchester United have had 23 full-time managers. The current manager is Erik ten Hag who took over from interim manager Ralf Rangnick on 23 May 2022.
The longest-serving and most successful person to manage Manchester United is Sir Alex Ferguson, who won 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, 10 Community Shields, two UEFA Champions League titles, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup in his managerial reign of more than 26 years.
From 1878 to 1914, the team was selected by a committee whose secretary had the same powers and role as a manager has today. There were four secretaries during this period, A. H. Albut, James West, Ernest Mangnall and John Bentley.
Ernest Mangnall was the first man to bring any major silverware to the club, winning the club's first ever Football League title in 1908. This was followed by the FA Cup the following season, and another league title in 1911. Despite this success, though, he left the club a year later to join local rivals Manchester City. Coincidentally, Mangnall's last match in charge of United was the Old Trafford derby of 7 September 1912. [1] John Bentley took over as club secretary, but was replaced two years later by Jack Robson, who became the club's first full-time manager. He remained in the post for seven years, but resigned in December 1921 after succumbing to a bout of pneumonia. [2]
Robson was followed soon after by John Chapman. However, in Chapman's first season at the club, they were relegated to the Second Division for the first time since 1906. Three years in the Second Division followed, before promotion back to the First Division. After guiding the club to 9th place in the league and the FA Cup semi-finals in 1925–26, Chapman received a telegram from the Football Association on 8 October 1926 informing him of his suspension from management for the rest of the season; no reason was given. Half-back Lal Hilditch took over for the remainder of the season, before Herbert Bamlett took permanent control.
Bamlett was manager for four years, but was unable to muster any success, the club's highest position during his reign being 12th. [3] The club was relegated to the Second Division again in 1931, and Bamlett was replaced by club secretary Walter Crickmer. This was Crickmer's first of two spells as manager of the club, retaining his position as secretary all the while. It lasted only a season, though, as he failed to return the club to the First Division. In June 1932, Scott Duncan was appointed as manager, but in his second season in charge he led the club to what remains a club record lowest League position; 20th in the Second Division. The club held faith in Duncan though, and he managed to get the club back into the First Division by 1936. However, the club was relegated again the following year, and Walter Crickmer resumed control until the end of the Second World War.
Before the end of the war, the club approached Matt Busby, who had just turned down the opportunity to join the coaching staff at Liverpool, on the grounds that he wanted more responsibility over the playing side of the club than merely the selection of the team. [3] United allowed Busby the responsibilities he requested, and in his first five seasons in charge he guided the team to four second-place finishes in the league, before finally winning his first title in 1952. He soon set about replacing many of the more experienced players with a group of youths who came to be known as the "Busby Babes". This team went on to win two league titles in 1955–56 and 1956–57, as well as reaching two FA Cup finals. Unfortunately, the careers of many of the players were cut short by the Munich air disaster, which also left Busby fighting for his life. [4]
While Busby was in hospital recovering from the injuries he sustained in the air crash, his managerial duties were left to his assistant, Jimmy Murphy. After Busby recovered, he set about rebuilding his side, and within five years, in 1963, he had won the FA Cup for the first time in 15 years. This was followed up by two league titles in three years, and then the greatest prize in European club football, the European Cup. He continued as manager for one more year after this success, leaving his managerial duties to club trainer Wilf McGuinness. McGuinness struggled in his new post, however, and Busby was convinced to return for the second half of the 1970–71 season. [4] However, he retired from football permanently that summer, and was succeeded that summer by Frank O'Farrell. O'Farrell's stay was short-lived, though, as his inability to control George Best's extravagances forced the board to sack him with three years still to run on his contract.
O'Farrell's replacement was to be Scotland coach, Tommy Docherty. Docherty left the Scotland job and his first task at United was to keep the club in the top flight. He managed it once, but he was unable to pull it off again and the club was relegated in 1973–74. They bounced straight back up the following season, though, and in their first season back in the top flight, the team cruised to a third-place finish and yet another FA Cup final. The next year, they went one better, beating Liverpool in the final to claim his first and only trophy at Old Trafford. It was soon discovered, however, that Docherty was having an affair with the wife of the club's physiotherapist, and he was immediately fired, [5] replaced by Queens Park Rangers' manager Dave Sexton.
Sexton remained in the United job for four years, but was unable to produce any silverware, and was replaced in 1981 by Ron Atkinson. Atkinson was able to rekindle the club's cup success, leading his side to two FA Cups in his five-year tenure. He also oversaw a series of respectable finishes in the league, but after his disastrous start to the 1986–87 season, he was sacked. [6] His replacement, Alex Ferguson, had, in recent years, become the first manager to break the dominance of Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish league for over 15 years, winning the Scottish Premier Division title with Aberdeen three times in six years, as well as finishing as runner-up twice and winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983.
During his tenure, Ferguson was credited with the distinction of making some of the most shrewd purchases in the club's history, including the signings of Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona, each for less than £1.5 million. [7] With these signings, combined with the club's many experienced players, Ferguson brought a European title in 1991 – first in 23 years, the club's first ever League Cup in 1992, and the league title for the first time in 26 years the next year. In the following decade, he won the Premier League title another six times, including a hat-trick of titles from 1999 to 2001, a feat that was unmatched until Pep Guardiola won the league three times in a row with Manchester City. In 1999, he also led the club to an unprecedented treble of Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. Subsequently, he added another three league titles to his trophy haul, despite a number of promises of retirement. [8] Ferguson won his 10th Premier League title in the 2007–08 season, and followed this up with his second Champions League title 10 days later. In 2008–09, Ferguson guided United to another Premier League title, making Manchester United the only club and him the only manager to have won the English league title three times in a row twice. His 12th title, in the 2010–11 season, was United's 19th overall, overtaking Liverpool's record of 18. Ferguson won his 13th and final league title in the 2012–13 season, making 20 titles overall for United. Near the end of the season, Ferguson announced his retirement, and he was replaced by Everton manager David Moyes. [9]
In his first match, Moyes gave United their 20th Community Shield and his first trophy as United manager; however, after failing to lead the club to Champions League qualification, he was sacked before the end of his first season, with Ryan Giggs taking temporary charge for the final four games of the 2013–14 season where the club finished seventh, their lowest league finish since the establishment of the Premier League. [10] Netherlands manager Louis van Gaal was appointed as Moyes' permanent replacement on 19 May 2014, taking charge after the end of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. [11] In his inaugural season, United signed many prominent players and returned to the Champions League with a 4th-place finish. In his second season, United finished in 5th place behind Manchester City, out of Champions League position, but won the 2015–16 FA Cup, the club's first in a dozen years. The board, however, decided that not enough progress had been made from the previous season and Van Gaal was sacked on 23 May 2016, just two days after lifting the cup. He was replaced by two-time European champion and two-time Chelsea boss José Mourinho four days later. Mourinho became United's fourth manager (including Giggs) in as many years since Ferguson's retirement. He won the League Cup and Europa League in his first season – the first UEFA Europa League title in the club's history and thus completing the UEFA treble, but failed to win any silverware in 2017–18 as United finished second in both the league and FA Cup. He was sacked on 18 December 2018 after the team won just seven of their opening 17 matches of the 2018–19 season. Former club forward Ole Gunnar Solskjær was appointed as caretaker manager for the rest of the season. [12] On 19 January 2019, Solskjær won his seventh out of seven games in charge of United, a new club record, and on 28 March 2019, following victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Solskjær was given the job permanently. He became the first former United player to manage the club permanently since Wilf McGuinness. [13] On 21 November 2021, Solskjær left his post as the first full-time manager since Frank O'Farrell to not win a trophy for United, just like McGuinness did, and was replaced by first-team coach Michael Carrick on caretaking basis until 2 December 2021. [14] German Ralf Rangnick was appointed interim manager until the end of the season. [15]
On 21 April 2022, Erik ten Hag was announced as the new full-time manager. [16] On 26 February 2023, he successfully brought United to their first competitive trophy in nearly six years as they won the EFL Cup final against Newcastle United. [17]
Information correct after match played on 25 May 2024. Only competitive matches are counted.
Image | Name | Nationality | From | To | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Win% [nb 1] | Honours | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A. H. Albut | England | 1889 | 26 May 1900 | 351 | 156 | 59 | 136 | 692 | 594 | 44.44 | [nb 2] [nb 3] | ||
James West | England | 27 May 1900 | September 1903 | 113 | 46 | 20 | 47 | 159 | 147 | 40.71 | [nb 2] [18] | ||
Ernest Mangnall | England | 10 October 1903 | 9 September 1912 | 373 | 202 | 76 | 95 | 700 | 476 | 54.16 | First Division titles 1 FA Cup 2 Charity Shields | 2 [nb 2] [19] | |
T. J. Wallworth | England | 9 September 1912 | 20 October 1912 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 50.00 | [nb 4] | ||
John Bentley | England | 28 October 1912 | 28 December 1914 | 82 | 36 | 16 | 30 | 127 | 110 | 43.90 | [nb 2] [20] | ||
Jack Robson | England | 28 December 1914 | 31 October 1921 | 139 | 41 | 42 | 56 | 183 | 207 | 29.50 | [21] | ||
John Chapman | Scotland | 31 October 1921 | 8 October 1926 | 221 | 86 | 58 | 77 | 287 | 274 | 38.91 | [22] | ||
Lal Hilditch p | England | 8 October 1926 | 13 April 1927 | 33 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 38 | 47 | 30.30 | [23] | ||
Herbert Bamlett | England | 13 April 1927 | 9 November 1931 | 183 | 57 | 42 | 84 | 280 | 374 | 31.15 | [24] | ||
Walter Crickmer | England | 9 November 1931 | 13 July 1932 | 43 | 17 | 8 | 18 | 72 | 76 | 39.53 | [25] | ||
Scott Duncan | Scotland | 13 July 1932 | 7 November 1937 | 235 | 92 | 53 | 90 | 371 | 362 | 39.15 | Second Division title | 1[26] | |
Walter Crickmer | England | 9 November 1937 | 15 February 1945 | 76 | 30 | 24 | 22 | 131 | 112 | 39.47 | [25] | ||
Matt Busby | Scotland | 1 October 1945 | 4 June 1969 | 1,120 | 565 | 263 | 292 | 2,286 | 1,536 | 50.45 | First Division titles 2 FA Cups 5 Charity Shields (inc. 2 shared) 1 European Cup | 5 [27] | |
Jimmy Murphy (caretaker) | Wales | February 1958 | June 1958 | 22 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 27 | 42 | 22.73 | [nb 5] [28] | ||
Wilf McGuinness | England | 4 June 1969 | 29 December 1970 | 87 | 32 | 32 | 23 | 127 | 111 | 36.78 | [29] | ||
Matt Busby | Scotland | 29 December 1970 | 8 June 1971 | 21 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 38 | 30 | 52.38 | [27] | ||
Frank O'Farrell | Ireland | 8 June 1971 | 19 December 1972 | 81 | 30 | 24 | 27 | 115 | 111 | 37.04 | [30] | ||
Tommy Docherty | Scotland | 22 December 1972 | 4 July 1977 | 228 | 107 | 56 | 65 | 333 | 252 | 46.93 | FA Cup 1 Second Division title | 1 [31] | |
Dave Sexton | England | 14 July 1977 | 30 April 1981 | 201 | 81 | 64 | 56 | 290 | 240 | 40.30 | Charity Shield (shared) | 1[32] | |
Ron Atkinson | England | 9 June 1981 | 6 November 1986 | 292 | 146 | 79 | 67 | 461 | 266 | 50.00 | FA Cups 1 Charity Shield | 2 [33] | |
Alex Ferguson | Scotland | 6 November 1986 | 19 May 2013 | 1,500 | 895 | 338 | 267 | 2,769 | 1,365 | 59.67 | Premier League titles 5 FA Cups 4 League Cups 10 Community Shields (inc. 1 shared) [nb 6] 2 UEFA Champions Leagues 1 European Cup Winners' Cup 1 European Super Cup 1 Intercontinental Cup 1 FIFA Club World Cup | 13 [34] [35] | |
David Moyes | Scotland | 1 July 2013 | 22 April 2014 | 51 | 27 | 9 | 15 | 86 | 54 | 52.94 | 1 Community Shield | [36] | |
Ryan Giggs p(caretaker) | Wales | 22 April 2014 | 11 May 2014 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 50.00 | [37] | ||
Louis van Gaal | Netherlands | 16 July 2014 | 23 May 2016 | 103 | 54 | 25 | 24 | 158 | 98 | 52.43 | 1 FA Cup | [38] | |
José Mourinho | Portugal | 27 May 2016 | 18 December 2018 | 144 | 84 | 32 | 28 | 244 | 121 | 58.33 | 1 UEFA Europa League 1 League Cup 1 Community Shield | [39] | |
Ole Gunnar Solskjær | Norway | 19 December 2018 [nb 7] | 21 November 2021 | 168 | 91 | 37 | 40 | 323 | 165 | 54.17 | [40] | ||
Michael Carrick (caretaker) | England | 21 November 2021 | 2 December 2021 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 66.67 | [41] | ||
Ralf Rangnick (interim) | Germany | 3 December 2021 | 22 May 2022 | 29 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 37 | 37 | 37.93 | [42] | ||
Erik ten Hag | Netherlands | 23 May 2022 | Incumbent | 114 | 66 | 17 | 31 | 196 | 148 | 57.89 | 1 FA Cup 1 League Cup | [43] |
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United, or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Nicknamed the Red Devils, they were founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, but changed their name to Manchester United in 1902. After a spell playing in Clayton, Manchester, the club moved to their current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910.
Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time and has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of football. Ferguson is often credited for valuing youth during his time with Manchester United, particularly in the 1990s with the "Class of '92", who contributed to making the club one of the richest and most successful in the world.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Premier League club Manchester United. He played as a forward. As a player, Solskjær spent the majority of his career with Manchester United and also played 67 times for the Norway national team.
Sir Alexander Matthew Busby was a Scottish football player and manager, who managed Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–71 season. He was the first manager of an English team to win the European Cup and is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time.
Old Trafford is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium in the United Kingdom, and the twelfth-largest in Europe. It is about 0.5 miles (800 m) from Old Trafford Cricket Ground and the adjacent tram stop.
Michael Christopher Phelan is an English professional football coach and former player and coach at Manchester United.
Brian Greenhoff was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Manchester United, Leeds United and Rochdale. He was capped 18 times for England.
JohnCrompton was an English professional footballer. Born in Hulme, Manchester, Lancashire, he was a goalkeeper for Manchester United between 1944 and 1956. He was part of the team that won the FA Cup in 1948 and the league title in 1952. During the Second World War, he played as a guest for Stockport County.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, they changed their name to Manchester United in 1902.
The period from 1986, when Alex Ferguson was appointed as Manchester United manager, to 2013, when he announced his retirement from football, was the most successful in the club's history. Ferguson joined the club from Aberdeen on the same day that Ron Atkinson was dismissed, and guided the club to an 11th-place finish in the league. Despite a second-place finish in 1987–88, the club was back in 11th place the following season. Reportedly on the verge of being dismissed, victory over Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup Final replay saved Ferguson's career. The following season, Manchester United claimed their first UEFA Cup Winners' Cup title. That triumph allowed the club to compete in the European Super Cup for the very first time, where United beat European Cup holders Red Star Belgrade 1–0 at Old Trafford. A second consecutive League Cup final appearance in 1992 saw the club win that competition for the first time as well, following a 1–0 win against Nottingham Forest at Wembley Stadium. In 1993, the club won its first league title since 1967, and a year later, for the first time since 1957, it won a second consecutive title – alongside the FA Cup – to complete the first "Double" in the club's history. United then became the first English club to do the Double twice when they won both competitions again in 1995–96, before retaining the league title once more in 1996–97 with a game to spare.
The Liverpool F.C.–Manchester United F.C. rivalry, sometimes referred to as the Northwest Derby, is a high-profile inter-city rivalry between English professional football clubs Liverpool and Manchester United. It is considered one of the biggest fixtures in English football and one of the biggest and fiercest rivalries in world football. Players, fans and the media consider the fixture between the two clubs to be their biggest rivalry, above even their own local derbies, with Everton and Manchester City respectively.
Fergie's Fledglings were a group of football players recruited by Manchester United under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson and trained by assistant coaches Brian Kidd and Eric Harrison, before eventually progressing to the first team during the 1990s.
Fabio Pereira da Silva, known as Fabio, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Brazilian club Grêmio.
William Noel McFarlane was an Irish footballer who played as a forward. Born in Bray, County Wicklow, he played junior football in Ireland before moving to England to join Manchester United in 1952. After four years in England, he returned to Ireland with Waterford before briefly retiring due to illness, only to return to England to play non-league football with Altrincham.
Manchester United Football Club is an English football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. They were the first English club to participate in a European competition, entering the European Cup in 1956. Since then, the club has competed in every UEFA-organised competition, with the exception of the now-defunct Intertoto Cup and Conference League.
Although Arsenal and Manchester United have frequently been in the same division in English football since 1919, the rivalry between the two clubs only became a fierce one in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the teams regularly competed against each other for the Premier League title and FA Cup. There was also an enmity between the managers, Arsenal's Arsène Wenger (1996–2018) and United's Sir Alex Ferguson (1986–2013), and club captains Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane, and their contests often involved on-field trouble – seven red cards were shown in matches from February 1997 to February 2005. The league fixture in September 2003, known as the "Battle of Old Trafford", was marred by a mêlée instigated by Arsenal players, who felt striker Ruud van Nistelrooy had cheated to get Vieira sent off. A season later, Manchester United ended Arsenal's unbeaten run in controversial circumstances, which led to more disorder, this time in the tunnel. Manchester United lead in trophies won with 68 honours compared to Arsenal's 48.
The 1971–72 season was Manchester United's 70th season in the Football League, and their 27th consecutive season in the top division of English football. In a pre-season competition United participated in the Watney Cup, which was contested by the teams that had scored the most goals in each of the four divisions of the Football League the previous season who had not been promoted or admitted to one of the European competitions.