EPL: History of MANCHESTER UNITED

Manchester United were founded in 1878, when a group of railway carriage and wagon workers formed a team in the north-east of Manchester. In those days, the team wore green and yellow coloured shirts, and went by the name of "Newton Heath" . The amateur players at Newton Heath managed to draw as many as two-thousand spectators a game, and competed in the Lancashire and Manchester leagues with limited success.

When the leagues were formed in 1888, Newton Heath were not elected into the top division in England. Instead, they played in the "Football alliance". The team eventually earned entry to the first division but only due to the fact that they were extending the number of teams in the league.
Gaining top flight football didn't help the fortunes of Newton Heath. Since the introduction of professional football in England in 1885, Newton Heath had been losing money steadily, and by 1902, when they were close to £3000 in debt, the creditors moved in.
Luckily for the club, they found a rich benefactor just in time, who saw fit to pay the debts, invest in the team, and help the reformed and renamed "Manchester United" move to a new home.

John H Davies overlooked the design and development of Old Trafford as an 80,000 capacity arena, though it was the inspirational Billy Meredith who was the mastermind on the pitch, it was Davies' money that led United to their first honours the league title in 1907, and the FA Cup in 1908.
League was interrupted by the First World War.1927 was the next significant year for Manchester United: They switched to playing in their famous red shirts.

The Second World War interrupted the development of United. Old Trafford was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1941, and was not rebuilt until 1949. In the meantime, local rivals Manchester City let United share their stadium. They won the league in 1951. In 1952, Hardman chose to give youth a chance.The youth players had played together for years and took the first division by storm. Indeed, they could have gained an inaugural League and Cup double in 1957 had their goalkeeper, Ray Wood, not been injured in the FA Cup final. Duncan Edwards was the shining light in a sparkling team which had been dubbed "The Busby Babes" (After manager Matt Busby) due to the teams youthfulness.
The following year, they were again challenging for honours in both the league and cup. They were also in their first ever European Cup. After beating Red Star Belgrade in the quarter finals of the competition, and securing their place in the semi-finals, tragedy struck.

On the way home from Belgrade on February 6th 1958 the plane stopped in Munich for refuelling. On an icy run-way the plane tried and failed to take off twice. On its third attempt, the plane finally went up, but came back down again just a few miles past the end of the run-way, crashing through a house, and bursting into a ball of flames. 23 people died in total, including club captain Roger Byrne and many other players and staff. Some survived the crash but were never able to play football again. Duncan Edwards, who died after fighting for his life in a hospital, was perhaps the most tragic loss. He was arguably the greatest player of his generation, and was destined for greatness for both England and Manchester United. United legend Sir Bobby Charlton, who survived the crash, described Edwards as "The greatest player I ever played with or against".
10years later , in 1968 manchester united won their first european title 'champions league' with the help of great players like Bobby Charlton and George Best.

The years rolled by, with United even getting relegated in 1977.

In 1986 Sir Alex Ferguson got hired as manager by then-chairman Martin Edwards. Ferguson had a rough start to his Old Trafford career, but was given time to work his magic at building a match-winning team. His team won the FA Cup in 1990, and, 26 years after they had last won it, the League championship in 1993 in its first year as "The FA Premier League".
Slowly bringing them up to the first team, "Fergie's Fledglings" showed that youthfulness and skill can be more than enough to beat experienced players. The youngsters such as Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Butt and the Neville brothers fitted seamlessly into the first team, and continued the clubs winning ways in the League.
In 1999, Ferguson's team made it into the final of the Champions League with an enthralling victory over mighty Juventus. They played against German team Bayern Munich in the final. They were a goal down with minutes to go when they received a corner. Ferguson took his chance to substitute two strikers on for defenders in the hope of scoring to take the game to extra-time. Sheringham scored the equaliser as hoped, and then Solskjaer struck to make it 2-1 with only 30 seconds left. Winning the Champions League completed an extraordinary treble, with the Premier League title the FA Cup also being taken by United in 1999.
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