{Busby Babes}{Duncan Edwards}{Munich air disaster}{The men United lost}
{The Flowers of Manchester}

Matt Busby may stand as the most charismatic of Manchester United managers. But even Sir Matt's record of achievement cannot compare with that of Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1990's which saw United, a commercial as well as footballing monolith, hailed as the richest club in the world.

United had been founded in 1878 as Newton Heath by employees of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. Ironically, considering events of 90 years later, Newton Heath went bankrupt in 1902 and it was out of that commercial failure that a new club, entitled Manchester United, was formed.
The club floated in and out of the top division between the wars, but it was the 1948 F.A.Cup Final victory which provided the spark for the future. United twice hit back from a goal down to defeat Stanley Matthews's Blackpool 4-2 in what remains considered one of the great F.A. Cup Finals.

This was the first outstanding team built by manager Busby, who had played before the war for neighbour Manchester City. His second outstanding team were the so-called 'Busby Babes' of the mid-1950's. United defied establishment orders and entered the European Champions Cup in 1956-57.

They opened with a 10-0 thrashing of Belgium's Anderlecht and never looked back......not even in the bleak days of February 1958, after eight players including England Internationals Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards, died in the Munich air disaster.

It took United 10 years to recover, in international terms. Thus it was in May, 1968 that United's European quest was rewarded as they defeated Benfica 4-1 in extra-time at Wembley. Bobby Charlton, a Munich survivor along with defender Bill Foulkes and manager Busby, scored twice to secure the club's most emotional triumph.
Foulkes himself had scored the tie-winner in a dramatic semi-final against Real Madrid.The club became synonymous with entertaining, attacking football as epitomized by the talents of Charlton, Denis Law and the wayward but mesmeric Northern Irishman, George Best. Later came England's long-serving skipper Bryan Robson, who was still in harness in 1993 when United, under Alex Ferguson, regained the English league title for the first time in 26 years.

Ferguson, brought south from Aberdeen, had managed on a knife-edge in his early days. Victory in the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1991.....United were first back, appropriately, after the five-year post-Heysel ban, proved that Ferguson was on the right lines. Events in the next decade underlined the point. An unprecedented 'Double Double' of League and F.A. Cup arrived in 1994 and 1996, before the unforgettable 'Treble' of League, F.A. Cup and European Cup in 1999. Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and French forward Eric Cantona contributed the cosmopolitan icing to the most successful English club recipe of the 1990's.
 

{Busby Babes}{Duncan Edwards}{Munich air disaster}{The men United lost}
{The Flowers of Manchester}