Klub ini dibentuk pada tahun 1878 dengan nama Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club (Newton Heath LYR F.C.) oleh para pekerja rel kereta api di Newton Heath. Mereka bermain di sebuah lapangan kecil di North Road, dekat stasiun kereta api Piccadilly Manchester selama lima belas tahun, sebelum pindah ke Bank Street di kota dekat Clayton pada 1893. Tim sudah menjadi anggota Football League setahun sebelumnya dan mulai memutuskan hubungannya dengan stasiun kereta api, untuk menjadi sebuah perusahaan mandiri, mengangkat seorang sekretaris dan membuang nama belakang "LYR" sehingga menjadi Newton Heath F.C saja.
Namun pada tahun 1902, tim nyaris bangkrut, dengan utang lebih dari £2500 dan bahkan lapangan Bank Street mereka pun telah ditutup. Hanya beberapa saat sebelum klub diputuskan untuk dibubarkan, klub tiba-tiba mendapatkan suntikan dana dari J.H. Davies, direktur sebuah perusahaan bir Manchester Breweries. Ceritanya adalah sang kapten tim, Harry Stafford, memamerkan anjingnya pada acara pengumpulan dana untuk klub. Anjing berjenis St. Bernard itu ditaksir oleh Davies dan ia ingin membelinya. Tawaran itu ditolak Stafford dan sebagai gantinya ia menawarkan Davies untuk menginvestasikan uangnya pada klub sepakbolanya sekaligus menjadi chairman Newton Heath FC.
Tawaran itu diterima dan selamatlah Newton Heath dari kebangkrutan. Setelah itu diadakanlah sebuah rapat untuk mengganti nama klub untuk menandai awal kebangkitan klub. Nama ‘Manchester Central’ dan ‘Manchester Celtic’ mencuat untuk menjadi kandidat kuat nama baru sebelum Louis Rocca, seorang anak muda imigran Italia, berkata “Bapak-bapak, mengapa tidak kita pakai nama Manchester United ?” Nama yang diusulkan Rocca disetujui dan secara resmi mulai dipakai pada 26 April 1902. Davies sang chairman baru, juga memutuskan untuk mengganti warna tim dari hijau keemasan menjadi merah-putih sebagai warna Manchester United.
1969–1986
Main article: History of Manchester United F.C. (1969–1986)
Manchester United badge in the 1960s
Following an eighth-place finish in the 1969–70 season and a poor start to the 1970–71 season, Busby was persuaded to temporarily resume managerial duties, and McGuinness returned to his position as reserve team coach. Results improved, but Busby finally left the club in the summer of 1971, by which time it had lost a number of high-profile players, including Nobby Stiles and Pat Crerand.[27]
In June 1971, Frank O'Farrell was appointed as Busby's successor,[28] but he lasted less than 18 months before he was replaced by Tommy Docherty in December 1972. Docherty succeeded in saving Manchester United from relegation that season, only to see them relegated in 1974, by which time the trio of Best, Law, and Charlton had left the club.[25] The team won promotion at the first attempt, and reached the FA Cup final in 1976, but were beaten by Southampton; they reached the final again in 1977, beating Liverpool 2–1. In spite of this success, Docherty was dismissed shortly afterwards following revelations regarding his affair with the club physiotherapist's wife.[29][30]
Dave Sexton replaced Docherty as manager in the summer of 1977, but despite major signings, including Joe Jordan, Gordon McQueen, Gary Bailey, and Ray Wilkins, the team failed to achieve anything of significance; they finished in the top two in 1979–80 and lost to Arsenal in the 1979 FA Cup Final. Lack of success led to Sexton's dismissal in 1981, even though the team won his last seven games in charge.
Sexton was replaced by Ron Atkinson, who immediately broke the British record transfer fee to sign Bryan Robson from his old club, West Bromwich Albion. Under Atkinson, Manchester United won the FA Cup twice in three years – in 1983 and 1985 – and, after 13 wins and two draws in their first 15 matches, were favourites to win the league in 1985–86; however, their form collapsed and they finished in fourth place. Their poor form continued into the following season, and with the club in danger of entering the relegation zone by the beginning of November 1986, Atkinson was dismissed.
Old Trafford
Newton Heath played on a field on North Road from 1878 until moving to Bank Street in Clayton in 1893. When this ground was closed by bailiffs in 1902, club captain Harry Stafford raised enough money to pay for the club's next away game at Bristol City and found a temporary ground at Harpurhey for the next home game against Blackpool.[66]
Six weeks before United's first FA Cup title in April 1909, Old Trafford was named as the home of Manchester United, following the purchase of land for around £60,000. Architect Archibald Leitch was given a budget of £30,000 for construction; original plans indicated that the stadium would hold around 100,000, though this was revised to 77,000 when the budget became stretched. Construction was carried out by Messrs Brameld and Smith of Manchester. At the opening of the stadium, standing tickets cost sixpence, while seats in the grandstand cost up to five shillings.[67] The stadium's record attendance was recorded on 25 March 1939, when an FA Cup semi-final between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Grimsby Town had 76,962 spectators.
Bombing during the Second World War destroyed much of the stadium; the central tunnel in the South Stand was all that remained of that quarter of the ground. After the war, the club received compensation from the War Damage Commission to the value of £22,278 for the reconstruction of the ground, during which time the team played their "home" games at Manchester City's Maine Road ground; Manchester United were charged £5,000 per year, plus a nominal percentage of the gate receipts.[68]
Subsequent improvements included the addition of roofs, first to the Stretford End and then to the North and East Stands. However, the roofs were supported by pillars that obstructed many fans' views, and they were eventually replaced with a cantilevered structure. The Stretford End was the last stand to receive a cantilevered roof, the work being completed in time for the 1993–94 season.[69] First used on 25 March 1957 and costing £40,000, four 180-foot (55 m)-tall pylons were erected, each housing 54 individual floodlights. These were dismantled in 1987 and replaced by a lighting system embedded in the roof of each stand that remains in use today.[70]
The Taylor Report's requirement for an all-seater stadium lowered capacity at Old Trafford to around 44,000 by 1993. In 1995, the North Stand was redeveloped into three tiers, restoring the capacity to approximately 55,000. At the end of the 1998–99 season, second tiers were added to the East and West Stands, raising the capacity to around 67,000, and between July 2005 and May 2006, seating capacity was increased by 8,000 seats with the addition of a second tier to the north-west and north-east quadrants. Part of the new seating was used for the first time on 26 March 2006, when an attendance of 69,070 became a new Premier League record.[71] The record continued to be pushed upwards before reaching its peak on 31 March 2007, when 76,098 spectators saw United beat Blackburn Rovers 4–1, meaning that just 114 seats (0.15% of the total capacity of 76,212) were unoccupied.[72] In 2009, reorganisation of the seating resulted in a reduction of the capacity by 255 to 75,957.[2][73]
Further development could cost up to £114 million, equalling the amount spent on the stadium in the last fourteen years, as the club would have to acquire up to fifty houses and any extension would have to be built over the adjacent railway line. The expansion would likely include adding additional tiers to the South Stand and filling in the South-West and South-East quadrants to restore the "bowl" effect. Estimates project the capacity of the completed stadium at approximately 96,000, more than the new Wembley Stadium.[69]
No comments:
Post a Comment