Manchester United boast of the richest legacy in English football. Hundreds of people have worked to make sure this club reach the pinnacle of football. From the days of the Busby Babes to Fergie’s fledgelings, there have been many influential personalities, including players, managers, administrators and more, who have transformed Manchester United to the footballing giant we know of today.
20 league titles, 3 European Championships and countless other trophies later, Manchester United are not just a football club anymore, they are a brand synonymous with winning and style.
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Here, we look at the 5 personalities without whom this would have been impossible:
#5 Eric Cantona – The Frenchmen with the winning touch
Manchester United were close to forming a title winning team in 1992. But without a title for 26 years, the fans knew what it meant to come agonisingly close to the title but failing at the final hurdle. The team lacked the winning mentality that was required to win the league title.
Eric Cantona was signed mid-season by Sir Alex Ferguson in 1992 for a then record transfer fee of £1.2m from Leeds. Little did anyone know that this would go on to become the most influential signing of the modern era. When he signed, Manchester United were in 4th position and another season without the title loomed large. But Cantona’s never say die mentality and scoring instinct reverberated throughout the squad. He led them to their first-ever Premier League title and they never looked back.
In the summer of 1995, Manchester United had lost the league title to Blackburn. Sir Alex decided that it was time for a squad overhaul and he sold Paul Parker, Steve Bruce and Kanchelskis without signing their replacements. Instead, he promoted youngsters into the first time, most notably the stars of the ‘Class of ‘92’, as they would later come to be called. David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phill Neville and Nicky Butt had their breakthrough season and they were led into the battlefield each time by Eric Cantona.
Cantona’s winning mentality seeped through these players and the foundations of the Manchester United we know today were set then. Despite his numerous controversies, Eric Cantona will forever be remembered in Manchester United folklore quite fondly.
#4 Jimmy Murphy - The man who rebuilt Manchester United
Jimmy Murphy was an assistant manager, chief coach, reserve team manager, a full-time scout and a part-time manager for Manchester United from 1946 to 1970s. So how does a person who was neither a player nor a manager make this list?
After the Munich tragedy in 1958, Manchester United lost most of their team and the manager, Matt Busby, was in the hospital for nearly two months. Jimmy Murphy was fortunately not on the plane. He was the one who worked with the players right from the moment they arrived at Manchester United’s doorstep, nurturing them and harnessing their talents. This tragedy would have broken most men but not the Welshman.
Jimmy Murphy famously prevented the club from going into administration. He temporarily took over as the manager, signed emergency players on short notice, assembled a substitute team and steered them to the final of the FA Cup.
Writing in his autobiography Murphy explained: “As my mind dwelt on the full appalling horror of it all I thought I would go mad, although I was doing my best to think about the future.” The very existence of Manchester United is owed to this great Welshman and his bravery during the toughest of times.
Manchester United later commissioned ‘Jimmy Murphy Young player of the year’ award in Murphy’s honour.
#3 Sir Matt Busby
Sir Matthew Busby is possibly the only former Liverpool and Manchester City player that the Red Devils remember so fondly. On 1st October 1945, Busby took over the reins at Old Trafford and taught the club and its fans how to dream. Along with Jimmy Murphy as his assistant, he made an immediate impact on the club, taking them to runners-up position in his first league season in charge.
Sir Busby led the club to an FA Cup win in 1948, their first trophy since 1911. He also led the club to runners-up position in 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951. Finally, in 1953, Manchester United won their first league title under Sir Matt Busby. But his biggest achievements were his efforts after 1953. While Manchester United had the funds to replace the ageing squads with experienced players from other clubs, Busby set a precedent to be followed by every manager since.
He brought in players as young as 16 and 17 from the academy, put them through their paces and gave them a chance to prove themselves. This included players like right-back Bill Foulkes, centre-backs Mark Jones and Jackie Blanchflower, wingers Albert Scanlon and David Pegg, forward Liam Whelan, midfielder Sir Bobby Charlton but most famously, Duncan Edwards.
Edwards was known as the finest English player of that era. In 1956, he led this team to another league title and refused a contract from then European Champions, Real Madrid. This team was affectionately known as the ‘Busby Babes’.
Tragedy struck in 1958, as the infamous Munich Airplane crash wiped out an entire generation of their players. Sir Matt Busby survived but remained in the hospital for months. Busby went against the advice of English FA and took the club to the European Cup. Bearing the unfair guilt of being responsible for this crash, Sir Matt Busby decided against retiring and took control of the club again at the end of the season again.
Within years he built another young squad around survivors like Sir Bobby Charlton and Harry Greg. He signed Denis Law and a 15-year-old Belfast winger, who went by the name of George Best.
This squad won them the FA Cup in 1963, league titles in 1965 and 1967, but 10 years after the Munich tragedy, Manchester United did the impossible - they went on to win European Cup in 1968. Although the club steadily went downhill after this, Sir Matt Busby had done his job and rebuilt a club from the ashes.
#2 James W. Gibson - The man who saved Manchester United
The name is hardly remembered even by the most ardent Man Utd supporter but the club owes it’s very existence to this businessman. James W. Gibson first paid £22,000 to the club in 1931 to pay off it’s debt and even bought turkeys for the players for Christmas.
Later he formed the first ever youth academy for the club, which formed the foundations for the Busby Babes and the Fergie's Fledglings. He oversaw the tenancy of what would become later, the Cliff – United’s training ground for more than half a century.
He persuaded Midland’s Railway to stop trains at Old Trafford station so that it would become easier for the fans to travel, and when Old Trafford was bombed in 1941, he ensured that the Parliament would provide funding to United along with 9 other grounds.
He went on to sign Sir Matt Busby for the club and ensured that the club rose to new heights. In his honour, a red plaque on a railway bridge on the Sir Matt Busby Way has been unveiled along with a plaque in the player’s tunnel.
#1 Sir Alex Ferguson - The Godfather
The name that has become synonymous with Manchester United football club, Sir Alex took over the club in November 1986 with the team languishing in 18th position.
The players were unprofessional and the scouting system had weakened through the years. Teams like Liverpool, Everton, and Arsenal had left them behind in terms of trophies and glory. Even competing for the league title seemed a far-fetched thought. What transpired over the 27 years of him incharge was beyond anyone’s imagination.
The Scotsman sold off big stars with unprofessional attitudes, revamped the scouting and academy structure, and instilled a sense of belief in the club. The ‘never say die attitude’ was ever present every time the team took to the field. Signing players like Mark Hughes and Eric Cantona led them to the first league title in 26 years in 1993.
Later, he sold the same players that won him the double in 1994 in favour of youngsters like David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers. This group would go on to become the most famous group of young players in England known as the “Class of 92”. Along with mavericks like Roy Keane and Peter Schmeichel, he signed players like Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole and the original baby-faced assassin, Ole Solksjaer.
This squad went on to win the historic treble, a feat yet to be equalled by an English club.
Known for their ability to inspire a comeback from the dead, Sir Alex Ferguson himself made a comeback from his self-imposed retirement in 2001. While they won only one league title from 2001 to 2006, he made important signings including Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano Ronaldo.
From a skinny teenager from Portugal, the Scottish manager inspired Ronaldo to become the best player in the world. Three consecutive league titles from 2006 to 2009 and the famous Champions league in 2008 completed his comeback. Even after Ronaldo left, Sir Alex steered his depleted side to two more league wins.
Over the course of his United career, Sir Alex won a record number of trophies – 49. From being 11 league titles behind Liverpool in 1992, Sir Alex retired in 2013 having won 13 league titles and thus surpassing Liverpool in 2011.
He also won 5 FA Cups, two European Championships, 10 community shields, 4 league cups, and 1 Club World Cup, Supercup, Cup Winner’s cup each. Manchester United was transformed from the underachieving club in the 1980s to the most famous club in the world by the time he retired. The void left by him is yet to be properly filled 3 years after his retirement. Sir Alex Ferguson will go down in the history books as arguably the greatest manager of all time.
