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Sir Alex Ferguson has been manager of Manchester United since November 1986.
Alex Ferguson arrived from Aberdeen to replace Atkinson on the very day that Atkinson was sacked, bringing
with him his assistant manager, Archie Knox. Although his first match in charge, against Oxford United
on 8 November 1986, resulted in a 2-0 defeat, Ferguson guided the club to an 11th place finish in the league.
A second place finish in 1987-88, with Brian McClair becoming the first United player since George Best to
score twenty league goals in a season, may have given fans a tiny glimpse of the future, but they soon
returned to mediocrity with another 11th-place finish in 1989. 1990 saw United reach the cup final at Wembley,
where they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 in a replay after a 3-3 draw in the original match. The following year,
United reached the final of the League Cup, but lost 1-0 to former manager Ron Atkinson's Sheffield Wednesday
team. However, the season was capped by the club's first Cup Winners' Cup title, beating Barcelona 2-1
in the final in Rotterdam. The Cup Winners' Cup triumph allowed the team to play in the 1991 UEFA Super Cup,
in which they beat European Cup holders Red Star Belgrade 1-0 at Old Trafford. The match should have been
played over two legs, but, due to political unrest in Yugoslavia at the time, UEFA decided that only the
Old Trafford leg would be played. A second consecutive League Cup final appearance followed in 1992,
with United this time beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 at Wembley.
In 1991, requiring some extra financial support in the wake of the Taylor Report, the club floated on
the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of 47 million pounds bringing its finances into the public eye.
Martin Edwards retained his position as chairman, but the club was now publicly owned.
The summer of 1991 also saw the arrival of Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, whose 17 league
clean sheets gave United the best defensive record in the First Division in 1991-92, helping them to a
second-place finish behind Leeds United. In November 1992 Eric Cantona was signed from Leeds United for
a fee of 1.2 million pounds. Cantona's arrival provided the crucial spark for United, helping the team to
their first league title since 1967. After the signing of Roy Keane from Nottingham Forest in July 1993,
United won a second consecutive title for the first time since 1957 the following year, before winning the
FA Cup to complete the first "Double" in the club's history. That same year, however, the club went into
mourning following the death of former manager and club director Matt Busby, who died on 20 January 1994.
The 1994-95 season was to be the club's first trophyless season since 1988-89, although they managed
to take the title race down to the final week of the season and reached the final of the FA Cup, where they
lost to Everton. Andy Cole was signed from Newcastle United for a British record fee of 6 million pounds plus.
However, the game after Cole's United debut, Eric Cantona received an eight month suspension for jumping into
the crowd and assaulting Crystal Palace supporter Matthew Simmons, who had given Cantona racial abuse as he
left the field, in United's game at Selhurst Park. The season's relative failure prompted Ferguson into some
major restructuring of the team, selling Paul Ince, Andrei Kanchelskis and Mark Hughes and replacing them
with players from the club's youth team, including David Beckham, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul
Scholes. After the club's 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa on the opening day of the 1995-96 season, television
pundit Alan Hansen famously declared "you'll never win anything with kids." The new players, several of whom
quickly became regular internationals for England, responded well and, buoyed by Cantona's return in October
1995, United became the first English club to have won the double twice, a feat that would be nicknamed
the "Double Double". Captain Steve Bruce left for Birmingham City in July 1996, and Alex Ferguson named Eric
Cantona as the new club captain. He led the team to a fourth league title in five years in 1996-97, before
retiring from football at the age of 30 at the end of the season. Teddy Sheringham was brought in to replace
him, and his iconic number 7 shirt was handed to David Beckham. They started the 1997-98 season well, but
they lost five matches after Christmas and finished in second place, one point behind double-winners Arsenal.
After a period without a regular challenger for the league title, this marked Arsenal's arrival as genuine
title contenders for the next few years.
The Treble 1998-1999
The 1998-1999 season for Manchester United was the most successful season in English club football
history as they became the only English team to win The Treble - winning the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA
Champions League in the same season. After a very tense Premier League season, Manchester United won the
title on the final day beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1, whilst Arsenal won 1-0 against Aston Villa. Winning
the Premier League was the first part of the Treble in place, the one part that manager Alex Ferguson
described as the hardest. In the FA Cup Final United faced Newcastle United and won 2-0 with goals from
Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes. In the final match of that season, the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final
they defeated Bayern Munich in what is considered one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed, going into
injury time a goal behind and then scoring twice to win 2-1. Ferguson was subsequently knighted for his
services to football. Rounding out that record breaking year, Manchester United also won the Intercontinental
Cup after beating Palmeira 1-0 in Tokyo.
After the Treble 1999-present
United won the league in 2000 and 2001, but the press saw those seasons as failures as the club failed
to regain the European Cup. In 2000, Manchester United became one of 14 founder members of the G-14 group of
leading European football clubs. The club also declined to take part in the 1999-2000 FA Cup, instead
competing in the inaugural FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil, citing pressure from the FA, UEFA and the
England 2006 World Cup bid committee. Ferguson adopted more defensive tactics to make United harder to beat
in Europe, but it was not a success and United finished the 2001-02 Premier League season in third place.
They regained the league the following season 2002-03 and started the following season well, but their form
dropped significantly when Rio Ferdinand received a controversial eight month suspension for missing a drugs
test. They did win the 2004 FA Cup, however, knocking out Arsenal (that season's eventual league champions)
on their way to the final in which they beat Millwall.
The 2004-05 season was characterised by a failure to score goals, mainly due to the injury of striker
Ruud van Nistelrooy and United finished the season trophyless and in third place in the league. This time,
even the FA Cup eluded them as Arsenal beat United on penalties after a goalless draw after 120 minutes. Off
the pitch, the main story was the possibility of the club being taken over and on 12 May 2005, American
businessman Malcolm Glazer acquired a controlling interest in the club through his investment vehicle Red
Football Ltd. in a takeover valuing the club at approximately 800 million pounds(then approx. $1.5 billion).
On 16 May, he increased his share to the 75% necessary to de-list the club from the Stock Exchange, making
it private again, and announced his intention to do so within 20 days. On 8 June, he appointed his sons to
the Manchester United board as non-executive directors.
United made a poor start to the 2005-06 season, with midfielder Roy Keane leaving the club to join
Celtic after publicly criticising several of his team-mates. The club had also failed to qualify for the
knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in over a decade, after losing to Benfica.
Their season was also dealt cruel blows with injuries to key players such as Gabriel Heinze, Alan Smith,
Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. However, they were prevented from being left empty-handed in successive seasons
a disappointment not endured in the last 17 years - by winning the 2006 League Cup, beating newly promoted
neighbours Wigan Athletic in the final 4-0. United also ensured a second-place finish and automatic Champions
League qualification on the final day of the season by defeating Charlton Athletic 4-0. At the end of the
2005-06 season, one of United's key strikers, Ruud van Nistelrooy, left the club to join Real Madrid, the
result of a disagreement with Alex Ferguson.
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