Managerial history

Main article: List of Manchester United F.C. managers

Dates	Name	Notes
1878–1892	Unknown
1892–1900	A. H. Albut
1900–1903	James West
1903–1912	J. Ernest Mangnall
1912–1914	John Bentley
1914–1922	Jack Robson
1922–1926	John Chapman
1926–1927	Lal Hilditch
1927–1931	Herbert Bamlett
1931–1932	Walter Crickmer
1932–1937	Scott Duncan	First manager from outside of England
1937–1945	Walter Crickmer
1945–1969	Matt Busby	First post-Second World War manager and longest serving manager in United's history
1969–1970	Wilf McGuinness
1970–1971	Matt Busby
1971–1972	Frank O'Farrell	First manager from outside the United Kingdom
1972–1977	Tommy Docherty
1977–1981	Dave Sexton
1981–1986	Ron Atkinson
1986–present	Alex Ferguson	Most successful manager in terms of trophies

Support

Before the Second World War, few English football supporters travelled to away games because of time, cost, and logistical constraints such as the scarcity of cars amongst the population. As City and United played home matches on alternate Saturdays, many Mancunians would watch United one week and City the next, but after the war, a stronger rivalry developed and it became more common for a supporter to choose to follow one team exclusively.

When United won the league in 1956, they had the highest average home attendance in the league, a record that had been held by Newcastle United for the previous few years. Following the Munich air disaster in 1958, more people began to support United and many started to go to matches.^{[citation needed]} This caused United's support to swell and is one reason why United have had the highest league attendances in English football for almost every season since then, even as a Second Division side in 1974–75.^[7] More poignantly, for two of the seasons that United did not have the league's largest attendance, Old Trafford was undergoing major building work (1971–72 and 1992–93).

A 2002 report, entitled Do You Come From Manchester?, showed that a higher proportion of Manchester City season ticket holders live in the Manchester postal districts, whilst United had the higher absolute number of season ticket holders living in the same area.^[48]

In the late 1990s and early part of the 2000s, an increasing source of concern for many United supporters was the possibility of the club being taken over. The supporters' group IMUSA (Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association) was extremely active in opposing a proposed takeover by Rupert Murdoch in 1998.^[49] Another pressure group, Shareholders United Against Murdoch (which became Shareholders United and is now the Manchester United Supporters' Trust) was formed at around this time to encourage supporters to buy shares in the club, partly to enable supporters to have a greater say in the issues that concern them, such as ticket prices and allocation, and partly to reduce the risk of an unwanted party buying enough shares to take over the club. However, this scheme failed to prevent Malcolm Glazer from becoming the majority share holder. Many supporters were outraged, and some formed a splinter club called F.C. United of Manchester. Despite the anger of some supporters towards the new owners, attendances have continued to increase.

The atmosphere produced by the fans has, however, been criticised at times. In 2000, comments made about sections of the Old Trafford crowd by the then-club captain Roy Keane, claiming some fans could not "spell football, never mind understand it" led to them being dubbed the "prawn sandwich brigade".^[50] Alex Ferguson has also made several comments about the crowd, even going as far as claiming the atmosphere on 1 January 2008 was like a "funeral".^[51] Afterwards, he commented "I think there have been days like this in the past. It happened some years ago, when we were dominant".^[51] After a famous 1–0 win over Barcelona at Old Trafford, which sent United to the final of the Champions League in Moscow, Ferguson said that United fans "were absolutely brilliant" and that they "got us over the line".^[52][53]