The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 3 Origin

"As one of the oldest teams in English football history, the Red Devils originated from amateur football matches among railway workers. When the tide of the Industrial Revolution swept across England, workers of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company stationed in Manchester also began to organize football games, and then formed the Newton Heath LYR team in their spare time. This is the origin of the Red Devils."

--Inscription

What kind of team is the Red Devils under the temporary coaching of Ferguson?

At this moment, standing at the forefront of the 21st century and looking back, we know that the Red Devils are a super giant, the most successful team in the Premier League, the flag of English football, the pride of Manchester, with the largest number of fans in the world, the capital darling of the New York Stock Exchange, and the world's top existence in both sports and business.

Every move of this team will attract the attention of the football world.

Even though the team has fallen into competitive difficulties in recent years, there is never a lack of attention.

So, how did the Red Devils become like this? What is the origin of this team? When and where was it born? How did it appear in history? How did it develop? What have they experienced in the distant history?

The earliest history of football originated in England. Modern football games originated in the UK and eventually became the world's number one sport after more than 100 years of development. Football clubs also first started in England and developed rapidly. The dissemination and promotion of football has played an irreplaceable role in the current status of football.

Football matches, football clubs, official trophy competitions... English football has developed rapidly. The earliest official football trophy competition also originated in England, which is the FA Cup. From the earliest football games to football matches, to the current World Cup, European Cup, America's Cup, Asian Cup and other football competitions in various continents, as well as the European Champions League, national football leagues, leagues of different levels in various regions, club competitions of different ages, etc., to television media broadcasts, capital markets, corporate sponsorship, commercial operations, transfers and youth training... Football has developed into a rich and huge industry, attracting countless people from all over the world to participate.

English football is different from the ancient Chinese "Cuju". They emphasized confrontation and competition from the beginning and advocated bravery. As early as the beginning of the 12th century, there were records of the earliest football matches in England. Two cities or towns each selected strong players to form a team to compete with each other in terms of body and speed, and also added collisions and interceptions. The winner was the one who scored the ball into the other city area. This kind of competition is large-scale, with a large number of participants. The two sides competed fiercely and the confrontation was fierce, which often led to chaos and loss of control, and even casualties. In order to reduce chaos, the British government later issued an order requiring football matches to be held in fixed places and not in downtown areas, and the number of people in the game was also reduced. In 1848, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford in the UK agreed on detailed rules of the game and formed a formal text. This is the first written rule of football-the "Cambridge Rules".

The Cambridge Rules limited the number of players on each side to 11 and regulated various situations in the game, such as handball fouls, etc., which were widely welcomed by fans. The Cambridge Rules were quickly promoted and football soon became popular throughout England.

At the same time, the Industrial Revolution in Britain was also underway, and the number of workers was increasing. Football also aroused the interest of workers, and the game became the best pastime in their spare time. Because of the large number of participants, simple rules, sufficient space for performance, and strong results of victory and defeat, football games quickly spread from the university scope of England to various industries and fields. The newly emerging working class and citizen class pushed this wave to a wider world.

In this way, the charm of football attracted more and more people to join in.

The Industrial Revolution in England greatly promoted the development of productivity, social wealth increased significantly, and a group of wealthy people emerged. Some of them loved football, liked to watch and sponsor games, and some consciously used football to gather the centripetal force and sense of honor of the workers and began to establish or sponsor football teams.

The football field has received financial investment and has developed more rapidly.

When football appeared all over the world, England, which was at the forefront, began to have football clubs. In 1857, Sheffield Football Club was officially established in England, which was the earliest football club in the world. After that, many football clubs were established in Manchester. The charm of football, the black and white spirit, was thoroughly stimulated, and more and more football fans joined. From foreign sailors to local ship workers, from railway staff to construction workers, from cotton textile industry to workers in other industries, from farmers to citizens, more and more people began to devote themselves to this interesting sport.

In 1863, the Football Association (FA) was formally established, and 14 rules were formulated to manage football affairs. October 1863, 10 was also determined as the date of the birth of modern football. The FA also held a 26-year commemoration event in 2013. The FA began to hold the FA Challenge Cup (the predecessor of the FA Cup) in 150, attracting teams from all over the UK to participate. Under the call of national competitions, more and more local competitions have emerged in various places. More and more competitive competitions have led to an increase in prize money and various sponsorships, which has promoted the development of football clubs. It is under this virtuous cycle that the competitive level of English teams has continued to improve. Some teams have begun to conceive of forming a league with multiple teams participating, and some teams have rapidly developed towards professionalism.

By 1878, the football clubs that had appeared since 1857 had a history of more than 20 years, and the wave of English football fans forming new clubs had not abated at all.

In that year, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company in England was working on a construction site at Newton Heath in Manchester. Workers who liked football played football in their spare time, and many people in the company's management also liked football, so various teams began to appear in the company, and the scale of the teams established at the company level became larger and larger.

Newton Heath LYR Football Club was established, named Newton Heath Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Football Club, and later became Newton Heath LYR Football Club. LYR is the abbreviation of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, and Newton Heath is the name of the railway construction site at that time. The earliest jerseys of this team were yellow and green, which were the logo colors of the railway company. Later, after separating from the railway company, the jerseys gradually changed to red. At that time, the team's emblem had a locomotive logo, with obvious railway elements, and their origins could be known at a glance.

The Newton Heath LYR football team is the predecessor of the Red Devils.

When Newton Heath LYR was founded, British football entered a rapid development stage, with constant competitions in various places. When Newton Heath LYR was first established, it was an amateur team, mainly competing with other amateur teams within the railway company. Two years after the team was founded, Newton Heath LYR finally broke out of the railway company and officially competed with teams outside. Newton Heath LYR's first official game was held on November 1880, 11, and it eventually lost to its opponent Bolton 20-0. This failure was like a basin of cold water, which hit Newton Heath LYR hard. Many players began to train harder, striving to improve their strength as soon as possible and wash away the shame of this disastrous defeat.

The Newton Heath LYR team recruited workers from within the railway company and gradually became the representative team of the entire railway company. Although they are still mediocre, the team has a unique style. In this team, the team consciousness and collective spirit of the working class are particularly distinct, the physiques trained by the workers in labor are also extremely strong, and the team is full of proletarian fighting spirit. The team likes to attack very much and often scores big in the game. As the scale of railway construction expanded, the Newton Heath LYR team also began to grow and become more and more influential. It began to have fixed fans and even attracted sponsors among the fans. As their strength increased, they were no longer just a temporary patchwork of players to form a team, but selected a basically fixed team and guys with high level and high attendance rate to form a team.

In this way, Newton Heath LYR, the football team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, began to move towards an increasingly professional direction.

In 1885, Newton Heath LYR teamed up with Hurst, St. Mark's Church and other teams in Manchester to create the Manchester Senior Cup. In the first cup, Newton Heath LYR team won the runner-up and the champion was Hurst. Hurst was later renamed "Aston United" and is still active in the Northern England League today. In the Manchester Cup held the following year, Newton Heath LYR team performed well and won the championship. This championship was also the team's first "official" competition championship.

The Newton Heath LYR team became more and more powerful, winning three consecutive championships in 1888, 1889 and 1890. The team's reputation soared, and it began to attract more players and won more fans.

The Newton Heath LYR team started from humble beginnings and flourished in this era. Its history and development process prove the team's pure love for football and its firm persistence in its interest in football.

To this day, more than 100 years have passed, and the Manchester Cup football match has been held, including the Manchester United and other giants have always insisted on sending teams to participate. This also proves from one aspect that the English football culture has a long history and is passed down from generation to generation, and proves that the charm and vitality of football are endless. The Manchester United Club has always attached great importance to various levels of competitions, including this historic event. The club regards this competition as an important task to strengthen its ties with the community and support the football cause of the city and the community.

There is no doubt about the English community's love and persistence for football. Even for a cup competition like this, there is an extremely complete competition mechanism, very good arrangements, and very intense scenes. The wonderful content will attract and inspire fans and family attention in the community.

Even today, the cup still has great appeal. Manchester United, Manchester City and other clubs throughout Greater Manchester will send their echelon players to form competitive teams to participate, and many community teams have also signed up to participate. The number of participating teams continues to remain stable.

This competition strengthens the connection between the club and the community. Some clubs are very happy to open their own training bases as competition venues, and also welcome some amateur teams to come for training. Once a team wins the championship, it will also be valued by the club and welcomed by the community. The participating players and fans are very excited and feel extremely proud. The Red Devils last won the Manchester Cup in 2014. The youth team players who won the championship that year also received the love of fans and the attention of the club. Later, they had the opportunity to be promoted to the first team as the main force.

This is the secret behind the long history and enduring popularity of community football in England.