The History of Manchester City

Aug 15, 2010
Steve Rogerson

Eastlands, Home of Manchester City - Photo by Steve Rogerson

From a church side to one of the richest football clubs in the world, the rise of Manchester City continues. This article looks at the club's history.

For most of their history, Manchester City have lived under the shadow of their far more successful neighbours Manchester United, but now with big-money backing there are hopes among the Citizens that they can at last carve a success story of their own. Manchester City are also unusual in that their origins are as a church side, formed to give an outlet for the aggression of local workmen more noted for drunken fights than footballing prowess.

The Birth of Manchester City

The club was founded in 1880 at St Mark’s Church in West Gorton by William Beastow, Anna Connell and Thomas Goodbehere. After a few years as an amateur side, they turned professional in 1887 and moved to a new ground at Hyde Road in the east of Manchester. The move saw the first name change, from St Mark’s Church to Ardwick AFC.

The first real trophy for the new side was the Manchester Cup in 1891 and the team followed that a year later by being one of the founder members of the newly formed second division of the Football League. With dreams of representing the whole of Manchester, the club changed its name to Manchester City in 1894 and five years later won the second division championship and automatic promotion to the first division.

Always looking for some one-upmanship over their rivals Manchester United, Manchester City can claim to be the first Manchester club to win a major trophy, the FA Cup in 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers in the final.

Manchester City Move to Maine Road

After a fire had damaged the Hyde Park ground, the club moved in 1923 to a new 85,000 capacity stadium on Maine Road in the south of the city. Three years later, they lost the FA Cup final to Bolton Wanderers and were relegated to the second division. It took them two seasons to return to the top flight.

The 1930s saw Manchester City reach two FA Cup finals in a row, losing in 1933 to Everton and beating Portsmouth in 1934. Three years later, they won the first division championship but were relegated the following season. The Second World War then intervened and it was 1947 before Manchester City returned to the first division. With the war still fresh in everybody’s minds, Manchester City angered the nation by signing German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann.

The Revie Plan

In the early 1950s, Manchester City revolutionised the way football was played by ditching the old 2-3-5 formation and replacing it with a 4-2-4 with one of the four forwards sitting slightly back as a bridge between the midfield and attack. That role was given to future Leeds United and England manager Don Revie and became known as the Revie Plan, forming the basis of the way modern football is played to this day.

Using these tactics, Manchester City again reached consecutive FA Cup finals, losing in 1955 to Newcastle United and beating Birmingham City in 1956. Bert Trautmann broke his neck in that final but continued playing until the end.

Fall and Rise and Fall of Manchester City

Manchester City were relegated again in 1963 and stayed there until 1966 when they won promotion under new manager Joe Mercer and his assistant Malcolm Allison. He also signed two players – Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee – who became legends among Manchester City fans and led the team to the first division championship in 1968 and the FA Cup in 1969.

They followed this by winning the European Cup Winners Cup, beating Górnik Zabrze in the final. They won the League Cup the same season.

In 1974, they again reached the League Cup final, losing to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but won it in 1976 with a victory over Newcastle United. The following year, they came runners-up in the league and in 1981 they lost the FA Cup final to Tottenham Hotspur.

Life after that took a downturn for Manchester City with relegation in 1983. It took them two seasons to get back into the first division and then another two years to be relegated once again. Promotion in 1989 returned them to the first, where they struggled for a few years before being relegated again in 1996. Those who thought life could not get worse for Manchester City were wrong, as two years later they were relegated to the third tier of English football.

Manchester City Rise Again

The fight back started with promotion back to the second tier in 1999 and then into the Premiership the following year under manager Joe Royle. Relegation again the next year saw Joe Royle sacked and replaced by Kevin Keegan, who took them straight back to the Premiership.

The first season in the Premiership was to be their last at Maine Road as they moved to Eastlands and the City of Manchester Stadium, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Success still eluded Manchester City in the following years as the managerial post went from Kevin Keegan to Stuart Pearce to Sven Goran Eriksson and then to Mark Hughes.

The year 2008 was to mark a major change in the fortunes of the club when it was bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, who proceeded to pump money in for new players, a process that is still continuing today and brought the first silverware back to Eastlands with an FA Cup win in 2011 and, under current manager Roberto Mancini, a third place finish in the 2010/11 season, thus qualifying for the Champions League.