1980-1989
United made a poor start to the 1980's. Following an
early FA Cup exit to Spurs and a First Division hammering at Ipswich,
however, Dave Sexton and his team recovered to win eight of their last
ten league games, and finish just two points behind Liverpool in the
title race.
United produced another blistering finish at the end
of the following season, 1980/81, when they won their last seven league
games in a row. This time, however, they could only finish eighth in the
table – a position which the club's board could not tolerate. Sexton
was sacked on 30 April 1981, after four seasons in the hotseat.
Sexton’s
replacement Ron Atkinson brought in Mick Brown as assistant manager and
Eric Harrison as youth coach. But it was his on-the-field acquisitions
that really excited the fans. He broke the British transfer record to
recruit Bryan Robson from his old club West Bromwich Albion for £1.5m
and he spent around a third of that again to add another ex-Albion man,
Remi Moses, to the United squad.
In midfield the new arrivals
wonderfully complemented the finesse of Ray Wilkins, the ball-playing
England star. But still there was something missing. United needed a
forward who could match the strike rate of Ian Rush at Liverpool, who
again won the Championship in 1982, 1983 and 1984. Atkinson’s men were
never far behind, finishing third or fourth in every season of his
reign. But they were never that close either.
The domestic cups
offered United their best chances of silverware, and in 1983, they
reached Wembley in both competitions. Liverpool beat them 2-1 after
extra-time to win the Milk (League) Cup, while little-fancied Brighton
and Hove Albion were beaten in two attempts in the FA Cup final. A shock
2-2 draw was followed up by a thumping 4-0 win for United through goals
from Robson (2), Arnold Muhren and Norman Whiteside.
Whiteside’s
habit of rising to the big occasion was never more gratefully received
than in 1985, when he curled in the only goal of the FA Cup Final to
beat Everton 1-0. United had earlier been reduced to ten men by the
dismissal of Kevin Moran, who formed a great defensive partnership in
the 1980’s with Paul McGrath.
It was Atkinson’s second FA Cup
success in three seasons, but eighteen months later he was sacked for
his inability to break Merseyside’s monopoly of the League Championship.
Not even ten straight wins at the start of 1985/86 could lead him to
the Holy Grail.
In November 1986, United at last appointed a
proven winner. At Aberdeen, Alex Ferguson had claimed every prize that
Scotland had to offer, not to mention the added bonus of the European
Cup Winners Cup when his team defied the odds to beat Real Madrid!
Fergie clearly had the talent for the job, but he also needed time to turn United round. The club remained patient as the Reds finished eleventh in 1986/87 and again in 1988/89. After
all, the season in between, 1987/88, had offered encouraging signs as
United finished second to Liverpool by winning eight and drawing two of
their last ten games.
The promise of that season, and some of the signings made, would soon be fulfilled.
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