Soccer

Famous Football Teams - Facts About Manchester United

Although City fans can taunt their rivals about the fact that United does not actually come from Manchester (Old Trafford is located outside the city limits in the borough of Trafford), United fans are able to more effectively insult Blues fans by pointing out their lack of success. At the Stretford end of Old Trafford, a banner is displayed as a taunt their biggest rivals, Manchester City. The banner displays two words: 34 years. It has indeed been 34 long years since City have won a major trophy.

However, the "tick-tock taunts" now emanating from the City camp indicate the Blues' conviction that time is running out on United's glory days and that Eastlands will soon be the center of the Premier League universe. Money is now no worry for Manchester City since the super rich Abu Dhabi group took over the Eastlands Club in 2008, and the club has reportedly recently spent approximately £200 million on players.

Manchester United is the most valuable football club in the world - worth £1.2billion according to Forbes, however fears of financial meltdown have stalked the dreams of supporters since the Glazer family took their club into private ownership in 2005. Currently carrying debts of almost 700 million pounds, the team now has no money to buy players. Having broken the British transfer record four times in the last 20 years, United is now trying to restore "value" to the market with its emphasis on homegrown players. United's manager, Alex Ferguson recently criticized the 'kamikaze' spending of rival clubs - although he didn't specifically mention City, his target was easy to figure out - but City's manager Roberto Mancini retorted that by throwing money at the top end of the market, his team is only doing what United have done for years. Additionally, the City team that trounced Liverpool recently fielded no less than 6 English players and with so many home-grown players in their playing 11, they can hardly be written off as foreign mercenaries.

Despite all the taunting appears to be no divide within the city of Manchester - there are no pubs or particular areas that are off limits for those wearing the wrong team's colors. Although the ugliness of chants about the Munich disaster - the 1958 air crash that claimed 23 lives, including eight members of United's Busby Babes and Frank Swift, a journalist and former City goalkeeper still lingers about the fringes, United and City continue, fans of both teams continue to co-exist relatively happily within the same community.

The Manchester Derby is the name given to matches between Manchester City and Manchester United. In the 1990s United went unbeaten in Derby matches for an entire decade. More recently the 2007-2008 Derby games were both won by Manchester City, 1-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium on 19 August 2007, and 2-1 at Old Trafford on 10 February, It was the first time since April 1974 that City had beaten United in the league at Old Trafford and the first time they had won both league derby games since the 1969-70 season. United prevented City from winning a third consecutive derby match in the first derby of the 2008-09 season, with Wayne Rooney scoring the game's only goal. Alex Ferguson proclaimed the 2009-10 Manchester derby at Old Trafford as "probably...the best derby of all time". Manchester United won this game 4-3 after Manchester City had equalised three times only for Michael Owen to score the winning goal after 95 minutes. City will host United on November 10 for the first Derby match of this season.