Iain McCartney - Building the Dynasty: Manchester United 1946-1958

Manchester United Players

Johnny Berry Jackie Blanchflower Bobby Charlton

Bill Foulkes Harry Gregg Kenny Morgans

Albert Scanlon Dennis Viollet Ray Wood

Manchester United Officials

Matt Busby (manager)

Journalists

Frank Taylor (News Chronicle)

Press

E. Ellyard (Daily Mail telegraphist)

P. Howard (Daily Mail photographer)

Crew

J. Thain (captain)

M. Bellis (stewardess)

R. Cheverton (stewardess)

G. W. Rodgers (radio officer)

Others

Mrs V. Lukic

Miss V. Lukic

Mrs B. P. Miklos

Mr N. Tomasevic

(In no particular order) Mark Wylie, Jim Murphy, Steven Sullivan, Mike Carey, Jane Dyer, Stan Dunn, Roy Cavanagh, Joy Worth, Ray Adler, David Meek, Tim Ashmore, Tom Clare, Ray Evans and Tony Park.

I would also like to offer a special thanks to my editor Derek Hammond.

Dedicated to the Memory
of
Jimmy Murphy, Bert Whalley
and
Joe Armstrong

Without whom the post-war history of
Manchester United
would have been so different

I N the modern game, Sir Alex Fergusons managerial achievements may be unique; but, at Old Trafford, it was as if he had found Matt Busbys recipe book, had blown away the cobwebs and was merely following it word for word from those bygone days of a wildly different era in football.

Initially, Ferguson endured a strenuous and almost demoralising few years in the managers chair which had, in previous years, proved far from comfortable before he went on to handsomely repay the faith shown in him by the board of directors. He assembled a squad like some leader of old and marched them to undiluted success, conquering England, Europe and the world to the acclaim and disdain of millions. Back in the 40s and 50s, however, Busbys task had been much greater than that of his Scottish counterpart, as the man from Bellshill had to start from scratch on all fronts, without the benefit of a superclubs resources behind him.

Looking back beyond these twin Scottish-Mancunian success stories, a starkly contrasting picture existed in the long-forgotten decades when the fledgling Manchester United, and its previous incarnation of Newton Heath, struggled with bankruptcy, dark days in the Second Division and the threat of dropping even further down the Leagues. Yes, there were First Division championships in 1908 and 1911, with an FA Cup success in 1909, but for long periods United were living in the shadows of others.

In 1937, Manchester United fell under the guidance of club secretary Walter Crickmer, so with the resumption of League football on the horizon following the Second World War, a new manager was a real priority.

One name that arose as a potential candidate was that of Matt Busby, who was no stranger to Manchester or indeed United, due to his association with neighbours City and his current employers, Liverpool. Busby himself had been contemplating his future as war raged in Europe and North Africa, holding ambitions to get involved in the coaching/managerial side of the game, so when the United approach was made, he decided to grasp the opportunity.

The appointment itself represented a gamble by United, trusting their future in an individual untried at managerial level, with no coaching qualifications or experience other than that gathered in the army and gleaned from his time at Maine Road and Anfield. But the man from Bellshill relished the challenge and, in a relatively short period of time, transformed Manchester United into the club it had always craved to be with a team that was the envy of British football.

Building the Dynasty takes you back to those war-torn days and the appointment of the man who was to set about building one of the greatest football clubs in the world. It narrates the clubs struggle to return to its bomb-ravaged Old Trafford home whilst guesting at the Maine Road accommodation of neighbours City, and its attempts at recapturing the silverware that had for so long eluded them. It rekindles Busbys vision of producing his own home-grown talent, building on the existing MUJACs (Manchester United Junior Athletic Club) set-up, and evaluates the huge, all-too-frequently forgotten part played by his assistant Jimmy Murphy in nurturing those talented youngsters from the junior sides through to the first team. The book profiles countless players of yesteryear who are still remembered with reverence some seven decades later, and brings to life those pioneering days of European football Busbys fight against the footballing authorities, the games, the ups and downs, and the stories of countless fans and club insiders who made a contribution.