Nani Current Squad player
- in depth profile and pictures
Neville,
Gary Current Squad
player - in depth profile and pictures
| Neville, Philip: 1993-2005
After playing for Bury Schools and Greater Manchester Schoolboys, Phil Neville, younger brother of Gary Neville joined Manchester United as a trainee on 5th July 1993. Neville captained the Youth team to the FA Youth Cup in 199 and less than twelve months after he had signed as a trainee he turned professional. His League debut was a Manchester derby at Maine Road in February 1995.
He began his career as a left back. At one point in 1996, Sir Alex Ferguson once included Neville in his all time eleven of players he had managed. A fast, versatile and skilful defender, Phil played a very important role in United's treble chase. Neville did not start every game but his performances were always excellent and consistent. His versatility was useful in many games, especially as a man marker and in midfield.
Had he been competing against any mortal he would have been regular left-back long ago but as he was up against Denis Irwin, Neville had to frequently miss out. That said, he made well over 300 appearances for United and was a regular with England winning 55 caps. In April 2001 he scored with a brilliant long-range effort at Middlesbrough and in December 2002 he scored a fine individual goal against Derby at Old Trafford.
In the 2002-2003 season, the winter months saw him deployed in central midfield when both Roy Keane and Nicky Butt were injured. Alongside Juan Veron, Phil was magnificent, especially in the 2-0 win over Arsenal in which he was man of the match. He scored twice as well, at home to Southampton and West Ham in the FA Cup. The next season he again played in central midfield for the majority of matches and scored the winner in the 'Battle of Britain' 1-0 win over Rangers at Ibrox.
Neville's game at United was remoulded from that of a traditional full-back to a utility player frequently impressing in midfield with his work-rate and sharp tackling. Like his brother he is United through and through and has had to suffer harsh criticism from fans and pundits unconvinced of his talents. The Nevilles can point to hundreds of consistent performances and a list of honours many players would give their right arm for. However, Sir Alex Ferguson could no longer guarantee him a 1st team place and on August 4, 2005 Neville joined Everton on a 5-year contract for a fee in of around £3.5 million.
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Nationality
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England
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Date of Birth
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21/1/1977
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Appearances
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294(81)
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Goals Scored
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8
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Newton
Heath
Had
it not been for the workers of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways
then the mighty Manchester United would never have existed.
Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company Cricket and Football Club was formed by wagon and carriage
workers in the grimy area of Newton Heath, in East Manchester sometime
in 1878.
Records do not exist as as to the exact date of the club's founding and the personnel involved. It is commonly believed that many of the players were Irish, Scots and Welsh immigrants who worked at the railway company.
In a situation mirroring the present day Premiership, in 1890 the Manchester Evening News complained the team did not have enough English players. However it was not foreigners from Europe or South America taking up the places but an influx of Welshmen who made up most of the team!
The club were known as Newton Heath LYR for two years until 1880 to distinguish themselves from another company team called Newton Heath Loco (who worked on the locomotive engines as opposed to the carriages). When the Loco team was disbanded in 1880 the "LYR company Cricket" part of the name was dropped and the club became simply known as "Newton Heath FC".
The "Heathens" as they were known, loved their football, many players had to pay for the right to play and this enthusiasm meant the team had a reputation for being one of the area's best. Soon they where better than all the other teams in the area and began to look further afield for matches. When professionalism was legalised in 1895 they were able to attract quality players such as five Welsh Internationals, because they could offer players the added bonus of a job at the railway company.
Newton Heath won their place in the Football League in 1892 and became a Limited Company. Originally they played at North Road, a field beside a clay pit with changing rooms in a local pub called The Three Crowns. The team played in a kit of green and gold halves (the 1993-94 away kit) which were the colours of the LYR railway company and it's train carriages that the players had originally worked on. They also wore a kit of white shirts/black shorts in later years.
In 1893 the club moved to Bank Street, Clayton, their HQ was a wooden hut, the pitch was surrounded by a towering chimney and walls of the nearby Chemical plant which often belched thick black smoke during the middle of a game.
However the years went by with little success. They spent two mediocre seasons in the first division and eight uneventful in second. By 1902 the struggling club faced bankruptcy and looked doomed when a chance meeting changed the path of history.
Club captain Harry Stafford was attending a bazaar to raise the £2670 needed to save the club when his pet dog, who was with him disappeared. The dog turned out to have been befriended by a local businessman, John Henry Davies, and when Stafford went to collect his dog he used the meeting as an opportunity to convince Davies to invest in the club. Davies agreed and together with a local group of businessmen paid off the debts and formed a new club on Saturday 26th April 1902.
The shirts would now be red, the shorts white, the socks black. As to why the red colour was chosen remains a mystery. Some have mooted it was because at that time, United were the working class club in Manchester whilst Man City were middle class and red is of course the colour of socialist and labour movements. As for the new name, thanks to Louis Rocca, that would of course be: Manchester United.
The rest as they say is history, but it is ironic that the world's richest club was nearly killed off by a debt of £1000 and, if Harry Stafford's dog hadn't have gone awol, you wouldn't be here at this exact moment in time reading on the Internet about Manchester United.
Picture:
The 1993 team group dressed in the 1903 kit
Nike
In 2002 Nike became Manchester United's official kit supplier. It was a record-breaking £302.9m sponsorship and merchandising deal, dwarfing the £7m a year sponsorship of Brazil's national team and was thought to be the biggest of its kind ever signed.
However, the amount paid to the club by Nike will be reduced if the team does not finish in the top half of the Premiership or take part in European competition.
It effectively handed control of the Red's global replica-kit and merchandising business to the sportswear giant who formed a subsidiary company to control the club's global licensing and retail operations. The agreement will run for 13 years, although Nike will have the option to end the arrangements in 2008.
| Nicholl, Jimmy: 1974-1981
Jimmy Nicholl began as a Manchester United youth player. Mainly a right-back he was adpatable and could also play in central defence. In the 1975-76 season he became a first team regular and played in the 1977 FA Cup Final were United beat Liverpool 2-1 and the 1979 3-2 defeat to Arsenal.
Nicholl was born in Canada but qualified for the Northern Ireland national team, having lived mostly in Belfast and having Northern Irish parents. He made his international debut in 1976 and went on to win a total of 73 caps, including 8 appearances at the World Cup finals of 1982 and 1986.
Ron Atkinson's arrival in 1981 saw Nicholl sold and he went on to play for Sunderland, Toronto Blizzard, Rangers, West Brom and Dunfermline. He ended his playing career in 1990 as player-manager of Raith Rovers and took the club to promotion into the SPL in 1993 and a shock League Cup win over Celtic in 1995. Nicholl is now the assistant manager of Aberdeen.
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Nationality
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Northern Ireland
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Date
of Birth
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26/2/1956
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Appearances
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234 (13)
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Goals
Scored
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6
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Northern
Ireland
The small province of Northern
Ireland has a population of only 1.7 million people, yet amazingly
it has provided Manchester United with some of its greatest
talents. From the legendary George
Best to heroes like Norman
Whiteside, Sammy
McILroy, Jimmy Nicholl, Jackie Blanchflower and Harry Gregg, many Ulstermen have made the journey across to Manchester
and made a name for themselves in the red shirt.
There was
a time when Manchester United always had an Northern Ireland
player in the first team, (the 1977 Cup Final team had 3)
although it is less so today. The rise of the Scandanavian and
East European footballing nations has undoubtedly been some
factor in the decline, although current NI hero David Healy did start his career as at United.
Manchester United are Northern
Ireland's most popular Premiership team, crossing the religious divide
of Protestants and Catholics. There are around forty official United supporters
clubs in the province (more than any other country), most notably George Best Carryduff MUSC and Carrickfergus
MUSC who once had a gigantic United flag called "Big Lily".
Nou
Camp
The
small and compact 120,000 capacity Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona
was the site of United's crowning moment of the century, the
2-1 victory over Bayern Munich on May 26th 1999.
Picture:
The Nou Camp Stadium
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