History

One of the main members of the English Premier League is the team Manchester City which is based in Manchester. This team was founded in the year 1880 and was then named, St. Marks (West Gorton). A change in the name came in 1887 when they were re-christened Ardwick A.F.C before changing to their present name Manchester City in 1894. They are the proud winners of the League Championship twice and have lifted the F.A Cup trophy four times. Apart from this, they have also won the European Cup once with their most successful period coming in the 1960s and 1970s. This was under the aggressive management team of Joe Mercer and his assistant Malcolm Allison. They fielded great players such as Colin Bell and Francis Lee during their heydays which saw them as a great team in the past.

Manchester City has not been able to win a single trophy since their downfall which intensified in the 1990s. This led to their relegation twice in the space of three years. A shameful run in the 1990s made the team play a year in the third rung of the English football strata. They have not been able to win a single trophy since 1976 which had made them lose their glorious status. But in the past few years, a revival in the past glory has been seen but which hasn’t as yet reached the same level.

Manchester City has their first taste of success in the year 1899 when they won the Second Division. This led them to a promotion into the First Division. The first major title which came the way of Manchester City was the F.A. Cup which they lifted after defeating the Bolton Wanderers 1-0 in 1904. But they had to be satisfied with the runners-up position that very year. The 1930s was a bright period for the club when they reached two consecutive F.A. Cup finals. They lost the first final to Everton but they found a place in history in the ensuing year when they defeated Portsmouth. The year 1937 saw them winning the First Division for the first team but the upcoming year was to be disastrous for them when they were relegated despite the fact that they scored the most number of goals.

After a gap of twenty years, Manchester City lifted the F.A. Cup again which was like a rendition of their past record. They reached the finals on consecutive occasions and lost the first one to Newcastle United. They won the next year, defeating Birmingham City 3-1. this game went down in the annals of history as one of the most famous matches to be played because of goalkeeper Bert Trautmann who played on without realizing that he had a broken neck. The team got relegated to the Second Division in the year 1963 just before the new and dynamic management of Joe Mercer was appointed. This was the beginning of a very prosperous period for the club which saw them lifting the League Championship in 1967 by defeating Newcastle United 4-3. They further won the F.A Cup in 1969 and the European Cup Winner’s Cup in 1970. They were also the proud winners of the League Cup which made them only the second English team to win both European and domestic trophies in the same year.

The decade of 1970s saw them continuously challenging the other teams for top honours. Their sweetest moment of success came in 1973-74 when they defeated their arch rivals Manchester United which saw the latter get relegated. They won by a margin of 1-0 courtesy former Manchester United player Denis Law who scored a back-heel to relegate Manchester United. The last trophy added to Manchester City’s collection was in the year 1976 when they won against Newcastle United in the league Cup final.

The period following this glorious bit of history was time of dismay for the club when they were relegated twice in the 1980s. Malcolm Allison was re-appointed as the manager but he was unsuccessful in bringing back the lost glory of the club. They had a lone example of what they are capable of when they reached the finals of the F.A. Cup in the year 1981 but were unable to win it. They lost to Tottenham HotSpur. Manchester City was the proud owners of the Premier League when it was founded in the year 1992 but they got relegated to the First Division in 1996. They further fell to their lowest position in Manchester City history after a couple of seasons in the First Division. The appointment of Kevin Keegan as the new manager saw them return to the top division when they won the 2001-02 Division One championship. They showed a glimpse of their glorious past when they created a record for the most number of goals and points to be scored ever. They ended their winless streak of Derby championships when they defeated arch rivals Manchester United 3-1 in the season of 2002-03.

The year 2005 saw the replacement of Kevin Keegan with Stuart Pearce who led them to an unbeaten 8- match streak. They missed the European qualification by a whisker. The season of 2005-06 gave them a bright start when they finished at 6th position by half-year but the latter part saw them deteriorate to 15th position. The following season was no better with the club scoring a new record for the fewest number of goals. Most recently, the season of 2008-09 started on a pretty decent note for the club but a string of defeats saw them end just above the relegation positions.