Manchester United
Also written as Man United.
The club
Manchester United were founded in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club, the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's carriage and wagon department, and took their present name on 24 April 1902 after local businessmen rescued the club financially. They have played at Old Trafford since 1910; capacity is 74,500. The club are the Red Devils, a nickname borrowed from Salford rugby league club, and have worn red shirts, white shorts and black socks since the 1902 renaming.
United have announced plans for a new 100,000-capacity stadium on land adjacent to Old Trafford, with a design by Foster and Partners under consideration. No construction start or completion date was established from the sources consulted.
Recent seasons
United were second in the Premier League in 2020/21 with 74 points and lost the Europa League final. It has been erratic since. Sixth in 2021/22 with 58 points; third in 2022/23 with 75 points, winning the League Cup and reaching the FA Cup final; eighth in 2023/24 with 60 points, but winning the FA Cup; then fifteenth in 2024/25 with 42 points, the worst league finish of the Premier League era, redeemed only partly by a second Europa League final, also lost.
The 2025/26 season was a recovery on the league table and a disaster in the cups. United finished third with 71 points, from 20 wins, 11 draws and 7 defeats. They were out of European competition for the first time since 2014/15. They lost 12-11 on penalties to Grimsby Town of League Two in the EFL Cup second round on 27 August 2025 after a 2-2 draw, and went out of the FA Cup in the third round, beaten 2-1 by Brighton and Hove Albion on 11 January 2026. Ruben Amorim left on 5 January 2026; Darren Fletcher took interim charge for a week; Michael Carrick was appointed permanent head coach on 13 January 2026 and the club climbed from there. Benjamin Sesko and Bryan Mbeumo shared top scorer duties with 11 league goals and 12 in all competitions each.
Honours and landmarks
Twenty English league titles, a joint record; thirteen FA Cups; six League Cups. In Europe, three European Cup or Champions League titles, one Cup Winners' Cup, one Europa League and one UEFA Super Cup. They have also won the Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup once each. The 1998/99 treble of league, FA Cup and Champions League remains unmatched by an English club until Manchester City repeated it in 2022/23.
Ryan Giggs holds the appearance record with 963 games between 1991 and 2014. Wayne Rooney is the leading scorer with 253 in 559 appearances between 2004 and 2017, having passed Bobby Charlton in 2017. Record fee paid is £89.3m for Paul Pogba from Juventus in August 2016; record fee received is £80m for Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in July 2009. Record attendance at Old Trafford in its modern configuration is 76,098 against Blackburn Rovers on 31 March 2007.
Notable scorelines
Record victory: 10-0 against Anderlecht in 1957, in the European Cup. No all-time record defeat was established from the sources consulted; the Wikipedia records article did not return that section to automated fetching, so do not state one. The most useful recent scoreline in that direction is the League Cup exit to Grimsby Town on 27 August 2025, which went to 12-11 on penalties after a 2-2 draw and stands as one of the heaviest embarrassments in the club's cup history.
In the Manchester derby, United's biggest win is 5-0 at home on 10 November 1994.
Head-to-head notes
Against Manchester City, the all-time competitive record after the meeting of 17 January 2026 stood at 198 matches, United 81 wins, City 62, 55 draws. The 2025/26 derbies split one each: City won 3-0 at the Etihad on 14 September 2025, Phil Foden scoring and Erling Haaland twice; United won 2-0 at Old Trafford on 17 January 2026 through Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu, four days after Carrick's appointment, ending a City run of 13 unbeaten.
No published all-time head-to-head records for United against Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur or Leeds United were established from the sources consulted, so no figures are given here; the club's records article did not carry them. What is on record is the 2025/26 final table: Arsenal 85, Manchester City 78, Manchester United 71, Aston Villa 65, Liverpool 60, Bournemouth 57, Sunderland 54, Brighton 53, Brentford 53, Chelsea 52, Fulham 52, Newcastle 49, Everton 49, Leeds 47, Crystal Palace 45, Nottingham Forest 44, Tottenham 41, West Ham 39, Burnley 22, Wolves 20. Liverpool's fifth place with 60 points and Tottenham's seventeenth with 41 are worth noting when those fixtures come round.
The three promoted clubs are Coventry City, back after 25 years, Ipswich Town, back after one season away, and Hull City, back after nine. United open the season away at Hull. No all-time records against any of the three were established.
Right now (2026/27)
Michael Carrick is head coach, appointed on an interim-to-permanent basis on 13 January 2026 and since given a two-year contract as permanent head coach ahead of this season.
The summer's business has been about clearing wages as much as adding quality. Rasmus Hojlund left for Napoli on 29 June 2026 on a £43.2m loan with a £38m obligation to buy. Casemiro and Jadon Sancho were both released when their contracts expired on 30 June 2026; Casemiro joined Inter Miami on 22 July. Coming in: midfielder Andrey Santos from Chelsea for £48m on 13 July 2026; goalkeeper Karl Darlow from Leeds United on a free on 14 July; midfielder Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa for £35m on 14 July; forward Tynan Thompson from Tottenham Hotspur on 20 July for £4m plus £4m in add-ons; and goalkeeper Kit Margetson from Swansea City for an undisclosed fee on 27 July.
Pre-season began badly and improved: a 1-0 defeat to Wrexham at a neutral venue on 18 July 2026, then a 5-0 win away at Rosenborg on 24 July, with Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Leeds United and AC Milan to follow. The Premier League season starts a week later than usual because of the 2026 World Cup. United's opening fixture is away to Hull City on 22 August 2026.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_United_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Manchester_United_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Manchester_United_F.C._records_and_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Manchester_United_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Manchester_United_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_derby
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.