The 1996–97 season was
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
's fifth season in the
Premier League, and their 22nd consecutive season in the top division of
English football. United clinched the Premier League title with 75 points – placing them seven points ahead of the three teams below them;
Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...
,
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
and
Liverpool.
They also reached the
European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
semi-finals, bowing out to eventual winners
Borussia Dortmund of Germany, after losing both legs 1–0. Earlier in the competition, they had lost at home in Europe for the first time, with a 1–0 defeat to
Fenerbahçe of Turkey in the group stage. Their defence of the
FA Cup ended in the Fourth Round replay with a 1–0 defeat to
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, while their bid for success in the
League Cup was short-lived as they bowed out to eventual winners
Leicester City in the Fourth Round.
New signing
Ole Gunnar Solskjær was one of the biggest breakthrough stars in the 1996–97 Premier League season, with 19 goals in all competitions, making him the club's top goalscorer. Twenty-two-year-old midfielder
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...
clinched the
PFA Young Player of the Year award in the same season he won his first
England cap. Solskjær's fellow Norwegian,
Ronny Johnsen, proved himself as a fine successor to
Steve Bruce
Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Br ...
in central defence, but £3.5 million Czech winger
Karel Poborský failed to win a regular first team place and was one of the Premier League's biggest disappointments that season.
Jordi Cruyff, son of Dutch legend
Johan Cruyff, was similarly disappointing, failing to win a regular first team place despite being able to play in midfield, attack or on the left wing.
Just before the start of the season, winger
Lee Sharpe left the club after eight years to sign for
Leeds United in a £4.5 million deal. Earlier in the summer, captain Steve Bruce had departed to
Birmingham City on a free transfer after almost a decade at Old Trafford, while
Paul Parker left on a free transfer after his final two seasons at the club had been plagued by injury and the loss of his place in the team to
Gary Neville.
The season ended with a major shock as
Eric Cantona announced his retirement from playing, prompting manager Alex Ferguson to search for a new striker. The search ended with the £3.5 million capture of
Tottenham Hotspur and England 31-year-old
Teddy Sheringham.
Pre-season and friendlies
FA Charity Shield
FA Premier League
FA Cup
United beat
Tottenham Hotspur 2–0 to reach the Fourth Round, where they faced
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, who they had beaten easily 3–0 on the first day of the season; the game ended 1–1. The replay was played at Wimbledon's
Selhurst Park
Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst in the London Borough of Croydon which is the home ground of Premier League side Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted international footba ...
, with the game ending 1–0 to Wimbledon, knocking United out of the competition at a very early stage. In between these two FA Cup games, United and Wimbledon faced each other again in the league, with United coming out on top at home, with a 2–1 win, making it all the more shocking that Wimbledon managed to defeat them five days later in the cup.
League Cup
As in the previous two seasons, United rested many of their first-team players in the
League Cup, instead using the competition to provide first team experience to the club's younger players and reserves. This proved to be a bad move, as the Red Devils just managed to squeeze past
Swindon Town to get into the Fourth Round,
but they were then defeated by
Leicester City 2–0.
UEFA Champions League
Group stage
In the group stage, United were drawn together with defending champions
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
of Italy, Turkish champions
Fenerbahçe and Austrian champions
Rapid Wien.
Knockout phase
United were drawn against Portuguese champions
Porto in the quarter-finals, and sealed their place in the semi-finals with a 4–0 win in the first leg, followed by a goalless second leg. They were then drawn against the eventual winners, German champions
Borussia Dortmund, who beat them 1–0 in each leg, eliminated ''the Red Devils'' from the competition 2–0 on aggregate.
Squad statistics
Transfers
United's first departure of the 1996–97 season was
Hasney Aljofree, who signed for
Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
on a free transfer on 2 July. Four days later, Heath Maxon was released.
Tony Coton joined
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
on 12 July, while a month later,
Lee Sharpe joined
Leeds United after eight years at
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
.
Arriving in the summer were Norwegian defender
Ronny Johnsen, Czech winger
Karel Poborský, Norwegian forward
Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and Dutch midfielder
Jordi Cruyff.
United's only winter departure was American forward
Jovan Kirovski, who joined
Borussia Dortmund on a free transfer on 8 December. David Fish joined
Stockport County on 1 May, while a day later, David Hilton was released. Just under a fortnight later,
Colin Murdock joined
Preston North End
Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...
, while on 18 May,
Eric Cantona retired.
Robert Trees was released on 30 June.
On 27 June,
Teddy Sheringham was acquired from
Tottenham Hotspur to replace the retired Cantona.
In
Out
Loan out
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1996-97 Manchester United F.C. season
Manchester United F.C. seasons
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...