Show Notes
Manchester United has been subject to numerous takeover attempts in its rich and controversial history. In the early 1980s, Robert Maxwell chanced his arm, so too did Rupert Murdoch with BSkyB in 1998. We all know about the Glazer family's seizing of control in 2005 and Sir Jim Ratcliffe's recent acquisition of a minor but controlling share.
Still, perhaps the most infamous of all remains Michael Knighton's fascinating attempt to buy Manchester United in the summer of 1989. You'll remember many of the details, surely. The sight of the former schoolteacher doing Trafford pitch before the opening day of the season has gone down in legend.
United spent big, as Knighton promised the world. Yet, before Christmas, his takeover bid had collapsed, and he was proclaimed as a Walter Mitty character by the press. What went wrong has often been disputed. Now, for the first time, you'll hear the reasons for the breakdown, as it happened, told by those who were involved at the time.
This is Manchester United, The Lost Tapes. Stories from United's rich history, told in a way you've never heard before.
Written by Wayne Barton. Narrated by Patrick Barclay. Produced by Ed Barker, Studio 1878. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Manchester United: The Lost Tapes
Remembering Manchester United: The Journey from 1958 to 1968
Manchester United's rich history spans almost 150 years. Yet the essence of everything the club is about the story, the romance, and the tragedy can be found in the span of a decade from 1958 to 1968 from the Munich Air disaster to the winning of the European Cup. Matt Busby's personal mission, his drive, his ambition to create a team that was the very best. This is that story told through interviews you've never heard, you'll hear from a number of key individuals, Bobby Charlton, Bill Folkes, George Best, Dennis Law, Brian Kidd, Jackie Blanchflower, Albert Scanlan, and even Busby himself in interviews from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.
The Lost Tapes Extra: Roy Keane and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's United Journeys
Few players in the storied history of Manchester United Evoke emotion in the same way that's conjured by these three words, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. With six league titles, two FA cups and intercontinental cup, and of course, a champions League. Solskjaer enjoyed success on a level that few have. His contribution to that success is etched in history. His winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final earned him sporting immortality. However, when he arrived at Old Trafford in the summer of 1996, nobody knew his name, much less how to pronounce it.
Have a footballer and his manager ever been as alike as Roy Keane and Alex Ferguson? From his signing for Manchester United in 1993, Keane evolved into an on pitch general in the image of his manager. Theirs was a relationship which was one of the most compelling in football history. Ferguson, the omnipresent overlord patrolling the sidelines and Keane his chosen representative snarling in the middle of the pitches that he ran for over a decade. Today, the two football personalities famously don't get on. It's easy to forget though, that together their relationship formed such a successful dynamic. Well, this is that story. The story of the evolution of Keane at United.