Manchester City before the Sheikh
Football tends to be cyclical, as throughout its history, clubs reach high points with relative success for their respective status, but also low points with crises and complicated situations. Despite City's current status as one of the major powers in world football, not only due to the club's stature but also due to the entire City Group conglomerate, the reality is that historically, the Manchester club wasn't accustomed to winning titles or playing in Europe, and sometimes even found itself playing in the lower divisions. Therefore, today we'll take a brief look at Manchester City's history before the arrival of the Sheikh.
Beginnings
In 1880, members of St. Mark's Church of England, located in West Gorton, Manchester, seeking a way to combat vices such as alcoholism that were beginning to flourish in the area, decided to form a football club with the aim of providing men with entertainment through healthy activities. The club was called St. Mark's and began playing against other churches; in fact, the first recorded match was against a church in Macclesfield, on November 13, 1880. Three years later, they would begin their journey within the English football system of the time, in the second tier. In 1894 the club changed name to Manchester City (after being called Ardwick Association FC for a few years), and in 1989, they would win their first title, the Second Division, guaranteeing their promotion to the first tier for the first time.In their first season in the First Division, they finished seventh in a league that at the time consisted of 18 teams. Despite this strong debut in English football's topflight, just a couple of seasons later they would finish in last place and return to the Second Division. This behavior would become a hallmark of the team in the following decades, with promotions and relegations. Just a year later, they would be back in the top tier, with the best season in their short history to that date, as they finished second in the First Division (three points behind champions The Wednesday, today called Sheffield Wednesday) and won the FA Cup (beating Bolton 1-0 in the final).
There was controversy here because on the final matchday, Manchester City needed to beat Aston Villa to be crowned champions, and it is said that Billy Meredith, the team's main star, offered the Villa captain 10 pounds to let them win, something the Birmingham player himself reported. Additionally, it was said that City exceeded the maximum salary allowed per player at the time (4 pounds). This sparked an investigation, in which they were found guilty and received very significant punishments from the FA. In 1909 they would fall back to the second tier and would return just one season later, with their third Second Division title.
Times of war
Until the start of the First World War, the team became a regular in the First Division, maintaining an irregular performance with some good seasons alternating with some not so good ones, but without reaching the point of fighting for the title or relegation. In 1923, they left Hyde Road, which had been their home until then, to move to Maine Road, after one of the former stands suffered a fire a couple of seasons earlier.In 1926, they would have a tremendous season in the FA Cup, where they would score 31 goals in 5 matches to reach the final, which they would lose 1-0 to Bolton. In the same 1926, they fell back to the Second Division, although this time they would not achieve promotion the following season as they finished tied on points in third place (only the top two were promoted at that time) with Portsmouth, but a goal average difference in favor of the Hampshire club meant that City had to play another season in the English second tier.
In 1928, they would return once again to the First Division, having added their fourth Second Division title to that date. In 1934, they had the opportunity to play in another FA Cup final, this time against Portsmouth, where they won 2-1 thanks to a Fred Tilson brace. It's worth noting that City had to come back from a 1-0 deficit and scored the equalizer in the 74th minute and the winning goal in the 88th. In 1937, after two second places and three third places to their name, City were finally crowned First Division champions thanks, among other things, to a powerful attack that scored 107 goals in 42 matches.
Incredibly, the following season they would finish twenty-first and be relegated once again. What's even more impressive is that this happened despite being the highest scoring team in the First Division for the second year running. In 1938-39, they failed to make their typical first-year comeback in the second tier, and that meant they were still in that position when the Second World War broke out.
The Golden Era
After the war, City continued their typical irregularity, alternating between the First and Second Divisions. In the 1964-65 season, City finished eleventh in the second tier, their lowest ever finish in the Football League. However, the following year, they were crowned Second Division champions for the sixth time with Joe Mercer as manager, who had just been relegated with Aston Villa and who had been considered, until then, a second-tier manager.However, just two years later, Mercer would lead City to their second First Division title, beating arch-rivals Manchester United. In 1968, they won the Community Shield and the FA Cup in 1969, which allowed them to compete in the 1970 European Cup Winners' Cup, where they reached the final against Gornik Zabrze of Poland, beating them 2-1. This was the first international trophy for the Mancunian club. In 1972, there were many disputes over the club's takeover involving Mercer, and these situations led him to leave City, bringing to a close the club's most successful era to that date.
Fall and rise
Over the next couple of decades, the club returned to its usual relegations and promotions until 1998, when they had two relegations in three years and were playing in the Second Division for the first time, which, at this point, after the birth of the Premier League, became the third tier of English football. To give you an idea, in the 1998-99 season, City were playing in the third tier while city rivals Manchester United were winning a historic treble.That season, City achieved promotion via the play-offs to the First Division, and in 2002, they won the second tier once again, returning to the Premier League. Until the arrival of money from the Middle East, the club hovered in mid-table in the Premier League, just a little far from the relegation zone but still within the top tier. After the arrival of their rich new owners everything of course changed, and in these days, they are a true superpower in both the English and European football.