Manchester Central : The Third Club Of Manchester

Manchester Central. Sounds like more of a newspaper? It's okay, at first i thought the same. But boy was I wrong. Manchester Central was the what would've been the brainchild of Manchester City and the commoners of Manchester. The would be 3rd club of Manchester. As obviously Manchester is divided between blue and red. People back then (somewhere around 1930) thought time to draw a grey area. Manchester Central. A third football club from the city of Manchester.

Source

In the late 20s few people thought about it. They thought that a third club from Manchester might just have a future. So people from the professional Lancashire combination, along with a few powerful others they started work to form a new club. But they had difficulties in fitting Manchester Central into the third division. It was very obvious as a new team from out of nowhere playing the first division wouldn't make any sense. At that time, a club called Wigan Borough cut off their name from the third division, reasons unknown. Central took the chance and applied for that vacant position. Teams in the third division actually accepted and supported their application. As usual you all know how British media works. It was the same almost hundred years ago. A journalist from the Sunday Chronicle talked about Central should be accepted into the first division, because Manchester United have failed. Note the point that Manchester United at that time were going through one of their worst periods, and City were doing very good. Seems similar for something that's almost a 100 years old. Anyway, Manchester Central was a threat to the other Manchester clubs, in certain ways. As i said earlier, Manchester United were going through some tough times. Number of spectators in the stadium were also facing a stiff decline. There was a time when Manchester Central attracted more spectators than Manchester United. United felt the heat. On the other hand, Manchester City also didn't take Central in with open arms because the abbreviation of Manchester Central was MCFC, seems familiar right? Club rivalries are at the root of it, Manchester City thought Central were threatening their position. City were doing well at the time and being inferior to Manchester United, that survival instinct kicked in as they thought Central was a threat. Journalists spoke out against a declining Manchester United. Addressing their low number of spectators, low grade football that they were playing back then. And talked about how Central was more acceptable than Manchester United in the first division.

The then Central chairman also spoke out to the press saying Manchester is big enough for two clubs. Notice how he says two clubs whereas he is the chairman of a so called third club. In his statement he did not count Manchester United because dethroning Manchester United was almost the plan. And also it was Manchester United's presence that was stopping Manchester Central from joining the first division. Though Central didn't last long. About a year later Central was shut down. It was evident that Central aimed for a meteoric rise but failed, because Manchester United or Manchester City neither wanted Central to succeed. City were enjoying a golden age back then, while Manchester United were still a shadow of themselves. Then a few years later the world war came and the world changed as they knew it. Central was also gone, Manchester was a two club city. But if, and this if is quite big, if Manchester Central was accepted into the first division, the footballing landscape of England would've been very different today.