Ernest Mangnall – A Unique Football Manager

By Margaret Brecknell

Ernest Mangnall, who died 90 years ago in January 1932, may not be a household name today, but he holds a unique place in Manchester’s football history. Over the years the two Manchester clubs have been managed by some of the sport’s most high-profile figures, but only Mangnall has thus far managed both United and City.

James Ernest Mangnall, the son of a joiner, was born in Bolton on 4th January 1866. A keen amateur footballer, his first managerial role came when he was appointed club secretary/manager of his home town club, Bolton Wanderers in the late 1890s.

In March 1900 Mangnall was appointed as the new manager of Lancashire rivals, Burnley. During his time at Burnley there was little hint of the successful managerial career which was to come. At the time of his arrival the club were battling relegation and duly lost their position in the top flight at the end of the season. Having challenged unsuccessfully for promotion during their first season in Division Two, matters went from bad to worse and the club finished bottom of the entire Football League in the 1902/03 season.

Soon after, Mangnall left the Clarets to join Burnley’s Second Division rivals, Manchester United. The Manchester United which Mangnall joined in 1903 were a very different proposition to today’s sporting giants. The club had been founded as Newton Heath L&YR FC in 1878 (L&YR stood for “Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway”, the company for which the team’s players originally worked) and had only changed their name to Manchester United the year before Mangnall became manager. At the time of his arrival they played their home fixtures at Bank Street in Clayton, not far from where Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium is now situated. The development of United’s famous Old Trafford stadium was still seven years in the future. 

In view of his lack of previous managerial success, Mangnall’s appointment was inevitably greeted with scepticism in some quarters. Any disquiet on the part of fans may well not have been helped by a feature on Mangnall’s managerial style which had appeared in the Lancashire Evening Post at the time he was given the Burnley job. “It is not good, he considers, to give the men too much practice with the ball”, reported the paper. “Some people seemed to think players should have the ball every day, but once a week was plenty in his estimation”. Mangnall does, however, appear to have been ahead of his time in his treatment of players. “He believes in handling them as men”, reported the Lancashire Evening Post, “and finds he can get more work out of them by such a policy, accompanied with tact, than otherwise”.

Following his appointment Mangnall was immediately given a healthy budget to recruit new players by United’s ambitious new Chairman, John Henry Davies. Over the next three seasons the new manager gradually assembled a good side including defender, Charlie Roberts, for a then club record transfer fee of £600.

United won promotion to Division One in the 1905/06 season and the following year achieved a respectable mid-table position. The following season United not only won the league title for the first time, but also did so with a record number of points. Following their success the Athletic News commented that “Such facts speak volumes for the players, and for the management of Mr Ernest Mangnall”.

Captained by the influential Roberts, the title-winning side included four men who had previously played for Manchester City including one of football’s earliest superstars, Billy Meredith.

The Welsh winger had joined United, together with his three City teammates, in controversial circumstances. At a time when Football League rules dictated that clubs should pay their players no more than £4 per week, City had become embroiled in a huge financial scandal when it became known they had been making additional payments on a large scale to their star players. An official investigation into their actions concluded that “the club had for years systematically broken the rules by very unscrupulous means”.

The club were fined heavily, in addition to which most of their players were suspended for a year. City were compelled to sell many of their stars and at an extraordinary auction held at Manchester’s Queen’s Hotel in October 1906 United took full advantage of their close neighbours’ plight. United manager, Mangnall, snapped up Meredith for a bargain fee of £500, as well as three other City players, Herbert Burgess, Sandy Turnbull and Jimmy Bannister.

With the addition of the four City stars at rock bottom prices, Mangnall had created an impressive side and it was little surprise when United followed up their first league title by winning the FA Cup for the first time in 1909. A further league title followed in 1911, in a season which was also notable for being the club’s first full season at Old Trafford.

However, Mangnall’s tenure as Manchester United manager ended just over a year later when, just after the start of the 1912/13 season, he joined United’s great rivals, Manchester City. One newspaper reported that “the directors of the City club are elated at

Remarkably, Mangnall’s last game in charge of United came against City in the Manchester derby of September 1912, with City coming out as 1-0 winners. By this stage it was widely known that the manager was joining United’s rivals. Indeed, at the end of the game the Manchester United directors presented Mangnall with what was described in the local press as a “handsome silver table ornament” in recognition of his services to the club.

Despite this gesture on the part of the United board, Mangnall, it seems, did little to hide his evident pleasure at his new club’s victory. Not for the first or last time in football history, United’s successful manager appears to have fallen out with the club owners over a lack of funds available for new players. The cost of building the club’s impressive new Old Trafford stadium had left United saddled with debt.

Mangnall’s career at City started in spectacular fashion, with the team winning every game during his first month in charge. One newspaper noted that, “Nine years have passed since Manchester City commenced a campaign in this stimulating style”. However, they were unable to maintain this level of performance over the entire season and ultimately finished a creditable sixth. 

By the time that play in the Football League was suspended in 1915 because of World War I, Mangnall had assembled a decent, if not worldbeating, side.

City’s development under Mangnall continued following the resumption of league football in the 1919/20 season. One notable signing came when the now 46-year-old Billy Meredith returned to City on a free transfer. During the 1920/21 season City achieved their best league position in nearly two decades when they finished second behind that year’s champions, Burnley.

Progress was also being made off the field. City had played their home games at a ground on Hyde Road since the club’s early days. The stadium had once hosted an FA Cup Semi Final in 1905, but by Mangnall’s time as manager it was becoming increasingly apparent that the club had outgrown the venue. As far back as the pre-World War 1 days, the ground at Hyde Road had been criticised by one newspaper reporter for being “too antiquated for the complete setting of modern cuptie spectacles”. This followed a game against Sunderland which had to be abandoned when fans were forced to invade the pitch following a crush in the stands.

Matters came to a head when, in November 1920, the main stand caught fire and was burned to the ground. This came only months after one of the Hyde Road ground’s most memorable occasions when, in the first ever instance of a reigning British monarch attending a football match outside London, King George V had watched City defeat Liverpool in a league game.

The search for a new ground became more urgent following the fire and Mangnall played a significant part in the decision-making process. For some time club officials had been considering a move to Belle Vue, but Mangnall is said to have persuaded them that a move to Maine Road on the edge of Moss Side would offer more scope for future expansion. For all its later popularity with fans, some City supporters expressed dismay when the location of the new ground on the southern side of Manchester was first announced.

City’s first competitive game at their new Maine Road stadium came in August 1923 when, in the first match of the new league season, they defeated Sheffield United 2-1 in front of a crowd of just over 58,000 fans. According to the Manchester Evening News, the cost of a 1923/24 season ticket for one of the best seats in the grandstand was “fixed at 3 pounds 10 shillings for gentlemen and 2 pounds 10 shillings for ladies”.

That first season at Maine Road proved to be Ernest Mangnall’s swansong as manager of City. The club enjoyed a good FA Cup run, making it all the way to the Semi Finals. A crowd of over 76,000 fans had watched City beat Cardiff in the 4th Round at their new Maine Road stadium. However, Mangnall’s contract was, surprisingly, not renewed at the end of the season.

Following his departure from City, Mangnall continued to be involved in the administrative side of football until shortly before his death, aged 66, at his home in Lytham St Annes on 13th January 1932.

Men from football’s early days like Ernest Mangnall are rarely ever mentioned today and yet his part in the development of the two Manchester clubs was significant. Not only did he successfully manage both United and City at critical moments in their early history, but he was also a prime mover behind United’s switch to Old Trafford and City’s move to Maine Road. In doing so, Mangnall helped to lay the foundation stones for the future success of these two now world-famous football clubs. n

Above: Manchester City’s former Maine Road ground. Credit: Cjc13/CC BY-SA 3.0

Below: Plaque marking location of United’s former Bank Street ground. Credit: PeeJay2k3/CC BY-SA 3.0