Manchester United

2006–07 season
Manager	Sir Alex Ferguson
Chairman	Joel & Avram Glazer
Premier League	1st
FA Cup	Runners-up
Carling Cup	Fourth Round
UEFA Champions League	Semi-finals
Top goalscorer	League: Cristiano Ronaldo (17) All: Cristiano Ronaldo (23) Wayne Rooney (23)
Highest home attendance	76,098 vs Blackburn Rovers (31 March 2007)
Lowest home attendance	61,325 vs Middlesbrough (19 March 2007)
Average home attendance	74,937
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 2005–06 2007–08 →

The 2006–07 season was Manchester United's 15th season in the Premier League, and their 32nd consecutive season in the top division of English football.^[1] United enjoyed a much more successful season than the season before, winning the Premier League by a six-point margin over Chelsea. They also reached the final of the FA Cup and the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, losing to Chelsea and Milan respectively. However, for all their success in the major competitions, the club was unable to defend the Carling Cup title they had won in 2005–06, losing to Southend United in the Fourth Round.

Manchester United were not only dominant on a team level in 2006–07, but also on an individual level, with eight United players earning spots in the PFA Team of the Year, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo picking up no less than eight individual awards for his performances over the season and Sir Alex Ferguson winning the Premier League's Manager of the Season award.

The 2006–07 season also marked the 50th anniversary of the Busby Babes' first foray into European competition. The event was marked by a charity football match, organised in collaboration with UEFA, who were commemorating 50 years since the signing of the Treaty of Rome, against a team of the best players from Europe's top clubs.

[edit] Pre-season and friendlies

United began their pre-season in July 2006 with a friendly tournament in South Africa, their first time in the country for 13 years. The tournament involved matches against South Africa's top two teams, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, followed by a further match against the winner of a play-off between the two host sides. The Red Devils started well, beating Orlando Pirates 4–0 in their first game, but almost came unstuck against Kaizer Chiefs, requiring an 83rd minute goal from Dong Fangzhuo to secure the 1–0 win. Kaiser Chiefs then beat Orlando Pirates in the play-off, and managed to hold a relatively sub-par United side to a 0–0 draw before beating them 4–3 on penalties.

The team then took their pre-season back to Britain, beating Celtic 3–0 at Parkhead. This was followed by a 2–1 defeat to Preston North End, but the team bounced back to defeat Macclesfield Town 2–1 two days later.

The start of August saw United take part in the Amsterdam Tournament, involving Ajax, Internazionale and FC Porto. The Reds played two games in Amsterdam, beating both Porto and Ajax, but the tournament will be remembered mostly for the sendings-off of both Paul Scholes – for a clumsy, mistimed challenge in the match against Porto – and Wayne Rooney – who inadvertently caught Porto defender Pepe in the face with his hand as he jumped uncontested for a high ball. In accordance with FIFA disciplinary procedure, the red cards resulted in the pair missing the first three games of the season.

Back to Britain again, and a fixture against Oxford United was next up, which United won comfortably 4–1. Finally, United returned home to Old Trafford on 12 August for their only home friendly of the 2006–07 pre-season. The visitors were Sevilla who helped mark the official opening of Old Trafford's new North-West and North-East quadrants with a 3–0 win to United in front of a half-capacity crowd.

United played one more friendly during the 2006–07 season, this final one marking the 50th anniversary of the Busby Babes' first foray into European competition as the Red Devils took on a European XI managed by Italian World Cup-winning manager Marcello Lippi. The match also celebrated 50 years since the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the treaty that laid the foundations for what became known as the European Union. The original squad selected by Lippi was hit by last minute injuries and withdrawals by some big names like Ronaldinho and David Beckham, forcing replacements to be drawn from Premier League teams like Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth at short notice. United started the game very brightly, finding themselves 4–1 up at half-time, thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wes Brown. However, no further goals came for the home side as the visitors scored two consolation goals, leaving United as 4–3 winners.

[edit] Premier League

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

[edit] FA Cup

[edit] Carling Cup

[edit] Champions League

[edit] Group stage

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Manchester United	6	4	0	2	10	5	+5	12
Celtic	6	3	0	3	8	9	−1	9
Benfica	6	2	1	3	7	8	−1	7
Copenhagen	6	2	1	3	5	8	−3	7

[edit] Knock-out stage

[edit] Squad statistics

No.	Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	Edwin van der Sar	32	0	3	0	0	0	12	0	45	0
2	DF	Gary Neville (c)	24	0	3	0	0	0	6	0	33	0
3	DF	Patrice Evra	22(2)	1	3(1)	0	0(1)	0	4(3)	1	28(7)	2
4	DF	Gabriel Heinze	17(5)	0	6	1	2	0	7(1)	0	30(6)	1
5	DF	Rio Ferdinand	33	1	7	0	0	0	8(1)	0	47(1)	1
6	DF	Wes Brown	17(5)	0	6	0	2	0	5	0	30(5)	0
7	MF	Cristiano Ronaldo	31(3)	17	6(1)	3	1	0	11	3	48(3)	23
8	FW	Wayne Rooney	33(2)	14	5(2)	5	1	0	12	4	49(4)	23
9	FW	Louis Saha	18(6)	8	2	1	0	0	5(3)	4	25(9)	13
11	MF	Ryan Giggs (vc)	25(5)	4	6	0	0	0	8	2	38(5)	6
13	MF	Park Ji-Sung	8(6)	5	4	0	0	0	0(1)	0	12(8)	5
14	FW	Alan Smith	6(3)	0	2(1)	0	2	0	1(3)	1	10(6)	1
15	DF	Nemanja Vidić	25	3	5	0	0	0	8	1	38	4
16	MF	Michael Carrick	29(4)	3	6	1	0	0	12	2	46(4)	6
17	FW	Henrik Larsson	5(2)	1	3(1)	1	0	0	2	1	10(3)	3
18	MF	Paul Scholes	29(1)	6	3(1)	0	0	0	10(1)	1	41(2)	7
20	FW	Ole Gunnar Solskjær	9(10)	7	3(3)	2	1	1	2(4)	1	14(16)	11
21	FW	Dong Fangzhuo	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
22	DF	John O'Shea	16(16)	4	2(3)	0	1	0	8(3)	1	26(21)	5
23	MF	Kieran Richardson	8(7)	1	2(1)	1	2	0	0(4)	1	11(12)	3
24	MF	Darren Fletcher	16(8)	3	2(3)	0	1	0	6(3)	0	24(14)	3
25	MF	David Jones	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0
27	DF	Mikaël Silvestre	6(8)	1	2	0	2	0	3	0	13(8)	1
29	GK	Tomasz Kuszczak	6	0	5	0	2	0	0	0	13	0
33	MF	Chris Eagles	1(1)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1(1)	1
34	DF	Ryan Shawcross	0	0	0	0	1(1)	0	0	0	1(1)	0
35	DF	Kieran Lee	1	0	0	0	0(2)	1	0	0	1(2)	1
36	DF	David Gray	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
41	FW	Phil Marsh	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
42	MF	Michael Barnes	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0(1)	0
49	MF	Ritchie Jones	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0

[edit] Transfers

[edit] In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
31 July 2006	MF	Michael Carrick	Tottenham Hotspur	£14m

[edit] Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
1 July 2006	FW	David Bellion	Nice	Undisclosed
14 July 2006	FW	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake	Plymouth Argyle	£200k
28 July 2006	FW	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Real Madrid	£10.3m
10 August 2006	DF	Paul McShane	West Bromwich Albion	Undisclosed
10 August 2006	GK	Luke Steele	West Bromwich Albion	Undisclosed
31 August 2006	MF	Liam Miller	Sunderland	Undisclosed
3 January 2007	MF	David Jones	Derby County	Undisclosed
14 February 2007	GK	Tim Howard	Everton	Undisclosed

[edit] Loan in

Date From	Date To	Position	Name	From
10 August 2006	30 June 2007	GK	Tomasz Kuszczak	West Bromwich Albion
2 January 2007	12 March 2007	FW	Henrik Larsson	Helsingborg

[edit] Loan out

Date From	Date To	Position	Name	To
1 July 2006	30 June 2007	GK	Tim Howard	Everton
4 August 2006	30 June 2007	DF	Gerard Piqué	Real Zaragoza
4 August 2006	10 August 2006	GK	Luke Steele	Coventry City
10 August 2006	1 January 2007	DF	Adam Eckersley	Brondby
10 August 2006	30 June 2007	GK	Ben Foster	Watford
11 August 2006	29 December 2006	MF	Lee Martin	Rangers
16 August 2006	28 December 2006	DF	Phil Bardsley	Rangers
17 August 2006	30 June 2007	FW	Fraizer Campbell	Royal Antwerp
17 August 2006	1 January 2007	DF	Jonny Evans	Royal Antwerp
17 August 2006	30 June 2007	MF	Darron Gibson	Royal Antwerp
17 August 2006	1 January 2007	DF	Danny Simpson	Royal Antwerp
31 August 2006	1 January 2007	MF	Chris Eagles	NEC Nijmegen
31 August 2006	1 January 2007	FW	Giuseppe Rossi	Newcastle United
28 October 2006	27 November 2006	MF	Ritchie Jones	Colchester United
17 November 2006	3 January 2007	MF	David Jones	Derby County
4 January 2007	30 June 2007	DF	Jonny Evans	Sunderland
4 January 2007	9 May 2007	MF	Daniel Rose	Oxford United
4 January 2007	30 June 2007	DF	Ryan Shawcross	Royal Antwerp
5 January 2007	30 June 2007	DF	David Gray	Royal Antwerp
8 January 2007	19 May 2007	DF	Phil Bardsley	Aston Villa
8 January 2007	30 June 2007	DF	Adam Eckersley	Barnsley
18 January 2007	30 June 2007	FW	Giuseppe Rossi	Parma
25 January 2007	30 June 2007	MF	Lee Martin	Stoke City
29 January 2007	30 June 2007	DF	Danny Simpson	Sunderland
12 February 2007	7 May 2007	MF	Ritchie Jones	Barnsley

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Manchester United F.C. seasons