All the great English football rivalries contain some combination of proximity, a history that goes beyond football, and a shared level of success. That all comes together like nowhere else in the North West Derby, Manchester United vs Liverpool.
English football has many derbies and rivalries; Liverpool vs Everton (Merseyside Derby), Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur (North-London Derby), Manchester United vs Manchester City (Manchester Derby), and Newcastle vs Sunderland (Tyne-Wear Derby); just to name a few.
Despite Manchester United vs Liverpool not exactly being a local derby, the rivalry between the two clubs is so intense because of the proximity of the two cities, just 35 miles away from each other. This coupled with the fact that Liverpool FC and Manchester United are far and away the most successful football clubs in the history of English football, makes the rivalry all the more intense.
Such has been the bitterness between the two teams that not since 1964, when Phil Chisnall went from United to Liverpool, has there been a direct transfer of a player between the clubs.
In 1986, Manchester United appointed Sir Alex Ferguson as their new manager and he came into English football with one purpose and that was to knock Liverpool Football Club off the perch as English football’s most successful team to date. Ferguson is quoted as saying “My greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f*****g perch. And you can print that!”
If that quote does not sum up the intensity, then nothing does.
What is the North-West derby?
Liverpool and Manchester are two of the largest conurbations in England, jammed into the North West corner of the country, just above Wales. It is almost as if the North West is not big enough to accommodate them both and they fight over which will ultimately swallow the other – and hence the ‘North-West Derby’
Though the rivalry started through industrial tensions, football was the primary reason to inspire any real hatred between the two cities.
Manchester United were the team founded first in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR F.C. and renamed to Manchester United F.C. in 1902. Old Trafford has been Manchester United’s home ground since 1910.
Liverpool were founded in 1892 by John Houlding who was at first an Everton FC member. Houlding purchased Anfield stadium from his friend John Orell in 1892 and asked Everton FC, who had already been playing there, for an increase in rent. Everton FC refused and left…
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