1992–93 in English football

The 1992-1993 season was the 113th season of competitive football in England.

Overview

This season saw the birth of the FA Premier League. This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions.

In 1992 all of the First Division Clubs resigned from the football league and, on 27 May 1992, the FA Premier League was formed as a limited company, which worked out of an office at the then Football Association's headquarters, Lancaster Gate.

The three divisions which remained in the Football League were renamed. The old Division Two was now called Division One. The old Division Three was now called Division Two, and the old Division Four was now Division Three.

uccessful players

Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs, 19, was voted PFA Young Player of the Year for the second year running after helping his employers win their first league title for 26 years.

Teddy Sheringham was the new Premier League's top scorer with 22 goals. He scored once for Nottingham Forest and was then transferred to Tottenham Hotspur, opening his goalscoring account with the club by scoring 21 league goals.

Chris Waddle was voted Player of the Year by the FWA after helping Sheffield Wednesday reach both domestic cup finals.

Guy Whittingham scores a club record 42 league goals during the season for Portsmouth. He was on target 46 times in all competitions.

The PFA Player of the Year award went to experienced Aston Villa centre-back Paul McGrath.

Coventry signed Newcastle striker Mick Quinn for a nominal fee in November, and he responded by scoring 17 Premier League goals (the first 10 in 6 games) to keep the Sky Blues clear of relegation.

Striker Les Ferdinand established himself as one of the country's top marksmen with more than 20 goals in all competitions for Queens Park Rangers.

Alan Shearer scored 16 goals in his first 21 Premier League games for Blackburn Rovers before a serious knee injury ended his season.

David Kelly scored 25 Division One goals to help Newcastle win promotion to the Premier League, but surprisingly he spurned the chance of Premier League football to sign for Wolves as strike-partner for the ever-prolific Steve Bull.

Andy Cole scored 12 goals in his first 12 games for Division One champions Newcastle.

uccessful managers

Alex Ferguson took Manchester United to title success in the new Premier League, ending their 26-year wait for the league title.

George Graham guided Arsenal to a unique double of winning both domestic cups in the same season.

Mike Walker pulled off one of the surprises of the season by taking Norwich City to a club best finish of third in the Premiership and helping them achieve European qualification for the first time in their history.

Gerry Francis helped Queens Park Rangers finish highest out of all the London-based clubs in the new Premier League as they finished fifth.

Kevin Keegan restored success to Newcastle United by guiding them to the Division One title.

Glenn Hoddle guided Swindon Town to success in the Division One playoffs to achieve promotion to the Premiership - and top flight football for a club who had never played at that level before.

Lou Macari won the Division Two title with Stoke City.

Bruce Rioch perpetuated the revival at Bolton Wanderers by gaining automatic promotion to Division One.

Alan Little had a dream start in management by winning the Division Three playoff with York City, just two months after he had taken over from John Ward.

Martin O'Neill took Wycombe Wanderers into the Football League as Conference champions.

Events

The Premier League is born

The FA launched its new Premier League of 22 elite clubs, which broke away from the Football League. The new league was backed up by a £305million exclusive T.V rights deal with BSkyB. This paved the way for the Premier League's members to spend heavily on new players and also to convert their stadia into an all-seater format, which was necessary as a result of the Taylor Report's requirement that top division stadia should be all seater from the start of the 1994-95 season.

United's 26-year title wait ends

Manchester United won the first Premier League championship to end their 26-year wait for the league title. They fought off stiff competition from runners-up Aston Villa, third-placed Norwich City and fourth-placed Blackburn Rovers to finish top of the league. Brilliant young winger Ryan Giggs was PFA Young Player of the Year for the second year running, while Alex Ferguson received the Manager of the Year award. Other significant players in the title winning side were top goalscorer Mark Hughes, temperamental but brilliant French striker Eric Cantona, reliable centre back Gary Pallister and confident midfielder Paul Ince.

The Fall of Forest

Brian Clough retired after 18 years as manager of Nottingham Forest. In his final season as manager they were relegated from the Premier League, but earlier in his reign he had brought league championship and European Cup glory to the previously unfashionable club. There had even been some success in the final few years of his reign, as Forest were League Cup winners in 1989 and 1990. They were losing finalists in the 1991 FA Cup and 1992 League Cup, but finally bowed out of the top flight after the sale of key players like Des Walker and Teddy Sheringham who proved impossible to replace.

Bobby Moore dies

Bobby Moore died of cancer aged 51. He is best remembered for captaining England to World Cup glory in 1966. He also won the FA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup with West Ham United. Just over a week before his death, Moore had given radio commentation on an England game.

Morrow crocked as Arsenal crack the cup double

Arsenal became the first team to win the FA Cup and League Cup in the same season, beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in both finals. Steve Morrow scored the winning goal in the League Cup final, but was accidentally dropped by captain Tony Adams during the post-match celebrations, broke his arm and missed the FA Cup triumph. Arsenal's double gave them two places in UEFA competitions, meaning that Norwich City were awarded a UEFA Cup place for finishing third in the League. Norwich had never qualified for Europe before, due to the ban on English clubs following the Heysel stadium disaster.

windon in the big time at last

Swindon Town finally reached the top flight of English football by beating Leicester City 4-3 in the Division One playoff final. They had been denied promotion three years earlier because of financial irregularities.

Manager of the jubilant Swindon side was 36-year-old Glenn Hoddle, the former Tottenham and England midfielder, who had built a formidable squad containing players like Shaun Taylor, Micky Hazard and Craig Maskell. Shortly after achieving promotion glory with Swindon, Hoddle agreed to become manager of Chelsea and was replaced at the County Ground by his assistant John Gorman.

Wycombe reach the league

Martin O'Neill, who played in the great Nottingham Forest team of the late 1970s and early 1980s, achieved his first success in management by getting Wycombe Wanderers promoted to the Football League as well as completing the double by winning the FA Trophy. They replaced Halifax Town, who finished bottom of Division Three. Wycombe's fortunes had been looking good since they moved into their new Adams Park ground in 1990, and the Conference and FA Trophy double all but erased memories of the previous year when they went through the agony of missing out on promotion on goal difference to their bitter rivals Colchester United.

Barclays pull out

Barclays bank ended their six-year sponsorship of the Football League. They were replaced by Endsleigh Insurance, who put pen to paper in a three-year sponsorship deal.

Barnet come out on top against all the odds

Controversial chairman Stan Flashman quit Barnet after a season of turmoil in which he regularly sacked and reinstated manager Barry Fry, but the club still managed to win promotion from Division Three despite spending months on the verge of oblivion due to a mounting financial crisis. They had banned from the transfer market for most of the season because they were unable to afford their player's wages.

Maidstone go under

Maidstone United, struggling in the league's basement division with huge debts, no registered stadium and just two registered players, had their first game of the 1992-93 season cancelled and were given two days to guarantee that they would be able to fulfill their fixtures. Unable to comply with these requirements, the club resigned from the league on 17 August 1992. The club was soon reformed and applied to join the Kent County League for the following season. The League decided that Maidstone would not be replaced by another club, so the top four tiers of the English league pyramid would revert to the 92-club format which it had adopted until 1991.

Honours

Barclays League Division One

Newcastle United's first full season under the management of Kevin Keegan ended in Division One championship glory and promotion to the Premiership. They have not looked back since. Following the Geordies into football's big-money league were West Ham United and Swindon Town. West Ham had suffered relegation just one season earlier, and had been many people's favourites for an automatic return to the elite. Swindon, meanwhile, had finally reached the top flight after 73 years of trying - they had actually won promotion via the playoffs three years earlier, but promotion had been denied a few weeks later due to financial irregularities.

Going down were Cambridge United (who had just missed out on promotion a year earlier), Brentford and Bristol Rovers. Brentford, newly promoted a season earlier, had stood in 10th place at the turn of 1993, but a sharp decline in form during the final few months of the season saw them relegated on the final day of the season.

Third-placed Portsmouth had opened up a 10-point gap over fourth-placed Tranmere Rovers, but lost to Leicester City in the playoff semi-finals and this ended any promotion hopes for a club who had begun the season as favourites for promotion, and ended it with 88 points.

Transfer deals

For subsequent transfer deals see 1993-94 in English football.

Diary of the season

7 July 1992 - Southampton manager Ian Branfoot announces that highly-rated striker Alan Shearer can leave the club if the price is right. Manchester United are said to be favourites in the race to sign Shearer, who turns 22 next month.

11 July 1992 - Ted Fenton, who was manager of West Ham United from 1950 to 1961, dies aged 77 after being injured in a car crash in Leicester.

14 July 1992 - Arsenal sign John Jensen, midfielder of Denmark's Euro 92 winning team, from Brondby in a £1.1million deal.

23 July 1992 - David Rocastle ends nine years at Arsenal by joining Leeds United in a £2million deal.

27 July 1992 - The new Premier League rejects sponsorship deals offered by Bass Breweries and Ford Motor Company, meaning that it will be without a sponsor in its first season.

28 July 1992 - Alan Shearer signs for newly promoted Blackburn Rovers for an English record fee of £3.5million.

29 July 1992 - Lou Macari, former Swindon Town manager (now at Stoke City), is cleared of tax fraud offences at Winchester Crown Court. Swindon's former chairman Brian Hillier is found guilty, however, and given a one-year prison sentence. Club accountant Vince Farrar is also found guilty and receives a six-month suspended sentence.

7 August 1992 - Manchester United sign 23-year-old Cambridge United striker Dion Dublin for £1million.

12 August 1992 - Chelsea pay a club record £2.1million for Norwich City's Scottish striker Robert Fleck.

15 August 1992 - The new FA Premier League kicks off on the opening day of the season. The honour of scoring the first Premier League goal goes to Sheffield United striker Brian Deane, who opens the scoring in a 2-1 home win over title favourites Manchester United.

16 August 1992 - Sky Sports broadcast their first live Premier League game. Teddy Sheringham scores the only goal as Nottingham Forest beat Liverpool at Anfield.

25 August 1992 - Chester City lose 2-1 to Stockport County in the first match at their new Deva Stadium home in the Football League Cup.

27 August 1992 - Tottenham Hotspur pay £2.1million for Nottingham Forest's 26-year-old striker Teddy Sheringham.

16 September 1992 - Derby County pay the record fee for a club outside the top division - and a national record for a defender - when they sign Notts County centre-back Craig Short, 24, in a 2.5million deal.

29 September 1992 - Manchester United are eliminated from the UEFA Cup on penalties after two goalless draws in their First Round contest with Torpedo Moscow of Russia.

16 October 1992 - Tottenham Hotspur striker Gordon Durie is banned for three games after feigning an injury in order to win his team a free kick.

19 October 1992 - Chester City part company with charismatic manager Harry McNally after seven years in charge, following a poor start to the season.

22 October 1992 - Cambridge United sack controversial manager John Beck, who had guided them to successive promotions in the first two of his three seasons as manager. Cambridge had narrowly missed out on a unique third successive promotion at the end of last season, but they have struggled in the new Division One after the sale of key striker Dion Dublin.

23 October 1992 - Barclays Bank announce that they will not be renewing their sponsorship of the Football League after the end of the season. Barclays have been the league's sponsors since the start of the 1987-88 season.

8 November 1992 - Mark Robins scores a hat-trick for Norwich City in their 3-2 away win over Oldham Athletic, which takes them to the top of the Premier League.

18 November 1992 - Wimbledon midfielder Vinnie Jones is fined £20,000 for his controversial appearance in the video Soccer's Hard Men.

26 November 1992 - Manchester United sign the dynamic Leeds United and France striker Eric Cantona in a £1.2million deal.

7 December 1992 - Birmingham City are put up for sale with offers in the region of £750,000 invited for the 84% shareholding of former owner Samesh Kumar, who was recently declared bankrupt.

26 December 1992 - One of the most thrilling Premier League games yet sees Manchester United draw 3-3 at Sheffield Wednesday after being 3-0 down at half time.

1 February 1993, Sunderland, struggling in Division One, sack Malcolm Crosby as manager, nine months after he led them to their first FA Cup final since 1973.

5 February 1993 - Terry Butcher is named as the new manager of Sunderland, one year after being sacked by Coventry City, and re-registers himself as a player nearly two years after deciding to hang up his boots.

24 February 1993 - Bobby Moore, captain of England's 1966 World Cup winning team, dies of bowel cancer at the age of 51.

3 March 1993 - The Hillsborough disaster death toll reaches 96 when Tony Bland dies after being in a coma for nearly four years since the tragedy on 15 April 1989.

9 April 1993 - Norwich City's Premier League title hopes are left looking slimmer by a 5-1 defeat at Tottenham.

10 April 1993 - Centre-back and joint captain Steve Bruce scores two late goals to give Manchester United a 2-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday and push them closer to title glory.

19 April 1993 - The Premier League title race is narrowed down to Manchester United and Aston Villa after Norwich's 3-1 defeat at Ipswich Town ends their title hopes, while the Suffolk side move closer to confirming their survival.

30 April 1993 - Former Manchester City, Arsenal, Oxford United and Charlton Athletic defender Tommy Caton dies in Oxfordshire at the age of 30 after suffering a heart attack.

26 April 1993 - Brian Clough announces that he will retire as Nottingham Forest manager at the end of the season after 18 years in charge, regardless of whether his team is relegated from the Premier League or not.

2 May 1993 - Manchester United are confirmed as league champions of England for the first time in 26 years after their nearest contenders Aston Villa lost 1-0 at home to Oldham Athletic, who are in line for a 'great escape' from relegation.

9 May 1993 - The first season of the Premier League ends with Manchester United as champions and European Cup entrants, with Aston Villa and Norwich City going into the UEFA Cup. The Cup Winners' Cup place will be taken by either Arsenal or Sheffield Wednesday, who play each other in next weekend's F.A Cup final. Oldham Athletic pull off a remarkable survival act by beating Southampton 4-3 away, with the three relegations places going to Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest.

15 May 1993 - Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday draw 1-1 in the FA Cup final.

19 May 1993 - Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in the FA Cup final replay.

20 May 1993 - Steve Coppell resigns after nine years manager of Crystal Palace.

31 May 1993 - Swindon Town are promoted to the top division of English football after 73 years of trying thanks to a 4-3 win over Leicester City in the Division One playoff final. They join champions Newcastle United and runners-up West Ham United in the FA Premier League.

9 June 1993 - Paul Ince becomes England's first back captain in their 2-0 defeat against the USA in Foxboro.

Deaths

*John Atyeo, 61, who played for Bristol City during the postwar years, scored a total of 350 goals in nearly 600 games for his club - a club record which remains to this day.
*Roy Bailey, 61, former Crystal Palace and Ipswich goalkeeper. Kept goal for Ipswich when they won the league in 1962. Father of Manchester United and England goalkeeper Gary Bailey.
*Tommy Caton, 30, who played for Manchester City, Arsenal, Oxford United and Charlton Athletic. Was on the losing side for Manchester City in the 1981 F.A Cup final. Died following a heart attack in April 1993.
*Jack Froggatt, 70, forward who won the league with Portsmouth in 1948 and 1949, and was capped 13 times by England.
*Bobby Moore, 51, who captained England to World Cup glory in 1966 as well as winning an F.A Cup and Cup Winners Cup with West Ham, died after a two-year battle against bowel cancer.
*Mel Rees, 26, Sheffield United goalkeeper, died of cancer. Had previously played for Cardiff City and West Bromwich Albion.
*Daniel Yorath, 15, son of Wales manager Terry, collapsed and died as a result of a rare heart condition, just after joining the Leeds United youth team.