- David May (footballer)
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For other people named David May, see David May (disambiguation).
David May Personal information Full name David May Date of birth 24 June 1970 Place of birth Oldham, Lancashire, England Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Playing position Centre back
Right backYouth career Blackburn Rovers Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1988–1994 Blackburn Rovers 123 (3) 1994–2003 Manchester United 85 (6) 1999–2000 → Huddersfield Town (loan) 1 (0) 2003–2004 Burnley 35 (4) 2005–2006 Bacup Borough Total 244 (13) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).David May (born 24 June 1970) is a retired English footballer. He was primarily a centre back, but was sometimes deployed as right back.
Contents
Club career
Born in Oldham, Lancashire, May started his career with Blackburn Rovers as a trainee before graduating to the first team at the end of the 1980s. He made over 100 appearances for the club and was part of the Blackburn team which was promoted to the Premier League in 1992 and finished as runners-up to Manchester United in the 1993–94 season.
In July 1994, Manchester United bought May for £1.2 million, as he was apparently unhappy at Blackburn in his final months due to the breakdown in contract negotiations.[1] Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had been searching for a defender to add to the squad, and specifically needed an Englishman who would not be affected by the restrictions on foreign players in European competition that were in place at the time. He was also thinking about the future, as central defender and captain Steve Bruce was now in his 34th year and would ultimately spend just more two seasons at the club.
Injuries to first-choice right back Paul Parker meant that May was often used as a right-back in his first season, and rarely played in his preferred centre-back position due to the strong partnership of Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister. As May underperformed, by the end of the season, Gary Neville had emerged to become the new first-choice right back, while Parker was rarely used the following season and then left the club.
Manchester United finished the season in second place (and a single point), coincidentally, behind May's old club Blackburn Rovers.
May finally managed to establish himself in the team towards the end of the 1995–96 season as an understudy for Bruce, who was struggling with a hamstring injury, and scored the first goal in the final game of the season against Middlesbrough. The 3–0 victory clinched the title for Manchester United. He was also in the starting line-up for the 1996 FA Cup Final victory over Liverpool in favour of Steve Bruce (who missed out on a place in the squad for the final).[2]
Bruce departed to Birmingham City soon after, and May became a regular starter in the 1996–97 season making over 40 appearances. His contributions were important as United retained the league title. The team also reached the semi-final of the Champions League after a memorable 4–0 victory over Porto in the quarter-final, in which May scored the first goal. His form meant that he received a late call-up to the England national football team for a friendly against Mexico, but he never actually won an international cap.[3]
Injuries kept May sidelined for much of the next couple of seasons. The purchases of Henning Berg and Jaap Stam as well as the emergence of Wes Brown limited his chances further and he saw very little action with the first team. However, towards the end of the treble-winning 1998–99 season, May played some games for the first team as Ferguson rotated his squad to cope with the mounting fixture congestion. He was also named in the starting line-up for the 1999 FA Cup Final as Stam was being rested for the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final against Bayern Munich. May was named on the bench for that match, and became something of a cult hero with the Old Trafford faithful for the way he led the celebrations despite not playing one single minute in the Champions League that season. A popular chant with the crowd was "David May, superstar! Got more medals than Shearer!" - in reference to the lack of success enjoyed by May's former Blackburn colleague Alan Shearer, who was one of the finest strikers of his generation but would win just one major trophy in a career which lasted nearly 20 years at the highest level.
The following season, May was loaned out to Huddersfield Town, where he played under Steve Bruce. In his first game playing for the Terriers, however, he picked up an injury and had to return for treatment to Old Trafford, where he would remain for another three years, but often sidelined by injury and playing mainly in the reserve team. May's last four seasons with United saw him make only 12 appearances in total for the club. Due to his lack of appearances, May collected only two Premier League winner's medals, despite being a squad member for six winning campaigns. May's final competitive appearance for Manchester United came in the League Cup on 3 December 2002 against Burnley, the team he would go on to join at the end of the season.[4]
May began life as a Manchester United player with the number 12 shirt, which had been vacated by the departure of club legend Bryan Robson at the end of the 1993-94 season. However, he took the number 4 shirt for the 1996-97 season when it was vacated by the departure of Steve Bruce. He kept this number until it was handed to Juan Sebastian Veron at the start of the 2001-02 season; from then until the end of his time at the club, May wore the number 14 shirt.
At the end of his contract in 2003, May was finally given a free transfer and snapped up by Burnley manager Stan Ternent, an old friend of Ferguson's, in order to bolster his leaky defence. He captained the Burnley side throughout the 2003–04 season and made a significant contribution to the team.
In a list titled 'The 50 worst footballers' by The Times May was ranked 43rd.[5]
Honours
Manchester United
- Premier League (2): 1995–96, 1996–97
- FA Cup (2): 1995–96, 1998–99
- FA Community Shield (2): 1994, 1996
- UEFA Champions League (1): 1998–99
References
- ^ "David May, what happened next?". FourFourTwo. http://fourfourtwo.com/interviews/whathappenednext/62/article.aspx. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Moore, Glenn (1997-03-27). "Dark days over as May shines". London: Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-dark-days-are-over-as-may-shines-1275332.html. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ "Man Utd march on". BBC. 3 December 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/2524281.stm. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
- ^ The 50 worst footballers
External links
Categories:- 1970 births
- Living people
- English footballers
- Blackburn Rovers F.C. players
- Manchester United F.C. players
- Huddersfield Town F.C. players
- Burnley F.C. players
- Bacup Borough F.C. players
- People from Oldham
- Premier League players
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