mYtH iN cOntEmpOrY dEsiGn, FasHioN anD MediA

Introduction - Mythology

Mythology refers to myths or stories that might not on fact actually. Yet it could be a culture which is people believes to be true. The term of mythology has been used since 1950s; actually there are some categories to refer “mythology”. For examples, a traditional story; it could be a myths or a legend with an explanation called “aetiology”, a belief, a person or thing generally referred to with near reverential admiration on the basis of popularly repeated stories and a popular conception of a person or a thing which exaggerates or idealizes the truth. However, it could include a lot of thing, not only the stories or legends that we usually heard. Even in our high technology environment now, there is still a lot of myth that we could see in the market.

Myth of the brand

With the technology today, there is a lot of strong brand in the world. For example, Nike and Adidas are two of the top brands in the world for sport elements. However, there is a lot of argument whether their products are the best in the world. Even thought it is true, they will be question that “Are they can be challenged?” In common, everyone knows that Nike and Adidas are the best when they want to buy some sport elements. Question is “Why don’t they consider some small brands first such as Figos?”. Some time their products might similar even the quality, Figos lost in the market battle, it might just because of their reputation of brand not that strong as Nike and Adidas. At the same way, “Nike and Adidas, which brand do you think is better?”. There do not even have the right answer because it might not on fact actually.

Myth of the soccer

The myth of the soccer always is an interesting topic to attract people to research on. “Manchester United is the top soccer club in England even in the world. It becomes the richest and valuable soccer club since the success in 1990s.” will be my hypothesis to research on the myth in contemporary design, fashion, and media. Manchester United is the most famous soccer club in the world now; it could be proved with having the most amounts of the fan numbers in the world. There is a lot of reason to create a strong brand for Manchester United such as their result on the match, and their marketing strategic. Actually every soccer club have their own marketing tactic and strategic even on the match or branding and they always have the same opportunity to become the famous soccer club or the successful soccer club either. Manchester United did it and it past through a lot of success and failure.

Body Paragraphs - History of Manchester United

Since 1878, Newton Heath L&YR F.C. had been formed with a small, dilapidated field on North Road, near the future site of the Manchester Piccadilly railway station for fifteen years. It moved to Bank Street in the nearby town of Clayton in 1893. The club had entered the Football League in the previous year and it was dropping the “L&YR after it became an independent company. Not long afterwards, the club neared bankruptcy, with dept over £2500. Luckily it received an investment from J.H. Davies, the managing director of Manchester Breweries. Legend goes that Harry Stafford, the club captain, was showing off his prized St. Bernard dog at a club fund-raiser, when Davies approached him to buy the dog. Stafford declined, but was able to persuade Davies to invest in the club and become club chairman. After that, a new name had been required in one of the early board meeting to reflect the fresh start they had been afforded. Manchester Central and Manchester Celtic were among the names suggested, before Louis Rocca, a young immigrant from Italy, said "Gentlemen, why don't we call ourselves Manchester United?" The name stuck, and Manchester United officially came into existence on 26 April 1902. Davies also decided it would be appropriate to change the club's colours, abandoning the green and gold halves of Newton Heath, and picking red and white to be the colours of Manchester United.

Comparison of the Busby years and Alex Ferguson era

Officially Manchester United has been formed in 1902 actually and having a successful history until now. In the history, there was a lot of incident we should rewind on the road to success that they got today such as Munich Air Disaster. Before that, Busby years was one of the successful periods for Manchester United in 1945 to 1969. It could be the basic of the success for Manchester United that they got today. For comparison, there is a lot of similar strategic between two successful periods for Manchester United, Busby years and Alex Ferguson era (1986 to now). In Busby years, Manchester United got the success after they appointed Matt Busby as their manager in 1945. He led the team to finish second in the league in 1947, 48, 49 and won the FA Cup in 1948. He was the first person to appoint an assistant manager in the club and also the first person to create the youth team called “Busby Babes”. With the youth team, he created another successful periods in the club’s history esp. in 1956 with an average age of only 22, scoring 103 goals in the process. In this period, he won five First Division titles since 1951, two FA Cup titles and the first European Cup title (UEFA Champion League) in 1968.

At the same way, Alex Ferguson got his success since 1990 when he won his first title, FA Cup. Through the successful history of Alex Ferguson era, he has followed the tradition since Busby years, having a good assistant manager such as Steve McClaren and Carlos Queiroz. Both of them are great assistant managers on helping Alex to manage the team. Steve McClaren was the assistant manager to help the team to win the Treble in 1999. After that, he became Premier League side Middlesbrough manager and help the team to win League Cup in 2004 and finished runner up in FA Cup in 2006. It was a great achievement for Middlesbrough which is only a small club in Premier League actually. Furthermore, he became England Soccer Team manager in 2006 to 2007. In contrast, Carlos Queiroz got his place in Manchester United after Steve in 2002. Because of his talent on managing, he got the attention from Real Madrid and became Real Madrid manager for one year. After that, he got back to Manchester United and help the team to get another successful run, winning two Premier League titles in 2007 and 08.

After the success of the “Busby Babes”, Manchester United got another success on the youth team under Alex Ferguson era in 1992. David Beckham, Gary Neville, Philip Neville, Nicky Butt, and Paul Scholes are the famous England five lucky stars from the youth team to the first team officially in 1995. Before that, another superstar from the youth team, Ryan Giggs, also is the priceless treasure for Manchester United to win the Treble in 1999. Ryan Giggs is the one who won ten Premier League titles with Alex Ferguson and already attended the most appearances for Manchester United which is 758 appearances same with Sir Bobby Charlton, the record defender at the moment. However, David Beckham also is the famous superstar who produced a strong reputation for Manchester United in the world. He became the famous presenter of Manchester United with his handsome face and his talent on free kick. Beside of this, Gary Neville became the club captain to be born in Greater Manchester since Roger Byrne and Paul Scholes is the talent ever attacking midfielder that Alex has in the squad.

Disasters

Beside of the success, Manchester United also faced the most serious disaster in the club history, Munich Air Disaster. Munich Air Disaster took place on 6 February 1958, when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at the Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. On board the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the "Busby Babes", along with a number of supporters and journalists. 23 of the 44 passengers on board the aircraft died in the disaster. This disaster almost made the club withdrawing from the competition; however it just could be continued and got the success after Matt Busby rebuilt the team. Beside of the disaster, Manchester United got two times of relegation from the First Division. These could be another tiny disaster for the club; however Manchester United got back to the First Division, only took time one year. The first relegation of the club took time in 1935 and the second was in 1974. Manchester United got relegation from the First Division in 1974 because of the resignation of Matt Busby in 1969. The club failed to get another great manager and got failure in 1969 to 1986 when never won any First Division title. Until the arrival of Alex Ferguson, he got ten Premier League titles of sixteen available since the changes from the First Division. He got the European Champion League title again in 1999 when he got the Treble also. So on, he just won his second European Champion League title in 2008. Because of this, he marked as the greatest manager of the club since Matt Busby and still fighting for the title now.

Surveys

Back to the myth of the soccer, “Manchester United is the top soccer club in England even in the world. It becomes the richest and valuable soccer club since the success in 1990s.”. It could be proved from most of the survey that had done before. For example, there are three surveys on Best soccer club in the world, Best European soccer club ever, and Best English soccer club ever in the rankopedia.com, Manchester United has top on the lists which are voted by the fans. Beside of this, it also top of the valuable soccer club ranking in Forbes magazine in 2008 and top of the Fox Soccer Channel Club Ranking (FSCCR) which is voted by FSI writers and commentators from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina. From the result of the survey, we could see that Manchester United not even the successful of soccer club and it also the favorite soccer club for most of the peoples in the world even having the most amounts of fan numbers.

Road to success

Some of the reason might prove the myth could be on fact; however there is a lot of argument that we could not said myth is the fact. The strategies for both of the managers to get the success in two periods might push the team to top of the world, yet there are some disaster and failure periods also actually. Question is “Does Manchester United drop from the top?”. It do not even have the right answer actually, however it could not be argued that Manchester United is the top soccer club in England even in the world for their fans. It becomes the richest and valuable soccer club in the world might not depend on the result in the competition at all and it could not be argued that it is depends a lot on fans effect. Compared to the overall result in the competition, Manchester United never is the best in England and the best is Liverpool F.C.. In England top division (First Division and Premier League); Liverpool F.C. has won eighteen titles in the history however Manchester United only won seventeen titles in amount. Furthermore, in the top competition of Europe (European Champion League), Liverpool F.C. has won five titles and Manchester United only got three titles.

Furthermore, successful of the marketing strategic and branding plan in the market could be one of the reasons to get success for the club. Yet since 21 century, Manchester United is facing a lot of challenge from other clubs such as Chelsea F.C., Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan even Liverpool F.C. however it still the best is the fact of myth. Otherwise, superstar effect is another reason on the road to success in the market for Manchester United. However after David Beckham left Manchester United in 2003, the presenter of the club disappears suddenly until the arrival of another potential superstar in 2003, Cristiano Ronaldo. During the period before the new “7” has grown up, Manchester United maintains their success in the market even thought they were not good enough in the competition. Some of other reasons are trying to stop Manchester United to step on the success in 1990s again such as the problem of limited potential players from the youth team caused by the edition rules and modern stadiums has been built in England, for example, Wembley Stadium, to replace Old Trafford Stadium as England Soccer Team home stadium. Furthermore, takeover by Glazer family also cause a lot of problem for the future and financial of the club. There looks like a lot of problem to stop Manchester United step forward from the failure to the success since 21 century, however the club still the best soccer club ever in the world for most of the soccer fans is a fact of myth that we could not argue at all. With the support of most of the fans, they are trying to solve the actual problems and get more cash in the transfer market to build a strong squad. Get into 2007, Manchester United is stepping up to the success with some talent stars from transfer market such as Carlos Tevez. It won two Premier League in the raw and has reached at least semifinal in European Champion League two years in the raw also. Finally, they won Champion League title again in 2008 and become double champions, with Barclay Premier League 2008 Champion, in 2008 recently.

Conclusion – Fact of the myth

In the conclusion, “Manchester United is the top soccer club in England even in the world. It becomes the richest and valuable soccer club since the success in 1990s.” is a fact of myth in soccer field with the research and survey that had done before even they might not the best team in the competition. With the support from the fans, they always step up on the success from the failure and never give up to be the best team in the world.