'He had vision' - I knew the extraordinary fan who saved Manchester United from going bankrupt

Manchester United were once staring at extinction and were close to going bankrupt.

Could you imagine if United did not exist? Well, that could have happened if not for the intervention of local hero James W. Gibson, who saved the club from the brink in 1931.

United were in financial peril at the height of the depression but Salford-born businessman Gibson felt he needed to step up, so he paid £2,000 to rescue the club from collapsing.

There would be no United without Gibson. He saved the club, appointed Sir Matt Busby, created the academy and helped fund the rebuilding of Old Trafford after the Second World War. He was a remarkable man and it's important his legacy is taught to future generations of fans.

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Alan Embling, his great nephew, is the last living person to have known Gibson and he passionately spoke to the Manchester Evening News last week to discuss how he rescued United.

"Let's be honest, if it wasn't for John Henry Davies, the brewer, and James Gibson there would be no Manchester United now," he began. "He rebuilt the club not once but twice. People forget that Old Trafford was a bomb site after the war and it all started when he attended a dinner.

"He was approached by a journalist who told him United were in a terrible state and nobody wanted to help them, so he said he would look at it and looked at the books.

"The finances were a total disaster, all the good players had been sold off and the supporters were leaving in droves, but he gave a cheque of £2,000 and it was a gift, no strings attached.

"They hadn't being paying the players' salaries for a long time and there was a huge backlog. It was just before Christmas and he covered the salaries up to January with the promise that he would see if he could help further, and he thought there was enough room in Manchester for two football clubs.

"He decided to help and he did. He became the chairman and part of the £2,000 was so the players could buy the biggest Turkeys they could get their hands on for Christmas.

"However, they were losing games and supporters were disappearing, so he held a meeting with fans and started to turn the club around. He rebuilt the club and it was incredible."

Once United had been rescued, Gibson appointed Scott Duncan as manager and he created an academy, with the intention of developing local young players for the first-team.

Gibson also improved transport links to the stadium. "At that time, Old Trafford was quite a way out, it was isolated, so he negotiated with the railway authorities to stop passenger trains on matchdays so fans could use the trains to get to the games on matchdays," explained Embling.

"James Gibson always considered supporters, who were the most important thing to him. However, he was paying transfer fees from his own pocket the whole time, so what he did with Walter Crickmer was create MUJAC, which stood for Manchester United Junior Athletic Club.

"That was the foundation and the start of the youth policy, which was the first in the country, and the only thing he said was he wanted as much local youth as possible. He wanted to support them, he was very community minded and he wanted to do it for the local people.

"Gibson was a man of vision, he was ahead of his time. He'd been very lucky, he'd made a lot of money and was a hard working businessman, and the benefit of that was he was able to save Manchester United from extinction because the bank had closed on them.

"People had very little in their lives at that time and mostly going to the football after they worked hard all week was there only form of enjoyment. He gave that pleasure back to the people."

United manager Duncan wrote about the academy in the Manchester Evening Chronicle at the time: “By running a team in the Manchester League, we shall be able to give all likely juniors a chance of showing their paces, and United hope to discover from their number more than average finds."

Duncan added: "We will develop their muscles and build up their frame so that in time they could step in [to the first-team] and do themselves justice”, while also saying: “To hurry along a youngster is a big mistake, but the junior must be assured that his time will come.”

But Gibson would face more challenges as chairman. World War Two began eight years after his investment and bombing devastated Old Trafford, meaning it needed to be rebuilt.

"The war smashed the whole lot down," Embling explained. "He managed to rebuild it on a shoe string budget because houses, factories and everything took precedence over sporting facilities.

"And whilst he was busy negotiating with the government for United to get their grants and licence to rebuild, he helped nine other football clubs to get their grants to rebuild their stadiums.

"United were lucky a lot of the youngsters came back and the only condition he put on them was if they were good enough to play professionally, they would be considered. There was no 'you've got to play them', it was 'consider' and one of the first names was Charlie Mitten."

Gibson appointed Matt Busby as manager after the war and Mitten was excellent in the first few years of his tenure.

"I'm the only living person now who knew James Gibson," Embling said. "I can remember him before he had a stroke, but mainly, of course, my memories are from after the stroke.

"He didn't go to the '48 FA Cup final because of that stroke and was presented with the cup in his home. That was incredible and he told Matt Busby that he'd made his dreams come true."

Embling continued: "Unfortunately as I got older, I found out that a lot of people didn't know who James Gibson was and what he did has all been eroded away, which is wrong.

"What that man did was incredible. He didn't even cash from merchandising, sponsorship or the television and we've even found clothing coupons that he provided for the kits.

"The Gibsons were a dying breed. They were the people who looked after supporters, but when the big sponsorships came in, the big money men came in and fans were forgotten about. So much has been lost. United was like a family and you don't have that in the same these days."

There was a plaque on Sir Matt Busby Way commemorating Gibson's work as chairman between 1931 to 1951 and it was recently relocated to the players' tunnel inside Old Trafford.

"United should play more acknowledgment to two of the greatest men in the club history, James Gibson and John Davies, the brewer, because those two men were incredible," Embling said.

"Without them, there wouldn't be all those people enjoying football at Old Trafford now and I hope if they have to build a new stadium, something is done to keep the memorial."