Red Army General: Leading Britain’s Biggest Hooligan Firm

Manchester United’s Red Army was the biggest, most notorious hooligan following British football has ever seen. And its most infamous leader was Tony O'Neill. Today a terrace legend; O'Neill was barely in his teens when he set out from the largest council estate in Europe to join the hordes who followed the Red Devils wherever they played. They took over entire towns, scattered all in their path and left mayhem and banner headlines and in their wake. By the age of sixteen, O'Neill’s precocious bravery in street combat and his forceful personality had made him a Red Army leader - a position he would maintain for the next thirty years. He became so renowned that he was invited to a sit-down meeting with then-Sports Minister Denis Howell to discuss ways to combat the rampant hooligan problem. He led riotous trips in the War Wagon - a converted minibus - to huge battles with major rivals such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Leeds United, Cardiff City and the London giants. Red Army General is the first and definitive Manchester United ‘hooligan’ title and the first inside account of those wild years when hooliganism reached its peak.