sport news OLIVER HOLT: The 1999 treble-winning Man United team IS the equal of this Man ... trends now

sport news OLIVER HOLT: The 1999 treble-winning Man United team IS the equal of this Man ... trends now
sport news OLIVER HOLT: The 1999 treble-winning Man United team IS the equal of this Man ... trends now

sport news OLIVER HOLT: The 1999 treble-winning Man United team IS the equal of this Man ... trends now

There is a passage in Matt Dickinson’s brilliant book ‘1999: Manchester United, the Treble and All That’ which recalls a snatched interview with Peter Schmeichel at an airport check-in desk before the club’s 1997 Champions League semi-final first leg with Borussia Dortmund.

Asked to compare the United side he was playing in with Sir Matt Busby’s great team that won the European Cup in 1968, Schmeichel made considered points about the pace of the modern game and improvements in players’ fitness and conditioning and concluded: ‘We would beat them 10-0.’

Schmeichel did not mean to be dismissive. He was merely observing that in the course of nearly 30 years, the game had moved on. He was accused by some, wrongly, of being disrespectful. George Best said the comments were insulting. A debate raged and then ebbed away when United lost to their German opponents.

The echoes of that debate surged back into football’s tribal discourse over the weekend when Manchester City moved one win away from emulating United’s Treble-winning feat of 1998-99. They face Internazionale in the Champions League final in Istanbul on Saturday for the right to become the only English side to match United’s achievement.

Many, predictably, have rushed to denigrate Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in comparison with Pep Guardiola’s beautiful, bewitching City team that cruised to the Premier League title, eased United aside in the FA Cup final on Saturday and has swept past Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in Europe.

Man City are closing in on a historic Treble after winning the FA Cup on Saturday at Wembley

Man City are closing in on a historic Treble after winning the FA Cup on Saturday at Wembley

Pep Guardiola has got his side playing at a level rarely seen before in English football

Pep Guardiola has got his side playing at a level rarely seen before in English football

But the treble-winning Man United side of 1998-99 that contained Paul Scholes (left), Roy Keane (centre) and Ryan Giggs (right) would have competed with this current City side

But the treble-winning Man United side of 1998-99 that contained Paul Scholes (left), Roy Keane (centre) and Ryan Giggs (right) would have competed with this current City side

I’m not one of them and, whatever happens at the Ataturk Stadium at the weekend, I never will be.

This City team is a great side but whatever they achieve, and whatever the outcome of the 115 Premier League charges the club is facing, it will not diminish the magnitude of United’s Treble and the impact that that Ferguson side made on all those who witnessed its march on history.

OLIVER HOLT'S MAN UNITED 1999/MAN CITY 2023 COMBINED XI

GK: Peter Schmeichel (United)

RB: Kyle Walker (City)

CB: John Stones (City)

CB: Jaap Stam (United)

LB: Denis Irwin (United)

RM: David Beckham (United)

CM: Roy Keane (United)

CM: Paul Scholes (United)

LM: Ryan Giggs (United)

AM: Kevin De Bruyne (City)

ST: Erling Haaland (City) 

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To report on that United team and that 1998-99 campaign in particular felt like a blessing, not just because of the quality of the side but because of the incredible drama it unleashed and the significance it held.

It is easy to forget now that after the horrors of the Heysel Stadium Disaster in 1985, English clubs were banned from European competition for five years and that when United played Bayern Munich in Barcelona in the 1999 final, no English team had won the competition since 1984.

It was a different culture from today when English teams regularly win and reach the final of the tournament. Back then, it felt as if United were pathfinders for English teams in Europe again, just as they had been in the 1950s.

Greatness in a side assumes many forms and that team’s pursuit of history, its attempt to become the first United team to win the trophy since Busby’s team of Best, Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles lifted it 31 years earlier, added to the sense of destiny and accomplishment.

What a team that was, too. A goalkeeper in Schmeichel who seemed to be setting new standards for shot-stopping and command of his area and marshalling his defence and a midfield that bears comparison with any midfield that has ever graced the game.

Peter Schmeichel set new standards when it came to goalkeeping in that great United team

Peter Schmeichel set new standards when it came to goalkeeping in that great United team

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