Article 11 — Manchester United 1991–1995
The 90s as a Manchester United fan was storied, I was lucky to have experienced many joys and some lows. In the first part of my throwback, I will look back from 1990–91 to 1994–95 season.
I started supporting since 1991 and that was midway through the 1990–91 season. I don’t have much recollection of that season except the Cup Winners Cup final of 91. I was still fresh in my following of Manchester United and in the 90s we were not privileged to be able to watch every single match. I had not known of United’s qualification to this final until my father told me. This was one of the rare matches that was shown “live” on TV but because I was in Singapore, the coverage was in the wee hours of the morning, making it impossible for me to watch as a 7-year-old.
It didn’t stop me though from getting the score from my dad as the first thing I did when I woke up. I was told United won and the next question was did my favourite, Lee Sharpe score? He said no. Slight disappointment but I experienced United’s first trophy as a fan with this triumph. United beat Barcelona 2–1 at Rotterdam with Mark Hughes scoring 2 goals against his former team. To be honest, he stole the first one off Steve Bruce and scored a great second goal. Ronald Koeman scored Barcelona’s consolation goal from a trademark thunderbolt free-kick.
That was the first the time I heard of Barcelona. When I look back at the Barcelona team after a few more years of football consciousness, I learnt of how good that Barcelona team we beat were. Some of the players include Albert Ferrer, Jose Bakero, Ion Goikoetxea, Julio Salinas and Michael Laudrup. Current Manchester City Director of Sport, Txiki Begiristain was also in that squad. They were managed by a legend, Johan Cryuff. Current Barcelona player, Sergio Busquets’ father Carles was in goal. Andoni Zubizaretta (suspended) and Hristo Stoichkov (injured) were not playing that day and this team ended the season as champions of Spain.
Moving on to 1991–92, United’s Cup Winners Cup final win meant that they would play against the surprise team that won the European Cup in 1991, Red Star Belgrade in the UEFA Super Cup. The match was supposed to be played over 2 legs but was played over 1 leg at Old Trafford due to the political unrest in Yugoslavia. To be honest, I missed out on this game until years later. From what I have read of this game, Red Star was the better team but still lost 1–0 to United with that season’s top scorer, Brian McClair scoring the winning goal.
In the league, United was involved in a title race this season, the last English First Division season. They led the league ahead of bitter rivals Leeds United before they froze under pressure and choked on the lead they had. Leeds took full advantage to overtake United and win the league. I remember the killer blow in the title race came when United lost 0–1 to West Ham United at Upton Park. United won the final game of the season against Tottenham Hotspur 3–1, a game remembered for being the last game Gary Lineker played in England.
The Leeds team that won the league was managed by Howard Wilkinson and had players like John Lukic, Tony Dorigo, Gary McAllister, Gordon Strachan, David Batty, Gary Speed, Lee Chapman, Rod Wallace and a certain Eric Cantona.
United added a second trophy for the season when they won the League Cup also known as Rumbelows Cup that season. They beat Nottingham Forest 1–0 in the final, with the goal scored by McClair again. This was to be the first-time ever United won the League Cup in their history.
In this season, United added Peter Schmeichel and Paul Parker to the squad, Andrei Kanchelskis joined in the middle of 1990–91 and a young, skinny and speedy Ryan Giggs came through the youth ranks in this season.
1992–93 started shakily for United. Alex Ferguson spent all summer looking to sign a striker to provide competition for the first-choice pairing of Hughes and McClair but he was rejected by everyone. He landed on little-known Dion Dublin but he was unfortunate to break his leg within the first few games of the season. United looked like they have got a mental block from fumbling their lead the previous season, they needed new impetus and breath of fresh air. That came when the surprise signing of Eric Cantona was made in November. This was the time before the implementation of the June and January transfer windows.
That signing proved to be the catalyst for the rest of the season, the inaugural season of the English Premier League. From a lowly 20th position, United climbed their way to the top of the league by the new year. They were involved in a title race this season with Aston Villa managed by ex-United manager, Ron Atkinson. The Villa team had another ex-United connection in Paul McGrath leading the defence, Irishmen Steve Staunton, Ray Houghton, strike pairing of Dalian Atkinson and Dan Saunders. Future Red Devil, Dwight Yorke was also part of the team.
The title race was decided on my birthday, 2nd May in 1993. Aston Villa lost surprisingly 0–1 to Oldham Athletic who finished the season just outside the relegation zone to hand the title to United. The following day at Old Trafford was a carnival as the fans packed it to the rafters. United beat Blackburn Rovers 3–1 to give the fans something more to scream and shout about. It was United’s first title in 26 years, something I had not known about until that season. This would mark the start of a new era of United dominance.
The following season, United signed Roy Keane for a then British record of 3.75 million pounds from Nottingham Forest. His signing would be crucial as Captain Marvel, Bryan Robson was declining in his influence as injuries and age took a toll on him. Keane was signed to replace Robson and he did a good job of it.
United began the season with a 5–4 penalty shootout win over Arsenal in the Charity Shield after a 1–1 draw.
This was to be an all-conquering season for United in England as they grew in confidence and self-belief. There was no better team than United in England and didn’t lose leadership of the Premier League from 23rd August 1993 onwards. It would have been fair had United won the domestic Treble but they lost the League Cup 3–1 to last season’s runners up, Aston Villa. A rare off day in a fantastic season, unfortunately, I would say it came in the wrong match. Peter Schmeichel was suspended for the final and Kanchelskis was sent off late in the match.
United won the league by 8 points clear of their nearest rivals, Blackburn Rovers.
Chelsea had been United’s bogey team that season, beating them home and away 0–1. They were the opponents for United in the FA Cup final. After a nervy and cautious first half, United turned on the style to end the season with a 4–0 thrashing of Chelsea to complete the Double.
United’s run in the Champions League ended in the 2nd Round after a 3–3 away goals defeat to Galatasaray including the infamous Welcome To Hell greeting at Ali Sami Yen Stadium and the police taking matters into their own hands against the United players at the final whistle.
The mighty 1993–94 team started the 1994–95 season in winning fashion, beating Blackburn Rovers 2–0 in the Charity Shield. United added only one player to the 1993–94 squad, David May from Blackburn.
It was not as smooth for United this season in the league, they lost 6 times in the league this season. In January of 1995, there was the infamous kung-fu kick by Eric Cantona on a fan after being sent off for a stamp on Crystal Palace’s Richard Shaw. That meant United’s iconic, mecurial, talismanic number 7 would miss the rest of the season.
In January of 1995, United signed Andy Cole from Newcastle United for a new British record fee of 7 million pounds in part exchange with Keith Gillespie.
Going back to the title race, it went down to the wire. United needed to win on the last day of the season and hope for a favour from bitter rivals, Liverpool to beat United’s closest challengers, Blackburn. Liverpool gave United a favour but United didn’t take it. They could only draw 1–1 against West Ham at Upton Park. The second time in my time as a fan, United lost the title at Upton Park. Cole who scored 5 goals in a game against Ipswich Town left his shooting boots at home and was seen a bit as the source of blame for United’s failure to beat West Ham.
Blackburn Rovers was the first team other than United to win the Premier League title. Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish was managing the team and he had more than his fair share of experience of winning league titles. The team had Tim Flowers in goal, future Red Devil Henning Berg and Colin Hendry in centre defence Greame Le Saux at left-back, Jeff Kenna at right-back, Tim Sherwood leading the team in midfield with David Batty, Stuart Ripley and Jason Wilcox and the front pairing of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton, a wonderfully cohesive partnership.
United still had one last game to play in and that was the FA Cup final against Everton. One last chance to salvage a silverware other than the Charity Shield. An injury-hit United team, who had a suspended Andrei Kanchelskis and Cantona, cup-tied Andy Cole lost the final 0–1. Paul Rideout scoring the only goal of the game to bring to an end an underwhelming and disappointing season.
In the Champions League, United had IFK Goteborg, Barcelona and Galatasaray in the same group. In those seasons, teams in European competition were only allowed to field 3 foreigners and for British teams, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and Northern Irish players would be considered as foreign players so United was not allowed to field their best team in the competition.
United recorded 2 wins, both at Old Trafford 4–2 against IFK Goteborg and 4–0 against Galatasaray. They played out a thrilling 2–2 draw againnst Barcelona but had a dismal record on the road, losing twice including a 0–4 thrashing to Barcelona at Nou Camp and a surprise 1–3 defeat to Goteborg. They ended their European campaign in the group stage.
The 1994–95 season was notable for the inclusion of other young players emerging from the famous Class of 92. The foreign player rule in Europe meant a lot of these young players were forced into European matches to cut their teeth. Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes were players that played the most. The emergence of these young players from the youth team would mark an important change in the upcoming seasons for United.
