Article 16 — Manchester United 2002–03
Manchester United’s response to a dud of a season in 2001–02 was to break the British transfer record to sign English international Rio Ferdinand from fierce rivals, Leeds United.
Leaving the club were Denis Irwin and Ronny Johnsen who were released from their contracts after 12 and 6 years at the club respectively. Dwight Yorke was re-united with his former strike partner and good friend, Andy Cole at Blackburn Rovers. Yorke found his playing chances limited due to the emergence of van Nistelrooy.
Sir Alex Ferguson signed a contract extension and Carlos Queiroz was hired as Sir Alex’s assistant manager. Queiroz had built a reputation as the coach who guided the Portuguese U-20 team to the FIFA Youth World Cup in 1989 and 1991.
United would need to navigate two games against Hungarian team, Zalaegerszeg in the Champions League 3rd Round to qualify for the Group Stages. The team made a slower than normal start to the season. The 2–2 draw away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in their 2nd match of the season was an early indication on the kind of matches we would witness that season. Aside to that, their slow start would include a 0–1 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers for the second season running, a 0–1 defeat away to Leeds on Rio Ferdinand’s return to Elland Road and a 1–3 defeat in the final Manchester derby to be played at Maine Road.
United picked up form in November when they had to play Newcastle United a point behind United in 6th place at Old Trafford, 2nd placed bitter rivals Liverpool who had won the last 5 consecutive encounters between the two teams at Anfield and the league leaders, arch-rivals Arsenal at Old Trafford. United won all 3 games, 5–3, 2–1 and 2–0 respectively despite having a squad decimated with injuries to throw down the gauntlet to the leading pack.
After suffering a defeat away at Riverside Stadium to Middlesbrough on Boxing Day, United embarked on an unbeaten run that lasted till the end of the season. This included a crucial late winner against Chelsea to beat them 2–1 at Old Trafford.
United drew level on points with Arsenal at the top after a resounding 4–0 thrashing win over Liverpool at Old Trafford.
Another resounding win against Newcastle, who at this had an outside chance to be champions, 6–2 at St. James’ Park saw United go top but Arsenal had a game in hand.
United then held Arsenal in a thrilling 2–2 draw at Highbury in the top-of-the-table clash but Arsenal still had the advantage of 1 game in hand.
Bolton held Arsenal to a 2–2 draw which meant it was advantage United. The title was returning to Old Trafford after Leeds United beat Arsenal 3–2 at Highbury.
For a change, United progressed all the way to the final of the League Cup for the first time in 9 years to face Liverpool. My previous encounter of a Cup final between Manchester United and Liverpool had some positive memories but not in this one as Liverpool beat United 2–0 at Cardiff’s Millenium Stadium. Jerzy Dudek atoned for his error in the previous meeting between the fierce adversaries by making a string of important saves in this game. A bitter pill to swallow for me though.
In the FA Cup, United was knocked out in the 5th Round by Arsenal at Old Trafford after an astonishing miss by Ryan Giggs. The match will, however, be remembered for a fall-out in the aftermath between Sir Alex Ferguson and star player, David Beckham. Beckham required stitches on his eyebrow after a stray boot kicked by Sir Alex in the dressing room, hit Beckham in the head.
After progression to the first group stage of the Champions League, United won 5 games in a row and qualified for the next round with a game to spare. In the 2nd group stage, United overcame a tough start against FC Basel in Basel to beat the Swiss side in 6 second-half minutes.
United faced familiar foes from the previous season in the form of Deportivo La Coruna and beat them 2–0 at Old Trafford. They then beat another known adversary from past Champions League campaigns, Juventus 2–1 at Old Trafford before producing a great display of European football to beat the Italian side 3–0 at Stadio Delle Alpi and qualify for the quarter-final with 2 games to spare. It looked promising for United in Europe after some strong showings.
They faced Real Madrid in the quarter-finals and the Spanish side produced an attacking display of high quality in the first leg. United was left chasing shadows and was played off the park to lose 1–3 at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. With better finishing, they might have closed the lead. The 2nd leg was a classic tie. Ronaldo turned up to score a hat-trick and went off to the standing ovation from the United fans. United won the match 4–3 but it was not enough to prevent the Spanish giant from progressing to the semi-final.
There were some exciting matches this season and winning back the Premier League from Arsenal was sweet. A promising European campaign was ended at the quarter-final stage. Again we looked just not good enough when taking on the best teams in Europe.
Rio Ferdinand’s signing steadied the ship somewhat at the back. There was some lack of stability in the identity of his centre back partner but later in the season, Mikael Silvestre emerged as the ideal pair for Ferdinand thanks to his pace and strength. Silvestre played well at left-back too. Laurent Blanc played 29 matches that season but his greatest contribution would arguably be on the training ground imparting his knowledge onto Ferdinand, Silvestre and Wes Brown. Brown had emerged in the Treble winning season as a young, solid and calm centre back that can play at right-back too and he produced that kind of solid form this season playing at right and centre back. This season saw the emergence of a young defender called John O’Shea as a left-back, he was an exciting and promising discovery. His highlight would be the nutmeg of Portuguese star Luis Figo at Old Trafford in the Champions League quarter-final 2nd leg.
Juan Veron, I would argue had a better season than his first one, his highlight would include the opening goal against Arsenal at Old Trafford and a wonderful assist for Diego Forlan to score the winner against Chelsea at Old Trafford but his best performances were in European matches.
Paul Scholes was used further forward in a number 10 role, playing closer to Ruud van Nistelrooy and it worked well for him, van Nistelrooy and United. Van Nistelrooy ended the season with 44 goals, including some great individual goals. He won the Premier League and Manchester United Player of the Year awards and was the top scorer in the Premier League.
On Forlan, he had a better season this season after a shaky start to his time at United the previous season. He famously scored twice for United in the win over Liverpool at Anfield, crucial winners against Chelsea, Southampton in the Premier League and another crucial winner against Chelsea in the League Cup. He wasn’t as prolific as van Nistelrooy, Solksjaer and Scholes but he certainly worked tirelessly whenever he was given the opportunity to play. He proved himself to be a key member of the squad.
Quinton Fortune and Phil Neville were two squad players that provided vital contributions this season thanks to their versatility. Fortune was signed as a left-winger but filled in very well in central midfield. His season’s involvement was blighted by a leg fracture he picked up at Anfield against Liverpool. Phil Neville who has played primarily in full-back positions did well in central midfield too.
Sir Alex’s relationship with Beckham, unfortunately, deteriorated this season. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was chosen to play on the right-wing instead of Beckham for a number of the key matches. Tactically, Solksjaer provided a different option to Beckham as he was used further forward on the right than Beckham is normally used to playing in. He could still deliver the crosses of Beckham’s quality and track back to defend but as a striker by trade, he had the flexibility to join Scholes, van Nistelrooy and Giggs as a 4th attacker.
Beckham scored in the final game of the season against Everton and that proved to be his final game and goal for his boyhood club.
