Article 29 — A Manchester United Fan’s Overview
I have been a fan of Manchester United for 29 and a half seasons now and in that time, I have been extremely fortunate to have been a fan from the commencement of our era of dominance to the end. In between those seasons, I have experienced seasons where we won little or nothing at all. What I am experiencing now post-Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement is unchartered territory but this is just part of life. We can’t possibly be successful forever, could we? No club has ever been successful forever.
In this article, I will go through my favourites, my disappointments, name my all-time Manchester United XI and looking at the future. For starters, my favourite team would be my first love, the 1993–94 team. Before the days of Arsenal’s Invincibles, Jose Mourinho’s 1st Chelsea teams, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, as a 10-year-old kid, the 1993–94 team gave me an impression of a team that was powerful, all-conquering and hardly ever lost. The only games that I remembered us losing in the league were to Chelsea at home and away, they were a thorn for us that season. In actual fact, after looking back now 26 years on, we did lose a total of 4 times in that Premier League season.
What I liked about the team was that the team played attacking football with speed down the flanks and we launched some great counter-attacks from one end to another with pace and precision. At that time, players didn’t get much protection from the referees and the rules were different so it was important that the team is able to take care of themselves on the pitch and this team could do just that. That team wasn’t just able to play beautiful football when needed, the team could play with a brute force too if needed. There were strong characters, personalities and leaders all throughout the team from the manager all the way to the forwards.
Of course, the 1998–99 team is another special team for their unique Treble achievement and that team had greater squad depth than the 1993–94 one as squad rotation came to the fore and it was needed at that time. The 2007–08 is the final team that was special despite just falling just short of the 1998–99 team in terms of achievement. All the Premier League title-winning squads deserve an honourable mention with a special place in my heart for the 1995–96, 2002–03 and Sir Alex Ferguson’s final title-winning squad of 2012–13. Outside of that, in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, I really liked the Jose Mourinho’s first squad in 2016–17 and the achievements in that season justified their mention in this paragraph.
I have been fortunate to see United with the Double of League and FA Cup twice in 1993–94 and 1995–96, win the Treble in 1998–99, win the Premier League three times in a row twice, 1998–99, 1999–00 and 2000–01 and 2006–07, 2007–08 and 2008–09, win the Double of League and Champions League in 2007–08 and win the Europa League for the first time ever in 2016–17.
In terms of players, I would break down my favourites in terms of positions. The three goalkeepers that stood out were undoubtedly Peter Schmeichel, Edwin van der Sar and David De Gea. It’s so hard to choose one over the other but I would go for Schmeichel as my favourite as he was a goalkeeper unlike any other we had. He had a big personality, he made big saves, saves that won us matches and I saw him as a Superman that could do no wrong and saved us. His leaping starfish saves were a unique trait that he had. He was also a vital attacking tool in our armour as his monster throws kick-started counter attacks for us. Other goalkeepers that deserve a mention were Raimond van der Gouw, Tomasz Kuszczak and Sergio Romero.
In defence, I would choose Rio Ferdinand as my favourite. He was ahead of his time in England in the sense that he could bring the ball out from the back, read the game well, was strong, quick on the ground, good in the air, a leader and a strong character. For someone who was technically adept, he should have scored more goals. Of course, I am also swayed towards him because when I was playing football, I was nicknamed Rio by my team-mates as I played as a centre back and attempted to bring the ball out from the back. Now for all the other defenders in my time as a fan that deserves a mention as my favourites, Paul Parker, Gary Neville, Antonio Valencia, Denis Irwin, Phil Neville, Patrice Evra, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, David May, Jaap Stam, Ronny Johnsen, Henning Berg, Mikael Silvestre, Wes Brown, John O Shea, Gabriel Heinze, Nemanja Vidic, Gerard Pique, Eric Bailly, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo, Ashley Young and Luke Shaw.
Out of all the talent we had in midfield, I would marginally pick David Beckham as my favourite only because we share the same birthday. I felt he was underrated as a player. He had a great engine to go up and down the flank for 90 minutes and more, he scored great long-range goals with his goal from the middle line against Wimbledon in 1996–97 special to me as it was the first time I had seen anyone do that, he was an expert on set-pieces either scoring directly from free-kicks or delivering for his team-mates to get on the end of, he delivered great crosses too, the best I have seen at the club. He had a great passing range too, strong mental strength and was a leader. Now for the other midfielders that I would like to mention, Lee Sharpe, Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Neil Webb, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Andrei Kanchelskis, Paul Scholes, Jesper Blomqvist, Juan Sebastian Veron, Quinton Fortune, Cristiano Ronaldo, Phil Neville, Antonio Valencia, Darren Fletcher, Park Ji-Sung, Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves, Anderson, Nani, Ashley Young, Shinji Kagawa, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Paul Pogba, Marouane Fellaini and Jesse Lingard.
In attack, it has to be the one and only Eric Cantona, one of my all-time favourite players. He was a catalyst at the beginning of United’s dominance. He had great character, personality, was a leader, scored some great goals and some vital goals that helped us win trophies, he had a great touch on the ball, held the ball up well and had the vision to create opportunities for his team-mates. For the other forwards, I would name, Mark Hughes, Brian McClair, Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, Teddy Sheringham, Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Diego Forlan, Alan Smith, Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov, Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck, Robin Van Persie, Marcus Rashford and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
In terms of disappointments, for the season that we had in 1993–94, it would have capped it up nicely had we been the first-ever team to achieve the domestic Treble. We needed to earn the right to achieve that feat on the pitch but we failed, losing the League Cup final in that season and that was a disappointment. Losing the league titles in 1994–95, 1997–98, 2011–12 were a disappointment too. Losing the Champions League semi-finals in 1996–97 and 2001–02 and the final in 2008–09 was also disappointing. I would have loved for us to win more UEFA Super Cups so losing it in 1999–00, 2008–09 and 2017–18 was disappointing too. Losing the FA Cup in 1994–95 was a disappointment and it was remarkable how we lost the League Cup to Liverpool in 2002–03.
In terms of players that disappointed, Jordi Cryuff was the son of one of the best footballers of all time and joined us after a very good Euro 96 but he was already playing for a big club like Barcelona before joining us and yet we couldn’t see the best of him. For that reason, I was disappointed in Jordi Cryuff. Fabian Barthez joined us after winning the World Cup in 1998 and European Championships in 2000 but he was far from solid in his time with us as the first-choice goalkeeper. He was eccentric and his eccentricity cost us matches.
Chris Smalling and Phil Jones were two players that joined the club as highly-rated young English defenders, they were tipped to be the long-term successors to Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. I am thankful for their contributions in helping us win trophies but both have disappointed me with their hot and cold form and constant injuries. They have both shown that on their day, they can be really, really, really good but there is always a mistake waiting to happen in their game.
Memphis Depay is another that disappointed me. I was impressed by what I saw of him for Holland at the 2014 World Cup but he could never produce that form or better himself with us. Angel Di Maria was signed for a British record fee and we were all excited by his signing. His early performances excited us too but he never recovered from a slump in form. It became clear later that his heart was never in it.
Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho both disappointed me. They were both high-profile managers with a proven record of winning major trophies at big clubs but neither could get United to replicate that success. Mourinho got the closest with the League Cup and Europa League in 2016–17 and 2nd place finish in the league in 2017–18.
I was lucky to have experienced 36 out of the 38 honours won by Sir Alex Ferguson. He was truly the main man that kept the team together, the common denominator for all our successes. He was ruthless in refreshing the team season after season to keep the players on their toes, hungry and motivated. There was no room for sentimentality. Big players left and new players came in but the success continued.
What you would begin to appreciate more when he was gone was his ability to stay with the times. He refreshed his tactics, strategy and man-management approach to cope with the new challenges faced and a different generation of players. You begin to appreciate it more when we had Van Gaal and Mourinho, two highly successful managers but look past their prime because they were stuck in the ways that brought them success in the past. Another example was the decline of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger.
I felt one of Sir Alex’s greatest achievements was to win the league title in 2010–11 and bringing that team all the way to the final of the Champions League. He had stronger teams in his career who couldn’t even get that far. I felt that was a remarkable achievement.
We will be eternally grateful for the success that Sir Alex brought to the club but at the risk of sounding greedy, we could have won more. I felt we didn’t dominate Europe as much as we should have. The team that won the Champions League in 1998–99 disappointingly under-performed in the subsequent seasons until reaching the semi-final of 2001–02. The team that won the Champions League in 2007–08 did better as they reached the semi-final of 2006–07 and the finals of 2008–09 and 2010–11 but the bottom line was that we only had 2 Champions League to show during this era of dominance.
As a football fan, we don’t really care for who the owners and the club CEO are as long as we are doing well on the pitch. The Glazers family takeover of Manchester United was always controversial from the start but we were assured by the then CEO, David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson that the Glazers had the money to keep investing in the team and would not drive the club to bankruptcy.
Looking back now, I feel that alarm bells started ringing when we sold Cristiano Ronaldo for a world transfer record fee at that time to hardly spend much in re-investing into the team until the summer of 2012. We took a lot of gambles with the signings we made and there were only two immediate successes, Antonio Valencia and Javier Hernandez. In his career, Sir Alex has always signed players that were little-known and developed them into successes but not all these players turned out that way. From the summer of 2009–10 to 2011–12, there were a lot of poor signings. Was it Sir Alex’s decision to invest so little into the team or was he pressured to do so by the owners? We will never know until later perhaps.
In the post-Sir Alex and David Gill era, more questions are being raised of the owners and the new CEO, Ed Woodward. Woodward has time and again shown his ineptness at making signings that are right for the club. He started life as CEO chasing Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kross with no success and then paying over the odds for Marouane Fellaini. That set the tone of what was to come. We have had season after season of underwhelming transfer windows with some exceptions. Were all these signings made at the recommendation of the manager at that time? It appears not because Van Gaal and Mourinho have been public of their criticism for not always getting the players they wanted. The managers have been made a scapegoat for poor performances and not delivering success and rightly so but the blame for their failure should go to Woodward and the structure there is at the club as well.
This season when results have been poor, the fans turned on Woodward and the Glazers family. I felt it was about time that the anger and frustration of the fans were made known to them although I do not condone the personal insults made to both parties. When I read and hear about the lack of investment by the Glazers not only in the playing staff but the infrastructure of the club, I shudder to think that we will fall further and further behind our neighbours, Manchester City and fierce rivals, Liverpool. I would like for someone to buy over the Glazer family’s share in the club but we need to be careful in what we wish for. We don’t want someone shady buying over the Glazer family’s share or someone who doesn’t have their heart in the right place. It will not come cheap as well to take over Manchester United as we are the second richest club in the world. I have no issues with Woodward being in the club as he has been successful commercially despite our lack of success on the pitch. What we need is the proper structure, someone with the right expertise and knowledge of handling the football side of things.
It looks like we are heading in the right direction in the football side of things now under Solksjaer with the signings we made over the summer but even then we cannot be far away from the ineptness and inefficiency in the transfer market. We let two senior central midfielders and two senior attackers leave without signing a replacement until the winter transfer window. At this pace, we will probably take 5–6 transfer windows to close the gap with City and Liverpool who will always be strengthening at the same time. This needs to be fixed for the future if we are not to go decades before getting the success that we used to have.
I end this by naming my all-time Manchester United XI. It’s a tough choice to make considering all the talent we had.
I would go with the 4–4–2 formation:
GK: Peter Schmeichel
RB: Gary Neville
RCB: Rio Ferdinand
LCB: Jaap Stam
LB: Patrice Evra
RW: David Beckham
CM: Paul Scholes
CM: Roy Keane
LW: Ryan Giggs
CF: Eric Cantona
CF: Ruud van Nistelrooy
Subs: Edwin van der Sar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Denis Irwin
With this, my series looking back at the seasons I have experienced as a Manchester United fan comes to an end.
