The 2006-2009 team thread

Luke1995

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Just thought we should have a place to cheerish the memories. (Couldn't see a recent thread)

Edwin Van Der Sar
Wes Brown/Gary Neville
Rio Ferdinand
Nemanja Vidic
Patrice Evra/John O'shea
Owen Hargreaves/Darren Fletcher
Michael Carrick/Anderson/Park
Paul Scholes/Ryan Giggs
Cristiano Ronaldo/Nani
Wayne Rooney/Louis Saha
Carlos Tevez/Berbatov

Some of my favorite moments (Other than Moscow!)
5-1 against Fulham in August 2006
7-1 against Roma obviously
Scholes goal against Barcelona
Ronaldo's freekick against Portsmouth
Berbatov's skill against West Ham to setup Ronaldo's goal.

A team who had pace, physical power, shooting accuracy and good short and long range passing.

Remember being a bit worried because we somewhat struggled in the 2008-09 CL group stage but then we went on to have a fantastic knockout rounds and it felt like that team could go on for ages.

Then summer of 2009 came... (Although most of that squad remained together until 2010-11)

Just how great was the Ferdinand-Vidic partnership ? Scholes and Carrick together ?

That team had such a great understanding between players, the Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez conection was almost magnetic. The confidence VDS passed to everyone needs to be mentioned too. Saha was great in 2006-07, always wondered what could have been with him.

Anyway, share your favorite memories, games, pictures, videos, personal stories (Were you at the stadium during that time for example?) and whatever else related to that era you may want.
 
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roonster09

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My favorite season to watch was 2006-07, Ronaldo and Giggs wing play was awesome. Also it was 4 years wait and we won league in such a style playing superb football.
 

Siorac

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Some other great memories:

- Rooney's last-gasp winner against Milan, even though it meant feck all in the end

- destroying Arsenal in the CL semi-final second leg at the Emirates. They were waving their flags for roughly seven minutes

- O'Shea making GNev's childhood dream come true by scoring the winner in front of the Kop

-Mascherano talking himself into a red card at Old Trafford

- Machedaaaaaa

- the Spurs comeback after 2-0 down. Ripped them apart while they were crying about a penalty that still omly made it 1-2, in a game where Palacios should have been off in the 3rd minute for the attempted murder of Ronaldo

- O'Shea in goal at White Hart Lane while 4-0 up. They couldn't find a way past him :drool:

- Chelsea doing a guard of honour for Dong, Eagles and Kieran Lee

- Eagles sealing the win at Everton, while Fergie was frantically trying to get the players' attention to let them know Chelsea drew 2-2 with Bolton and we were basically champions

- that counter-attack against Bolton

- destroying Blackburn in the last 20 minutes after 70 minutes of Brad Friedel looking invincible

- that Ronaldo header at Roma in 2008
 

P-Nut

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My teenage years team. Couldn't have come at a better time. In the process of leaving school and getting smashed watching the boys tear everyone and everything apart with skill, pace and power.

I'd give anything to see us perform like that again at the moment.
 

roonster09

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Vidic's celebration after scoring last min winner
 

extincti fugax hominum

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2006-2007 was brilliant to watch even though my favourite was 2007-2008 when we won the PL & CL double and only denied by a one-off game against Portsmouth at Old Trafford to win another treble again. The coherence between Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez was magnificent that season. Don't like 2008-2009 season much as quality of our football seemed to deteriorate and the season started with shenanigans and slave comments by Ronaldo. Signing Berbatov instead of Tevez was a mistake. Losing Queiroz in the same summer who had a big part in stabling our defence and how we played tactically didn't help either. But in general, 2006-2009 team was a thing of beauty. There was a special feeling about that team which we didn't have since then. A lot of likeable characters too. Van der Sar, Evra, Rio, Vida, O'Shea, Brown (:drool: him in the 2008 CL Final), Scholes, Anderson, Hargreaves (:drool: before he became a cnut) etc. i could go on. Loved all of them really.
 

Maciej

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For meme, and for any who was born in 1991, that was something special. Just like 1999 team for those older than me.

Our defence was magnificent, very solid midfield with players like Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney at their best.

This is what I will talk to my children about. Almost no flaws in that team.
 

promisedlanchiao

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United’s 2008-09 season was my first and possibly favourite season as a United supporter. Everything from the manager, the team and the fans were perfect and everyone was in tandem that season. Along with that, just have a look at this team:

Van Der Sar
Brown Vidic Ferdinand Evra
Ronaldo Carrick Scholes Giggs
Berbatov Rooney

Literally the best players in their position in the entire league shoved into one team (excuse Brown, who was still one of the best RB’s in the league, and he’s not even an RB), led by the best manager ever who made all of them play perfect, attacking Football as if they had been playing together all their life. Needless to say, Ronaldo was magical throughout and Giggs getting Player of The Season in the whole league at 35 was possibly one of the greatest moments in Football of the 2000’s.

There were just so many brilliant matches that year, and what a year. Loved that team.
 

buckooo1978

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08/09 was peak Ferguson for me.....our most talented, balanced and experienced squad

it was a great era- fast exciting football and though Ruud was superb, when he left it really took the shackles off
 

roonster09

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08/09 was peak Ferguson for me.....our most talented, balanced and experienced squad

it was a great era- fast exciting football and though Ruud was superb, when he left it really took the shackles off
Think 07-08 was better than 08-09, we had awesome team. 08-09 Rio had fitness issues and also signing Berbatov sort of messed up the team.
 

Trizy

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Only thing I can compare that team to was like watching the World XI vs pub teams in the league. That team was just pure and utter beauty.

The greatest English club team of all time. (Not that 99 was bad, mind).
 

Siorac

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United’s 2008-09 season was my first and possibly favourite season as a United supporter. Everything from the manager, the team and the fans were perfect and everyone was in tandem that season. Along with that, just have a look at this team:

Van Der Sar
Brown Vidic Ferdinand Evra
Ronaldo Carrick Scholes Giggs
Berbatov Rooney

Literally the best players in their position in the entire league shoved into one team (excuse Brown, who was still one of the best RB’s in the league, and he’s not even an RB), led by the best manager ever who made all of them play perfect, attacking Football as if they had been playing together all their life. Needless to say, Ronaldo was magical throughout and Giggs getting Player of The Season in the whole league at 35 was possibly one of the greatest moments in Football of the 2000’s.

There were just so many brilliant matches that year, and what a year. Loved that team.
Brown played very little in 2008/09, only 13 games in total. O'Shea was the starting right-back for most of the season.
 

promisedlanchiao

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Brown played very little in 2008/09, only 13 games in total. O'Shea was the starting right-back for most of the season.
Memory must have caught up with me there, but O’Shea too was never a problem. People who call him O’shit are nothing short of a disgrace.
 

charlenefan

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06/07 and 07/08 for sure, the 08/09 side/season though wasn't as good. Berbatov broke the balance, Ronaldo came into the season pissed off because he wasn't allowed to leave (and generally wasn't as interested throughout the season) and we lost 1-4 at home to Liverpool FFS
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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The crazy thing about that period is how it didn't seem to be widely acknowledged that it was a great team at that moment in time. I remember the match day thread on RAWK when Macheda scored as it happened, they were distraught but went on to call us a shit one man team (Ronaldo, obvs) which is pretty wild considering that defence, plus Scholes and Carrick, and all the attacking options. It was stacked with quality and depth, and played great football. That's only one very deluded example of course, but they weren't the only ones who seemed to think we were just Ronaldo + 10 others. It seemed to come from a lot of directions.

It's retrospectively acknowledged as a great side now, but at the time, I don't think it was outside of United fans. Yet in 2018, you've got many calling this current City side one of the best ever, a team that has won one title and done nothing in Europe. Personally I think the Chelsea and Liverpool sides that we beat to the CL and league titles between 06-09 were better than this City team.

06-09 beats the 99 treble winners too IMO. Best team of the Premier League era.
 

Siorac

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06/07 and 07/08 for sure, the 08/09 side/season though wasn't as good. Berbatov broke the balance, Ronaldo came into the season pissed off because he wasn't allowed to leave (and generally wasn't as interested throughout the season) and we lost 1-4 at home to Liverpool FFS
And the "Torres always destroys Vidic" myth was born because Vidic fecked up a long ball and allowed Torres to steal it. After all these years, that myth annoys me more than that defeat.
 

Mike Smalling

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Think 07-08 was better than 08-09, we had awesome team. 08-09 Rio had fitness issues and also signing Berbatov sort of messed up the team.
Definitely! Even though we won the league and reached the CL final, I remember 08/09 quite differently from the two preceding seasons. Berbatov did not really gel with the team at first, but Fergie kept playing him over Tevez because he was our high-profile signing that summer. This hurt our attack and got a little ridiculous when Tevez scored 4 goals in a League Cup game and still didn't start the next league game.

In 08/09 we relied a lot on a fantastic defence, set pieces and a number of late wins that should have been more comfortable. I think it says a lot that our goal record in the league was very similar to this season (68-24 in 08/09 vs. 68-28 in 17/18). Still a great season, but not at the same level as 06/07 and 07/08, where the football was free-flowing and attacking.
 

roonster09

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Definitely! Even though we won the league and reached the CL final, I remember 08/09 quite differently from the two preceding seasons. Berbatov did not really gel with the team at first, but Fergie kept playing him over Tevez because he was our high-profile signing that summer. This hurt our attack and got a little ridiculous when Tevez scored 4 goals in a League Cup game and still didn't start the next league game.

In 08/09 we relied a lot on a fantastic defence, set pieces and a number of late wins that should have been more comfortable. I think it says a lot that our goal record in the league was very similar to this season (68-24 in 08/09 vs. 68-28 in 17/18). Still a great season, but not at the same level as 06/07 and 07/08, where the football was free-flowing and attacking.
Yeah, agree with all of that.
 

Siorac

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Definitely! Even though we won the league and reached the CL final, I remember 08/09 quite differently from the two preceding seasons. Berbatov did not really gel with the team at first, but Fergie kept playing him over Tevez because he was our high-profile signing that summer. This hurt our attack and got a little ridiculous when Tevez scored 4 goals in a League Cup game and still didn't start the next league game.
Yes, he did not start the next league game against Sunderland but then started the next five games. Tévez also started 6 of our first 8 competitive games of the season, missing one because of the death of his father (so not because Fergie left him out). He didn't play well at all during that time. Ended up starting 34 games compared to Berbatov's 36.
 

Rozay

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Think 2009 should be changed to 2012 in the title. It was after that that that group had finished it’s cycle.

P.S - my use of the word ‘that’ above was simply sensational.
 

El Jefe

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Out of the 3 seasons;

2006/07 - Most exciting team. The speed of play was mesmerising.
2007/08 - Most successful team. Had the best elements of the teams before and after.
2008/09 - No where near as exciting as the previous two but this was the strongest team personnel and results wise IMO. In a mini league of the 3 teams this team would win.
 

Luke1995

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Think 2009 should be changed to 2012 in the title. It was after that that that group had finished it’s cycle.

P.S - my use of the word ‘that’ above was simply sensational.
Maybe but most people think about 06-09 as the golden years.
 

Luke1995

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I should mention that Solskjaer was part of the 2006-07 squad but not sure how much if any impact he had at all in that season, he hardly played. Also Larsson was on loan with us for the second part of that season and gave a good contribution in the CL.
 

Luke1995

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Newcastle 6-0 was a crazy day because the first half finished 0-0!
 

IAmAWinner

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For me 06/07 was the most special of the 3 seasons. We had gone 3 seasons without winning anything major and just signed Carrick in the summer, if I recall the fans weren't really excited about (Senna, Gattuso, Hargreaves were wanted more), and sold Ruud ffs. Chelsea signed one of the best defenders, midfielders and strikers in the world (Cole, Ballack and Sheva), it looked like they were going to dominate the league for many years. But we blew them away, played fantastic attacking football, while being solid defensively. And of course it was the season when Ronaldo finally became the world class player we all had hoped. Only the lack of squad depth cost us the treble, the team was dead by May. What a wonderful season 06/07 was.
 

Luke1995

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For me 06/07 was the most special of the 3 seasons. We had gone 3 seasons without winning anything major and just signed Carrick in the summer, if I recall the fans weren't really excited about (Senna, Gattuso, Hargreaves were wanted more), and sold Ruud ffs. Chelsea signed one of the best defenders, midfielders and strikers in the world (Cole, Ballack and Sheva), it looked like they were going to dominate the league for many years. But we blew them away, played fantastic attacking football, while being solid defensively. And of course it was the season when Ronaldo finally became the world class player we all had hoped. Only the lack of squad depth cost us the treble, the team was dead by May. What a wonderful season 06/07 was.
Well, tbf Kaká destroyed us all by himself, the team wasn't poor.
 

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Never expected the 06/07 team to be anywhere near as good as they were. Wasn't hopeful that we'd get near Chelsea again and sure as hell wasn't hopeful about the style of football but I remember going to the pre-season friendly against Sevilla and we won 3-0 and it was just a really nice match and then watching the 5-1 against Fulham and being blown away.

We were beautiful to watch at times that year and of course Ronaldo was just special. You'd turn up to see him take the piss and the result would be secondary almost. Probably my second favourite season after 1998-99 even though we only won the Prem.

07-08 I seem to remember us winning so many games 4-0 and it just seemed like we had absolutely everything in our locker. We should've won the treble and we'd have deserved to do so as well. One of the best teams I've ever seen in my lifetime. We were so brutally effective at times, it's a world away from what we are now. We weren't quite as entertaining as the year before but I'm sure some of that is actually down to the sheer surprise at how we played the year before rather than a dip in quality of play.

I think it helped that 06-08 was probably the happiest period of my life and United being great again coincided with it perfectly. Definitely some rose tinted spectacles about it all but the results and clips you watch on Youtube give you proof that we really were that good.

08/09 was dire in comparison if I'm honest. The 13+ hours of not conceding was a great stat/record to have but it sums up the season really and I called it that as soon as we conceded we'd lose the plot which we absolutely did for a fair few games. In the league in general the highest scorer had 19 and it just bored me. We knew Ronaldo had wanted to leave and I remember a lot of people having reservations and bad feelings towards him that year. We knew Berbatov coming in had destroyed the Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez attack that was so special and so hopeful the year before and it had pissed off Tevez combined with Berba not really fitting in and in general it was just an odd one. The 4-1 loss to Liverpool was awful but then you've got moments like the 5-2 comeback against Spurs to counterbalance it. The 3-1 win against Arsenal in the Emirates in the semi combined with just not being good enough against Barça in the final. Like I said, odd.
 

matherto

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Well, tbf Kaká destroyed us all by himself, the team wasn't poor.
It was decimated by injuries so the defence was poor at least.

Had Rio and Vidic been fully fit I don't think he'd have done what he did so effectively, as great as Kaka was.
 

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I loved this period. The three-peat from 1999-2001 was excellent too but I think the quality of the other sides from 2006-2009 made that perhaps an even more memorable period.

Summer of 2006 Chelsea were a great side and then during this period you had Liverpool with their strongest side of the last 30 years, going far in europe and their fans as deluded as ever and Arsenal were strong too. I was a season ticket holder until 2009 when I moved to Los Angeles and I just remember waking up excited about the games and going to the match and everything.

2007/2008 season I had that feeling of knowing we'd win the champions league and being so relaxed about it. I've not felt that way since unfortunately. The football was wonderful and the team was great. Possibly the greatest of my lifetime. Great goalie, great defense, excellent balance and experience in midfield (my favorite player of all-time Scholes in fine form), the best player in the world in Ronaldo, the best English player in Rooney and Tevez who I adored and managed by the greatest.

I thought this would never end.
 

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Beyond what has already been mentioned.....

The Nani seal dribble v Arse. Beyond the brazen comedy of it, it had a sort of allegorical quality that celebrated our general awesomeness at the time.

 

adexkola

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Was in college then. My formative years. Joined the Caf in ‘08. The loss against Milan in ‘07 ruined me for days. Where’s Chris Eagles nowadays? Watched the CL final in my school’s library’s basement on a dodgy stream on Sopcast on my laptop. Remember feeling like I could float on clouds... sad no one in that basement in Ohio could share that feeling with me. Hated the Berbatov purchase. Loved O’Shea, Ronaldo and Rooney. Favorite goal: flick that Giggsy did against Fulham at Craven Cottage, before Ronaldo’s wonder goal. Favorite moment apart from 08 CL final has to be Rooney’s 2nd goal va Milan at Old Trafford. I nearly blacked out. feck Fabregas. Will never forgive him for fooling the ref into sending world class (yes you heard me) Fletcher off. We missed him in that final.
 

King7Eric

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I think the 2008/09 team often gets less credit than it deserves. For me it was the most complete squad and it was a team you felt would always find a way to win. It wasn't as exciting as the teams of the previous 2 seasons but it was a group of battle hardened veterans who could shift up a gear whenever needed, the 2nd half against Spurs being a prime example. The whole period from 06-13 was special. Even after Ronaldo left we had Rooney stepping up to the plate magnificently and I'm sure had he not gotten injured we would have won the league in 09/10 and atleast reached the final of the CL. Even the heartbreak of 11/12 was a necessary requisite for what was the utter domination of the league in the following season and had it not been for the cnut referee we would have gone much further in the CL as well.
 

Dundrummer

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I think the 2008/09 team often gets less credit than it deserves. For me it was the most complete squad and it was a team you felt would always find a way to win.
It should go without saying, but for some reason it's almost never mentioned that that United side holds (by a distance) the record for the longest unbeaten run in European cup history. Had we won in Rome that team would be a pretty strong shout for the greatest in the history of European football.

Anyway, people are right that the 08/09 side was a bit...odd. Over the course of the three seasons we slowly became less attacking and more pragmatic, which is so obviously borne out by the stats, but after the Liverpool shanking we briefly turned back into the old United (see; Macheda, 5-2 vs Spurs, Carrick's winner against Wigan). So yeah, we got a little boring, but we were a penalty shootout and two games away from winning every single competition we entered. You almost shudder to imagine it, a literally perfect season...
 

Dundrummer

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The way the players were listed in the OP made me curious, so I've gone and checked and this is the proper squad by number of appearances across the three seasons (min 10 appearances):

First 11

--------------Van Der Sar (140)
O'Shea (141) Rio (143) Vidic (138) Evra (132)
---Scholes (114) Carrick (144) Fletcher (106)
----Ronaldo (155) Rooney (147) Giggs (134)

Subs

PIG (37) Brown (102) Neville (63) Anderson (76) Park (78) Nani (72) Tevez (99)

The rest in descending order

Saha (58)
Berbatov (43)
Heinze (38)
Hargreaves (37)
Evans (37)
Solskjaer (32)
Rafael (28)
Silvestre (27)
Richardson (24)
Smith (18)
Gibson (14)
Pique (13)
Larrson (13)
Welbeck (13)
Foster (10)
 

Tom Foster

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Having watched United since 1960, I actually think this was our golden era. I seem to recall around 2008 it actually looked like we could win any competition we entered. Even playing top sides with a rotated squad. Unlike now, player recruitment was top notch, and like all great sides worldwide, we had our world-class player who inspired all the rest.
If a get depressed about United, I always get out the 2008 Season DVD, and then the Champions League one.
I was always disappointed if we didn’t score 3 or more in any game around then.
 

Chairman Steve

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06/07 was an amazing attacking team but lacked squad depth
07/08 was an amazing squad but less prettier attacking wise
08/09 was the ultimate squad to handle all the games and go close to winning the quad. I don’t recall them being the prettiest watch though possibly because of the sheer amount of fixtures and we had to be conservative

Nani and Anderson was the most amazing double signing we’d ever made. I remember lurking this forum over the Berbatov transfer and the drama around it... it being the only transfer story for the entirety of the 2008 summer. Transfer muppets deciphering Bulgarian press stories, straying off topic about Bulgarian stuff, Sir Alex famously saying “I don’t think we’re buying any players” after a defeat to Burnley away, then deadline day comes City show off their OPEC money and bid for Berba, have that accepted, mini meltdown in the Berba thread, then Sir Alex picks up Berba from the airport and takes him to Carrington and OT and he’s holding that Utd shirt between Sir Alex and David Gill at half past midnight

Even the transfers were exciting as the football back then!
 

JMack1234

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God I loved this team. I'm too young to remember the treble winners but for this was the team I loved and easily still my favourite United team.
 

Big Ben Foster

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06/07 was an amazing attacking team but lacked squad depth
07/08 was an amazing squad but less prettier attacking wise
08/09 was the ultimate squad to handle all the games and go close to winning the quad. I don’t recall them being the prettiest watch though possibly because of the sheer amount of fixtures and we had to be conservative

Nani and Anderson was the most amazing double signing we’d ever made. I remember lurking this forum over the Berbatov transfer and the drama around it... it being the only transfer story for the entirety of the 2008 summer. Transfer muppets deciphering Bulgarian press stories, straying off topic about Bulgarian stuff, Sir Alex famously saying “I don’t think we’re buying any players” after a defeat to Burnley away, then deadline day comes City show off their OPEC money and bid for Berba, have that accepted, mini meltdown in the Berba thread, then Sir Alex picks up Berba from the airport and takes him to Carrington and OT and he’s holding that Utd shirt between Sir Alex and David Gill at half past midnight

Even the transfers were exciting as the football back then!
Zenit in the Super Cup, surely? Burnley away was the following season.
 

SambaBoy

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Jeez this team brings back so many good memories. It's when I started going games and got a season ticket. The games were so exciting, and hardly frustrating and boring like they are now. The teams had everything, it was quality to watch Evra run all the way down the left, Vidic win every header, Rio just being a classy defender, VDS distribution and calmness, Brown thundering into challenges, Scholes being Scholes, Fletcher turning into one of the best midfielders for a period of time, Ronaldo turn into the best player in the world, Giggs rolling back the years at time, Rooney being his youthful dangerous self and Tevez was loved by the fans. As has already been mentioned, the rotating of the squad and still being able to beat big teams showed how good the squad was and how good a manager Fergie was. Light years ahead of this current team.