True. We need to take it easy with the piss taking. Back to back CL and PL would be good as anything.
That treble season...
- Thread starter TheReligion
- Start date
So?
What made Uniteds two CL titles so special was they didn't lose any game in either campaign and 1999 the clear stand out as had to keep consiscency while fighting on three fronts. That CL final was won without Keane and Scholes let's not forget.
Was very small margins on number of other Champions league campaigns that United could or should have won under Ferguson but that's cup football.
2009, 2011 CL finals United just happened to come up against the best side the champions league has agurably ever seen in Barcelona.
Yeah I think even 2010 we played bloody excellent in some games. Should have knocked Bayern out even without Rooney. Stupid red card for Rafael. Nani another stupid red card too vs Real. We had some bad luck with referees a few times.
The first time vs Barcelona was a bit unlucky. They didn't deserve to be in the final and Fletcher was a big miss. Ronaldo didn't really step up in that final either.
The league is pretty comfortably the strongest it's ever been bar a couple of the big clubs. Outside of the top 6, the other 14 clubs are comfortably the highest standard they've ever been in Prem history. Relegation sides can buy the best players in Spain, France and Germany now. Have a look at some of the squads that used to finish top 10 in the Prem, they'd all be relegation nowadays.
The thing that make the treble so impressive for me was how tough each competition was.
The league was very competitive. As well as us, Arsenal & Chelsea had excellent teams, Villa had a great season and were top of the table til about Xmas, Leeds has just assembled that decent side with Hasselbank finishing top scorer & West Ham had one of their best ever seasons too. Liverpool only finished 7th that year despite having Owen & Fowler up front who bagged 32 goals between them.
We had a hell of a tough run in the FA Cup. 5 of our 6 opponents were Premier League opponents, including the 2nd and 3rd placed teams in the league. Even the one lower league team we faced, Fulham, were half decent, winning Division 1 with over 100 points that year. Compare that to the almost embarrassing run we had in 15-16, its night and day.
We also faced some really tough teams in Europe - Bayern, Barca, Inter, Juve then Bayern again. That's way tougher than, say, 07-08 when we didn't face a really difficult opponent til the semi final stage.
Its possible to get quite far in a competition with a few lucky draws or through your opponents in the league disintegrating, but we had about the toughest possible route in all three that we won.
The league was very competitive. As well as us, Arsenal & Chelsea had excellent teams, Villa had a great season and were top of the table til about Xmas, Leeds has just assembled that decent side with Hasselbank finishing top scorer & West Ham had one of their best ever seasons too. Liverpool only finished 7th that year despite having Owen & Fowler up front who bagged 32 goals between them.
We had a hell of a tough run in the FA Cup. 5 of our 6 opponents were Premier League opponents, including the 2nd and 3rd placed teams in the league. Even the one lower league team we faced, Fulham, were half decent, winning Division 1 with over 100 points that year. Compare that to the almost embarrassing run we had in 15-16, its night and day.
We also faced some really tough teams in Europe - Bayern, Barca, Inter, Juve then Bayern again. That's way tougher than, say, 07-08 when we didn't face a really difficult opponent til the semi final stage.
Its possible to get quite far in a competition with a few lucky draws or through your opponents in the league disintegrating, but we had about the toughest possible route in all three that we won.
If you think about it today, City have been very strong but had a lot of injuries this season and a couple bad results (and some very unfortunate referee decisions against Liverpool) and the league was done. In Europe, Barca and Real are at their lowest overall levels in a long, long time. Bayern too have dropped off. The era has been weak definitely compared to the end of the 90's or the end of the 00's. When we won the Treble you had Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayern Munich as genuine powerhouses plus teams like Inter were strong as was the Spanish and Italian leagues in general. It was much harder to win and we won everything.
2007/2008 was a battle too because Chelsea were a phenomenal and very consistent side back then and even Arsenal and Liverpool were very strong. Italian sides were better too. This is an era where Real Madrid just won four of five Champions League's whilst winning One La Liga title and once Ronaldo goes there's really not an outstanding side.
Liverpool fans always push "best" this "best" that. Best captain, best player, best manager so it's hardly surprising they are pushing this best side ever crap. You can only qualify for being the best if you win the league and champions league in the same season and win back-to-back leagues IMO. So the fact we did three-peats proves beyond doubt about what side was best. 98-2001 (Treble, league, league), 2006-2009 (league, league & CL, League and League cup double) are without question the two greatest sides of the premier league era man for man or results wise.
2007/2008 was a battle too because Chelsea were a phenomenal and very consistent side back then and even Arsenal and Liverpool were very strong. Italian sides were better too. This is an era where Real Madrid just won four of five Champions League's whilst winning One La Liga title and once Ronaldo goes there's really not an outstanding side.
Liverpool fans always push "best" this "best" that. Best captain, best player, best manager so it's hardly surprising they are pushing this best side ever crap. You can only qualify for being the best if you win the league and champions league in the same season and win back-to-back leagues IMO. So the fact we did three-peats proves beyond doubt about what side was best. 98-2001 (Treble, league, league), 2006-2009 (league, league & CL, League and League cup double) are without question the two greatest sides of the premier league era man for man or results wise.
Initially I thought this was really good trolling... But it's not even true. Arguably that makes it even better.We've already overtaken the points total for the 99 team. In February.
Maybe compared to teams from 20 to 30 years ago, the teams of today are all better, given tactics, fitness, buying power etc, that's an interesting argument. But relative to each other, this is clearly a poor league compared to previous seasons. Liverpool, Sheffield United, Wolves and Leicester have improved to some degree. But almost every other team in the league is either treading water or going backwards compared to previous seasons, most notably all 5 of the other top 6 teams.
The '08 team was also very special. Other than a dodgy decision at Portsmouth that would surely also have been another treble.
Our league is one note, try to play football nonsense that has allowed our top sides to not need a plan b anymore throughout a season.
Our league is terrible, theres a reason why our top sides are setting some kind of record points total every season.
More sides can keep their players these days but less sides back then could afford them anyway.
Neither was a great side
And already lost more games than the 99 team lost in all competitions for the entirety of the season. In March.We've already overtaken the points total for the 99 team. In February.
Not sure whether there's a question to me? I wasn't criticising Keane (or commenting on Carragher).
No sorry, I was agreeing with you.
If only.
It's tiresome seeing opposition fans on here talking rubbish about our current state, but the treble team, too? Just no.
Wrong forum. Shouldn't this thread be in the United side of the forum. Either that or I'm sick of hearing of the lucky treble again.
Just phenomenal; you must be trolling surely? No Ronaldo or Messi means every single team or players are somehow "Shit.."
Just incredible.
Not only did we have a group of death in the CL, we faced many players and teams literally at their peak or close to it including some of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game and the PL was far far far less stratified despite the list of winners, as teams throughout the table were far closer
The CL then was far far harder than European competitions pre-CL; we should know having lost to to Juventus and Dortmund previously in that 99 era.
Steady lad, the other team posters are welcome and have always contributed well.
This comment
Europe was shit back then? Just to name a few players off the top of my head who played back then, Kahn, Pirlo, Zanetti, Baggio, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Romario, Figo, Kluivert, Maldini, E. Davids, Del Piero, Inzaghi and Zidane.Also this league your winning right now is nothing to brag about. United, Arsenal and Chelsea are the worst they've been in ages. It's taken you 30 years, Sir Alex Ferguson to retire and United to turn to shit before you could ever win the league.
I see there’s a few “continental” treble posts on Facebook
It’s: Neither were great sides. But even with proper grammar, you’d be fecking wrong.
Of course Liverpool’s first title in 30 years would be the best achievement ever, in the hardest league ever, by the best team ever. Of course
The treble season has gotten underrated over time. How the 99 prem league winning team is placed third on polls amazes. The fact that the great man city team couldn't even Win a league and ucl double yet somehow is seen as a rival to the treble team is stupid. That city team would struggle to userp the 08 team never mind the 99 one. Same goes to this Liverpool team.
Inter were a proper mess, particularly after ronaldo started getting injured and simoni was sacked
Juventus lost del piero for the season early on to an acl tear, then spent half the season with the coach openly feuding with management until they finally sacked him. In fairness they did immediately improve massively under Ancelotti but still, not really a great side by any stretch. Actually lost a UEFA Cup playoff with udinese at the end of the season. Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, Parma and Roma were all better than them. Quite clearly so
Great team? Less so than barcelona in 07/08. And that wasn't a great team either
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Nah, that Juventus side was top quality. No one will convince me otherwise.
Strange indeed. I was told that we're not allowed to comment on Manchester United so I'll stick to that. Maybe our opinions are ok, now that we've lost a few games?
They had top quality players(4 all in all given Del Piero missed pretty much the whole season. Montero, Davids, Zidane, Inzaghi), which is different from being a top quality team
They were but coming to the end of that cycle. Mid 90s they should've won a couple of CLs but started their trend of losing finals to Dortmund and then Real Madrid. Lippi left before the end of that season so possibly the squad weren't listening to him as much anymore. Ancelotti was actually in charge for the two Man, United games and he was still making his way at very top of management in those times.
Season 99/00 they actually qualified through europe through Intertoto and played in Uefa cup that season. Were plodding through until Celta Vigo (who had a brilliant side in those teams) beat them 4-0.
Got back in CL next few seasons but had early exit until reaching 2003 final.
Real Madrid and Inter Milan ended those seasons with John Toshack and Roy Hodgson in charge respectively! Was reading Tosh's autobiography recently and great insight into how toxic the dressing room had become with likes of Mijatovic and Seedorf. He was the wrong fit and they benefited from Del Bosque's more laid back managerial style (although still sold those troublemakers) and won european cup the next season despite being poor in the league.
Actually think Barcelona underachieved badly that season. Had Rivaldo in brilliant form (that hat trick v Man. United in group stages
), Kluivert and were strong in other areas and of course had motivation of Camp Nou hosting the final. Don't think they even made it out of the groups although CL structure was different then with stronger groups.Bayern Munich were still very good and Kiev had a fantastic team. Interesting how Man. United would've done v Shevchenko and Rebrov over two legs or one off final.
To me I think you can differentiate between saying treble is one of the great achievements and looking at premier league and saying it wasn't even the greatest Man. United team in that period. I actually thought the 06-09 was slightly better and that could've easily won the treble in 07/08 if you'd got past Pompey.
Why are you completely ignoring the fact that Serie A back then used to have 6-7 teams that were strong enough to challenge for the title?
https://myoutlookonfootball.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/a-golden-era-of-serie-a-the-seven-sisters/
We would have done it again had we not been robbed in the FA cup against Portsmouth if I recall correctly
Aah, the victim card and the moral high ground card in one statement. Bravo, you must be great at top trumps.....
And the World Cup winning captain Deschamps. Either way they had incredible experience at the highest level right through the side. They were bookies favourites. They may have been having an off-season domestically but I remember Gary Neville's reaction when finding out Juventus had got out of the group stages and he rolled his eyes and sighed, which pretty much summed it up for Utd fans and all the other sides left in the competition. Juventus was the team you didn't want to play against in the knock outs.
Did Chelsea win the FA cup that year? Not sure I would've fancied us to do them in consecutive finals.
It does get you a golden trophy that you can keep though.
Portsmouth won against Cardiff