When I was growing up watching football in the late 90s/early 00s, I would never have included Barcelona in the giants of football. Certainly not in the same category as Real Madrid, and not even the Italian giants and us.
But now they're almost universally recognised as the 2nd biggest club in the world, after their most bitter rivals. And it hasn't even been that long. They've been immensely successful in that period but have bought in and held onto some of the most famous footballers of this generation. They're probably the most neutrally followed team in the world for the younger age group.
Anyone feel it could've been us had we shown the ambition at the right times? It's almost linked to our success and failures at the same time. Had we signed Ronaldinho would we have been stage for the most popular and entertaining player of the first half of the 00s?
Had we shown the right ambition after the loss in Rome, held onto Ronaldo and went mental to win more CL titles (basically what Madrid did) could we have challenged them as the team of the late 00s and early 10s? We were definitely in a better position than Madrid before they stole our best player from us, and we let them. That Rome final almost feels like the moment that we lost that race.
You'd be very wrong, probably due to only watching the PL, CL and Football Italia. In the early 1990s Barce were by far the best team in Spain during the Cruyff revolution. He revolutionised their playing style and their youth system. He took them to 4 European finals, winning 2 and losing 2, once against United and once against the last great Milan side, playing better football than Milan. That year they beat United 4-0. In the 90s they won 6 out of 10 La Liga titles.
By the time you made your second Champions League final and won it, they'd won one and been to 3 finals. They had 4 Cup Winners Cups and been to 6 finals compared to United's single win. The one they lost against you they had half their starting squad suspended.
Not only that but they always had many of the best players in the world. From the great Laudrup, Stochkov, Romario team to Ronaldo to Rivaldo, Figo, Kluivert to Ronaldinho, Etoo, Xavi and Deco and ofcourse one Diego Maradona.
There were 4 seasons when they didn't win La Liga from 99-04 when both Valencia and Deportivo were very good and during the Galaticos Era. They still drew 3-3 twice in '99 and beat Arsenal convincingly when we were actually good. This was their lowest point but only 3-4 seasons they weren't second and Real, Depor and Valencia were 3 of the best teams in Europe back then.
No I don't think United could have challenged Guardiola's Barce because they were the best side ever. United could have done more if they invested more and invested smarter but you can do this for every team. You've invested enough you just haven't invested it smart enough. I'm not sure United hang onto Ronaldo because he wanted out. He might not have been a happy camper if he stayed.
