Legendary Teams: Manchester United's 1999 treble sparks the best stretch in the club's modern history
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3 Yrs Ago
Manchester United’s treble-winning season in 1998-1999 will always be remembered for the team’s dominance, and the thrilling Champions League final comeback, but that peak also helped spark one of the most successful eras in the club’s history.
Led by a legendary generation of academy products who helped usher in a new era following the sudden retirement of former captain and French legend Eric Cantona, the Manchester United squad that closed out the 90s set a standard that has yet to be matched.
That Red Devils became the first English team to win the Champions League, Premier League title and FA Cup in the same season, and did so in a year where Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad was consistently dominant, riding an incredible run of 33 matches unbeaten in all competitions.
The seeds were sewn for that incredible season a year earlier, in the midst of a brutally disappointing finish to the 1997-1998 campaign, which saw the Red Devils squander a 12-point lead to eventual champion Arsenal. That same season saw the team suffer early exits from the Champions League and FA Cup.
As forgettable as that 97-98 season might have been, it did help shape the group that would eventually win the treble. Roy Keane replaced Cantona as captain that season — though he missed a large part of the campaign with a knee injury — and Teddy Sheringham arrived, while the homegrown nucleus of Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt took on more prominent roles in the squad.
The 1998-1999 season saw Keane return and dominate, while new arrivals Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke helped boost the defense and attack, respectively. Manchester United’s penchant for late-game heroics became a regular staple of that campaIgn, with no comeback more memorable than the Champions League final triumph over Bayern Munich.
Yorke and Andy Cole forged the most dangerous strike partnership in Europe that season, with Ole Gunnar Solksjaer and Sheringham helping give Manchester United the attacking depth to boast the most prolific attack in England. David Beckham and Ryan Giggs helped give Manchester United a winger tandem capable of opening up any defense, while Scholes and Keane controlled the middle of the park.
Defensively, Peter Schmeichel turned in a dominating final season at Old Trafford, with the help of Stam’s imposing presence in central defense, and the high-level consistency Gary Neville provided at right back.
Manchester United never came close to repeating its 1989-1999 success, but the next season did see the Red Devils dominate the Premier League, running away with the league title by an 18-point margin (compared to its narrow one-point league triumph a year earlier). French World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabian Barthez replaced Schmeichel in goal and helped win league titles in 2000 and 2001.
The three straight league titles from 1999 to 2001 is arguably the best stretch of Manchester United’s modern era, but it came crashing to a sudden halt after the 2001 season, as a failed roster revamp marred by disappointing transfer market investments, left the Red Devils a shell of their former selves.
The result was a trophy-less 2001-2002 season, and while Manchester United did recover and win the Premier League again a year later, by then it was a much different Red Devils team. Ferguson would help lead the team back to dominance with a three-title run from 2007 to 2009, but no Premier League team has been able to match the exploits of that 1999 Manchester United squad.