“Name on the Trophy!!! 26/05/1999 (1), (2) and (3)” as we look back to three e-mails I found from back on the 26th May 2004.
The e-mails were a load of quotes from the world of TV commentary from the day, as well as various newspaper reports from the days after the event. Below then is another one, enjoy reading them. I have.
WHEN Manchester United ended their 26-year wait to win the championship in 1993, Alex Ferguson permitted himself no more than a few hours to glory in the present. If his players retained their hunger, he said, there was no limit to what they could achieve. Six years later, we know that he succeeded in ensuring that they remained ravenous.
Now that United’s domestic dynasty is established, Ferguson can turn his attentions to the Continent and the task of achieving something that has so far defeated the politicians – a United Europe. However, just how far they have to go to join the real elite is revealed today in The Best European Table in the World . . . Ever!
The table – a companion to The Best League Table in the World Ever! (an exhaustive survey of English clubs at home and in Europe, published in The Times at Christmas) – is our way of marking the end of the era of three European competitions by analysing who have been the most successful clubs.
Amid the euphoria and the hangovers recrimination in Barcelona this morning, it will make sobering reading for Ferguson and the United board. Having four different kits and selling David Beckham duvet covers to “supporters” who have never seen the team play may make for an impressive balance sheet, but it is not a substitute for years of consistent success on the field.
Even the victory in the Nou Camp last night – and the 200 points gained from it – has not been enough to push United into the top ten achievers. It will take years of winning trophies and appearing in finals to haul back the lead established during their European wilderness years from 1969 to 1991.
The first task in compiling the table was to agree on a points system that would reflect the importance of the three competitions. The European Cup has always been the most coveted so it was obvious to award more points for that and, furthermore, to recognise that the trophy has become more difficult to win since the advent of the Champions’ League in 1991-92. Below that, the relative merits of the Cup Winners’ and Uefa Cups have long been debated, but we felt that it would be unfair to distinguish between the two.
It soon became obvious that we would not be able to include every team that had progressed to the quarterfinals of the tournaments so it was decided to limit the qualifiers to the top fifty. As a result, there are one or two notable absentees – St Etienne, Dynamo Moscow, Werder Bremen and Dynamo Zagreb, for example, while Aston Villa earned the dubious distinction of being the only European Cup winners not to make the top fifty.
The identity of our champions was not exactly a surprise – Real Madrid’s towering achievement of winning the first five European Cups with the fabled team of Puskas and Di Stefano has stood them in good stead, along with the sensible precaution of winning it again last year.
Popular predictions for second place probably would have included one of the other multiple winners of the European Cup – Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Ajax – but Juventus showed the advantage of earning points from the other two competitions to secure the position.
Bayern eased into third place thanks to their exertions last night, leaving Barcelona, with only one European Cup but six other trophies, fourth. Next came AC Milan and Internazionale.
Liverpool would have been higher than ninth, but for the ban that followed their defeat in the 1985 European Cup final and recent failures. Nevertheless, and no doubt to their quiet satisfaction and United’s chagrin this morning, they remain comfortably England’s leading team. Fergie had better sharpen his appetite.
#23 Wilderness years put United in the shade – THE TIMES
Richard Whitehead provides a fascinating insight into the ups and downs of clubs in Europe
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