Man City and Pep Guardiola deserve all the plaudits.. but let’s never forget Man Utd’s stunning legacy
THERE isn’t a team in Europe to touch them, they’ll finish the season with a Treble and could eventually go down as one of the greatest sides in history.
But as brilliant and breathtaking as Manchester City have been at times, I’m sorry . . . I don’t go with those who say the Premier League has never seen football like it.
Of course they have been fantastic, that first half against Real Madrid was out of this world, and I do love Pep Guardiola.
For 45 minutes Madrid didn’t have a kick and if it hadn’t been for Thibaut Courtois, City could have had half a dozen.
It was as good as I’ve seen this season but, for me, some of the stuff that Manchester United played under Sir Alex Ferguson was on a par and probably even better at times.
I know that it won’t make me popular with City fans but the way United blew sides away — on a regular basis — was just something else.
Not just one side, either, he built a few of them. But I look at the team with Eric Cantona and Mark Hughes, Ryan Giggs and Andrei Kanchelskis, Roy Keane and Paul Ince and think, ‘Wow’.
There was the one with Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Teddy Sheringham to come off the bench.
They had David Beckham and Ryan Giggs tearing down the wings and Gary Neville and Denis Irwin overlapping from full-back.
You couldn’t get near Paul Scholes, Jaap Stam was a giant at the back and Keane was running midfield. No wonder sides were beaten before they went out.
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It’s true when they say that, as well. And a story always comes to mind from when I was managing Portsmouth and had a lovely kid called Linvoy Primus, who was very religious.
Before one game I’d swapped team sheets with Sir Alex, went back to our dressing room and there were only about three players in there.
When I asked where the rest were, someone told me, “Linvoy has started a prayer group and a load of the lads are in the boot room with him”.
I looked at the names on the sheet in my hand and said, “Fair enough . . . I think I’d better go and join them!”
But that’s how good United were — they dominated English football for years and I’m not having it when people say, “Ah yes, but they never got 100 points”.
There were a lot of good teams around back then, you really did have to work for your wins.
And even though it wasn’t too long ago, you could still get away with a lot more as well.
Playing someone like Wimbledon was scary for a manager, never mind the players, believe me!
What made Sir Alex special was the way he would tweak things each year. That’s what Pep does now and he has been amazing.
Harry Redknapp
The Crazy Gang would be hammering on your door, scream at players in the tunnel, and really get stuck in.
How City and the modern lot would have coped with that, I’m not sure.
It’s why it always makes me laugh when people say the best players from back in the day wouldn’t be able to handle the speed of the game now.
That’s rubbish. If anything it should be the other way round, because back then you were doing it ankle deep in mud at times, with tackles that would make your eyes water.
What made Sir Alex so special was the way he would tweak things each year, just bring in one or two and off they’d go again. And he also knew when to sell them as well.
To be fair, that’s what Pep does now and he has been amazing. But recruitment was totally different in Fergie’s day.
He knew every player simply because the bulk of them were from Britain back then. And, of course, having so many from the youth team was something we’ll never see again.
I’m not one of those who would ever say, “Such and such a team from one era would beat such and such from another,” so I’m not getting into that debate.
And for the brilliant work he’s done at City, there may well come a time when we say Pep and his City team is the best ever.
But really, we should just make the most of watching them because there is one thing no one can argue with . . . they’re in a league of their own right now.