AND SO THE awful prospect for Manchester United hovers into view, that of their City rivals robbing their patent on the The Treble.
Teams have set out to emulate United’s nigh-unfathomable achievement since the turn of the century and all – including later iterations of United themselves – have so far failed.
There have been trebles – Liverpool’s cups in 2001; Man City’s domestic troika in 2018/19 – but there hasn’t been The Treble. Nobody has so far matched United in winning the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League.
“Every year, a team tries to win a treble”, says Denis Irwin, speaking to The 42 at LiveScore’s Uefa Champions League Fan Event in Dublin.”This year it just seems more doable.”
City are two games from a claim on English football’s ultimate status, but all is not yet lost for United as they can protect their copyright with a win in today’s FA Cup final.
When it is put to Irwin whether he wants United to win today to stop City’s Treble, he replies, “Yeah, that’s the selfish point of view. It’s just the way it is.
“ I know [Erik] Ten Hag has said he wants to do it for his legacy, from a selfish point of view I hope he does do it for his legacy. It’s a great game. Two Manchester clubs in an FA Cup final – it could be carnage as there’s no rail travel on Friday or Saturday – but it will be good.”
Irwin will be among tens of thousands of people flocking south from Manchester on a fleet of buses and segregated motorways. (City fans have been advised to take the M1; United supporters the M6.) Those travelling down will take different routes in different colours, but will share that same blend of horrifying excitement ahead of kick-off. Emotions will only be separated on the roads back home.
The two clubs have also taken very different routes to their treble tilts, too. City’s has thus far been a frictionless glide down a straight, smooth road, whereas United’s resembled the final level of Super Mario Bros.
“The difference between looking at it now and remembering back to ’99″, reflects Irwin, “I felt we had to win every game as Arsenal were right down our neck in the league, and it went to the last game at Old Trafford where we had to win. City have overtaken Arsenal and while I wouldn’t say they won it at a canter in the end, they could rest a few players, which I think will be good for them.
“We were a bit unfortunate – more than unfortunate - that we had two big suspensions for the Champions League final. They have a clear run at it. All of these things count for a lot but they are a very, very good side. It happened in 10 days for us, very quickly, whereas this is more spread out. The Champions League was four days after the Cup final back in ’99 and the Cup final was six days after winning the league, so it all came very, very quickly.”
Irwin says the entire crescendo to ’99 was “a blur”, and 10 days before the final whistle was blown in the Champions League final, United had won nothing. They beat Tottenham on the final day to win the league by a single point, and six days later won the FA Cup by beating Newcastle 2-0. Four days after that came That Famous Night in Barcelona and Football, Bloody Hell.
City, meanwhile, officially won the Premier League title on 20 May, fully two weeks before the second leg of their Treble tilt. It may be a stretch to say it will affect them, but City have had a long time to dwell on the prospect of winning the Treble or, perhaps more importantly, on the prospect of not winning it.
Another obvious difference between the two is where United’s treble was the stuff of the improbable. City’s is built on the probable.
“The one thing about us that year, we had great belief in ourselves”, says Irwin, “we always knew we could score goals. And we showed great resilience to come back. We always scored in the last minute. When you look at the Spurs game where we were 1-0 down and came back to win, and then in the Champions League final came back to win.”
City’s season has been awesome but it has left a swathe of certain neutrals cold, and perhaps the reason for this is found in comparison to United’s season in ’99: City have been so dominant that they haven’t needed to resort to United-style resilience and spirit. In other words, they haven’t used the stuff that money can’t buy.
For instance, United spent longer behind in the 1999 Champions League final than City have across all games in all competitions since losing to Spurs on 5 February.
City’s squad depth has helped their glide to this point, though the differences with United of ’99 are not as stark as you might think. United used a total of 24 players across the three competitions in 1999, where City have thus far used 25 players.
The City workload has been slightly less, however. Eight of the United squad made more than 40 starts in 1999 (Schmeichel, Gary Neville, Keane, Beckham, Stam, Yorke, Irwin, and Cole) whereas only three City players (Ederson, Rodri, and Haaland) have started more than 40 games across the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League so far this season.
City have already vastly outscored United’s treble winners across the relevant three competitions, scoring 142 goals (with another two games left) compared to United’s total of 123. Of City’s total, Erling Haaland has scored an absurd 52 goals, which is only one fewer than the haul of United’s two top scorers of 99 (Yorke and Cole) combined.
City have generally more dominant this season than United were in ’99: United’s treble winners won 11 games by three or more goals, whereas City’s equivalent is 22 (so far).
As for any other differences between the two seasons…well, City do have the unique point of difference in chasing their treble beneath the shadow of a Premier League accusation that they have committed 115 breaches of Financial Fair Play rules. Nobody has matched them for that kind of background drama.
City are overwhelming favourites today and against Inter Milan in Istanbul next weekend, but perhaps United’s best chance of winning is to take City into a place of deep stress to examine whether they have those same, intangible qualities that so defined the treble winners of 1999.
Irwin, by the way, doesn’t have his medals from ’99 as he has donated them to the Manchester United museum. “The safest place to have them I think”, he says.
His and his team-mates achievement will always be safe, but its exclusivity is facing its greatest threat yet.
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