Treble

[Handoyo]

When Man Utd beat Bayern Munich in 1999 for the Treble, they became the first team from Europe's Big 3 leagues to ever achieve that. I remembered that the everyone from the papers, players, coaches were all lauding that achievement because it had seemed impossible.

Fast forward 16 years, Barcelona have won their second Treble after beating Juventus in Berlin. What is interesting is, this Barca became the FOURTH side in SEVEN years to have done so. Guardiola's Barca did it in 2009, we did it in 2010, Heynckes' Bayern in 2013.

So much prestige have been lost in winning the Treble recently. More importantly too, it seems that the World of Football has become less competitive, with the usual suspects always steamrolling the opponents. And I don't think it will change any time soon, because whoever challenged the hegemony seems to have been one-hit wonders like the Atletico Madrids and Dortmunds of the recent years.

Hopefully it will change soon, because I'm getting kinda tired of seeing the same winners years after years. Unless of course it's Inter, although that remains an even further distant dream.

 

[ScottishInterista]

Gone are the days where it was mainly real who were the best big money team in europe and teams like Ajax were able to flourish, i see Chelsea as the first one of the big money teams, maybe thats cause where i live as i do know we were also criticised for being one as well

 

[.h.]

theres been a huge step up in quality across the board imho

consider the united side had fucking COLE and YORKE in it. Like what the FUCK? It wasnt even CLOSE to the top players in the world. Now they are way more consolidated than ever before..

 

[monster09]

theres been a huge step up in quality across the board imho

consider the united side had fucking COLE and YORKE in it. Like what the FUCK? It wasnt even CLOSE to the top players in the world. Now they are way more consolidated than ever before..

Step up in quality? Cole and Yorke were fantastic combination, some of the goals they scored was just superb. Football is more than just individual. Also Yorke was record transfer IIRC and Cole was big money signing too who was scoring for fun before joining ManUtd and Yorke was playing well for Villa and was ready to step up for big club.

ManUtd midfield was just brilliant. Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Keane with Stam and Great Dane in the defense. That was just brilliant team.

 

[.h.]

Step up in quality? Cole and Yorke were fantastic combination, some of the goals they scored was just superb. Football is more than just individual. Also Yorke was record transfer IIRC and Cole was big money signing too who was scoring for fun before joining ManUtd and Yorke was playing well for Villa and was ready to step up for big club.

ManUtd midfield was just brilliant. Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Keane with Stam and Great Dane in the defense. That was just brilliant team.

Sure, but Yorke and Cole were playing in the same era as Ronaldo, Vieri, a range of other TOP strikers.

Its like English people saying Shearer was world class. He was the best in England but he was a long way off top in the world.

I'm not saying that the United team was poor or anything, but my point is simply that football has consolidated the quality a lot more than in the 90s or early 00s. I mean, shit, Hazard, Oscar, Costa, bla bla bla in Chelsea... Augero, Silva, etc in City, you cant deny that the quality has been consolidated a lot more than it used to be.

interestingly, this was all really led by Chelsea who really kicked it off and got English clubs to step up their game.




Point in hand, Andy Cole only played 15 games for England - I couldnt imagine a striker who couldnt even get into their national team on a regular basis winning the CL for their club now.


Lets not forget that that United team also had players like Ronny Johnsen, Nicky Butt, and Blomqvist starting - pretty much as comic as Traore and Smicer for Liverpool lets be honest.



I dont know how you can deny that there has been a step up in quality. The money's gotten bigger and clubs compete harder and harder for top spot - look at Barca, who would have thought a trident would have cost £300 million a few years ago? Even Real aren't far off that now...

Welcome to the new world.

 

[TGDella]

Butt and Blonqvist weren't United first team players, they just started the '99 final because of injuries/suspensions. The Giggs-Scholes-Keane-Beckham midfield is my all time favourite, it was absolutely perfect for the old 4-4-2 system, had everything. I do take your overall point though.

 

[monster09]

Sure, but Yorke and Cole were playing in the same era as Ronaldo, Vieri, a range of other TOP strikers.

Its like English people saying Shearer was world class. He was the best in England but he was a long way off top in the world.

I'm not saying that the United team was poor or anything, but my point is simply that football has consolidated the quality a lot more than in the 90s or early 00s. I mean, shit, Hazard, Oscar, Costa, bla bla bla in Chelsea... Augero, Silva, etc in City, you cant deny that the quality has been consolidated a lot more than it used to be.

interestingly, this was all really led by Chelsea who really kicked it off and got English clubs to step up their game.




Point in hand, Andy Cole only played 15 games for England - I couldnt imagine a striker who couldnt even get into their national team on a regular basis winning the CL for their club now.


Lets not forget that that United team also had players like Ronny Johnsen, Nicky Butt, and Blomqvist starting - pretty much as comic as Traore and Smicer for Liverpool lets be honest.



I dont know how you can deny that there has been a step up in quality. The money's gotten bigger and clubs compete harder and harder for top spot - look at Barca, who would have thought a trident would have cost £300 million a few years ago? Even Real aren't far off that now...

Welcome to the new world.

Yeah I agree about top talents are consolidated more now than in 90s but disagree with the rest.

England caps shouldn't be used to judge quality, otherwise Barry, Heskey, Milner will be rated among top England players. IIRC Milner, Heskey and Barry have more England caps than Carrick, Bruce was never capped and Pallister won only 20 caps. England selection was always bizzare and this was at the time when ManUtd won 8 out of 11 league titles.

You can't have squad full of world class players, Ronny Johnsen, Nicky Butt, and Blomqvist were squad players and only Butt was used very often as he was more solid defensively.

First 11 was full of class players except 1 place.
Schmeichel, Neville, CB, Stam, Irwin, Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Beckham, Yorke, Cole

CB was sometimes Neville when Phil Neville was RB, Johnsen and Brown. That was only weak link in a team full of ManUtd legends.

8 players are legends in every right, Yorke Cole were debatable.

Like I said I agree with talents being consolidated but ManUtd treble team was pure class and amazing.

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Butt and Blonqvist weren't United first team players, they just started the '99 final because of injuries/suspensions. The Giggs-Scholes-Keane-Beckham midfield is my all time favourite, it was absolutely perfect for the old 4-4-2 system, had everything.

Exactly, for a 4-4-2 that was prefect team. All 4 of them were excellent passers and each one had at least 1 standout quality.

 

[wicked wizard]

Are you judging the whole world on the premier league? Because I remember serie a when I was a kid all the big were packed with world class players even the smaller teams had players that would be worth millions today.

 

[monster09]

Are you judging the whole world on the premier league? Because I remember serie a when I was a kid all the big were packed with world class players even the smaller teams had players that would be worth millions today.

And all 4 ManUtd midfielders rejected big money move to Madrid and Inter.

Moratti wanted to buy Scholes and Giggs. It was impossible to buy Scholes and for Giggs ManUtd rejected every move. Madrid wanted Keane and Spanish big 2 always tried to sign Beckham.

 

[TGDella]

Are you judging the whole world on the premier league? Because I remember serie a when I was a kid all the big were packed with world class players even the smaller teams had players that would be worth millions today.

that's the point - the best players are congregated in the big/rich clubs nowadays, so trebles are more frequent, hence none of those great Italian teams in 90s/early00s won a treble.

 

[.h.]

that's the point - the best players are congregated in the big/rich clubs nowadays, so trebles are more frequent, hence none of those great Italian teams in 90s/early00s won a treble.

Bingo. That's the whole point

 

[wicked wizard]

And all 4 ManUtd midfielders rejected big money move to Madrid and Inter.

Moratti wanted to buy Scholes and Giggs. It was impossible to buy Scholes and for Giggs ManUtd rejected every move. Madrid wanted Keane and Spanish big 2 always tried to sign Beckham.

Lol if Madrid really wanted them and even inter they would of been there. They wasn't good enough and popular enough to Madrid players at that time.

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that's the point - the best players are congregated in the big/rich clubs nowadays, so trebles are more frequent, hence none of those great Italian teams in 90s/early00s won a treble.

I personally think that they is not that many quality players these days. And the few quality ones end up at the same teams. The reason why champions league is predictable and boring these days.

 

[monster09]

Lol if Madrid really wanted them and even inter they would of been there. They wasn't good enough and popular enough to Madrid players at that time.
.

I can easily search and post the quotes from MM but it's of no use, so I'm not wasting my time on it.

 

[.h.]

I can definitely say that we tried to get Giggs - wasnt there a swap deal mooted at some point? I forget who it was for, like, Giggs/Zanetti or something in 01? I definitely remember that.

 

[wicked wizard]

I can easily search and post the quotes from MM but it's of no use, so I'm not wasting my time on it.

ye quotes so what. I was reading a paper the other week saying how he thought Scholes was overrated and joked about teams saying he was good then went on to go buy other players. He was good, but he wasn't that special.

 

[TGDella]

I personally think that they is not that many quality players these days. And the few quality ones end up at the same teams. The reason why champions league is predictable and boring these days.

Don't really think you can say that given the terrible Chelsea team which won it only a couple of seasons ago. It's a cup competition and big surprises still happen. Remains the pinnacle of football for me.

And Scholes was incredibly special.

 

[monster09]

ye quotes so what. I was reading a paper the other week saying how he thought Scholes was overrated and joked about teams saying he was good then went on to go buy other players. He was good, but he wasn't that special.

 

[wicked wizard]

Don't really think you can say that given the terrible Chelsea team which won it only a couple of seasons ago. It's a cup competition and big surprises still happen. Remains the pinnacle of football for me.

And Scholes was incredibly special.

ye, but the best players still end up at the same teams.

 

[ScottishInterista]

ye quotes so what. I was reading a paper the other week saying how he thought Scholes was overrated and joked about teams saying he was good then went on to go buy other players. He was good, but he wasn't that special.

Sounds like he was good enough

 

[wicked wizard]

You didn't even watch football in them days. You only watched youtube highlights from the old man united since 2011 when India finally got the Internet. So you're not the best to judge