Gary Neville reckons a few of the current Manchester United team could get into the all-conquering 1999 team.
18 years ago, United were about to complete an incredible, unprecedented treble, winning the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side made football history in style and dramatic fashion, winning a series of games in the dying minutes, including the Champions League final in Barcelona.
They played exhilarating, attacking football and were blessed with quality in every position on the field.
The current United side have spent most of the season in sixth place and face a fight to qualify for the Champions League, never mind win it again. Jose Mourinho’s side might be expensively assembled, but they have failed to convince or put away weaker sides.
Ferguson’s team had Roy Keane.
The current side has Marouane Fellaini.
The 1999 side had homegrown stars like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.
Mourinho has Jesse Lingard.
You would think there’s no comparison between the two teams, and that hardly any of the current crop would make it into United’s 1999 team.
However, Neville, who played in the treble-winning side, reckons a few from Mourinho’s squad would be good enough to play for Ferguson’s side.
“I think there’s quite a few who would be able to play in that team,” Neville told Omnisport.
“You have to remember, these players now it might be that they’re not as good of a team yet as the 1999 side, but individually there are some outstanding players in the current squad that could play in that team no doubt.”
“There are some outstanding players. Ibrahimovic, [Wayne] Rooney, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, [Paul] Pogba, [Eric] Bailly, [Antonio] Valencia, [David] De Gea. They are all top players who can play at the highest level.
“Individually, you could definitely get to a point whereby one or two individuals could come into that team and still be very, very strong.”
Considering Wayne Rooney can’t get within an inch of Mourinho’s team, we can safely rule him out of contention for the ’99 team.
David de Gea is a great goalkeeper, but would probably have to play second fiddle to Peter Schmeichel.
You would imagine Ferguson could easily find a place for both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but it’s difficult to imagine Paul Pogba playing ahead of Scholes or Keane.
