“That sort of showed you how good the team was.”
Whether Manchester United will ever replicate their success from the 1990s and 2000s remains to be seen. But we doubt they’ll ever produce a crop of players like the Class of 92 again
Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Gary Neville and Phil Neville were the backbone of United’s most successful period, after coming through the youth ranks together.
They couldn’t have won all those trophies without players such as Roy Keane, Eric Cantona and Peter Schmeichel alongside them, but there’s no doubting Sir Alex Ferguson had a special group of players at his disposal.
This story by Keith Gillespie sums up just how good that youth team was.
The winger from Belfast made nine appearances for the club, and was on the fringes of the first team until he moved to Newcastle United as part of the transfer that took Andy Cole to Old Trafford in 1995.
Before that though, Gillespie was part of the United team that won the FA Youth Cup in 1992.
In a chat with Colin Murray, on new BBC 5 Live podcast series called At Home… with Colin Murray, which also features interviews with Jamie Carragher, Gary Lineker and Michael Carrick, Gillespie spoke about his time with the United youth team.
The Northern Irishman revealed that the Class of 92 once played the first team in a training game, and beat them 4-2. Considering this was the United team that won the Premier League in 1993 and the double the following season, that’s an impressive feat.
Oh, and Scholes chipped Schmeichel from 30 yards.
“(The) one thing I’ll always remember is Peter Schmeichel being chipped by Paul Scholes from about 30 yards, and we ended up beating them 4-2,” Gillespie said.
“You know, that sort of showed you how good the team was, because this was a Man United team which were in the middle of dominating everything. Playing against those people – Cantona, (Mark) Hughes, Schmeichel – unbelievable players. I’m sure they were a little bit worried, because we were the new kids on the block, and they’re maybe looking over their shoulders thinking, ‘Oh, he’s going to be taking my place soon'”
Gillespie also revealed that the United first team nicknamed the youth team “the dream team” and established players would often stay back to watch their games.
“I think they could sort of see that the players coming through, that we were a special group of players,” Gillespie said.
You can listen to Gillespie’s full chat with chat here, and the chat about the game against the first-team here:
‘Scholes chipped Schmeichel from 30 yards’@KeithGillespie7 on the Class of ’92 beating @ManUtd‘s first team
?️: https://t.co/0sHg8XhjFJ pic.twitter.com/GCix4JVnYM
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) June 16, 2017
