It was in September 2009, only a year after Abu Dhabi’s purchase of Manchester City, that English football’s most listened to and revered voice offered an opinion on the future of the game in his adopted town.
Sitting behind a desk in Manchester United’s academy building, beneath photographs of the players who had helped him construct his empire, Sir Alex Ferguson was asked whether City would ever come to dominate, whether his own club would ever face their neighbours as underdogs.
‘Not in my lifetime,’ Ferguson replied, with face as straight as Deansgate.
Back then, United and City literally sat side by side, their training grounds jostling for space at Carrington, a vast swathe of land sitting just off the M60 motorway to the south-west of Manchester. As Ferguson spoke that day, City’s players could almost have heard the dismissiveness of his tone over the fence.
Now City reside in their expansive footballing palace on the other side of town, a temple built by Abu Dhabi money and testimony to not only a shift in the balance of power that was to come much more quickly than even Ferguson ever suspected but also their current and established standing as English football’s dominant force.
Manchester United are defending the treble and the heroes of the famous 1999 triumph
Having already won the Premier League, Man City could emulate United’s Treble success
Alex Ferguson couldn’t predict what would happen to United’s city rivals back in 2009
United may privately question the legitimacy of the investment on which City’s modern success has been built but the thing that really makes them seethe is the steady accumulation of trophies that has gradually turned Manchester from red to blue. Seven Premier League titles, two FA Cups, six League Cups.
It turns out Ferguson was in denial all those years ago. Two days after he spoke, United edged City 4-3 at Old Trafford in a thrilling derby game. But City were coming and deep down he knew it.
Now, thirteen-and-a-half years later, Pep Guardiola’s team stand on the threshold of crashing through the last remaining barrier, of destroying the uniqueness of one of the achievements their great rivals have always held most dear.
Along with the lifting of the 1968 European Cup, a decade after the Munich disaster, nothing defines United quite like Ferguson’s 1999 treble of league, FA Cup and Champions League.
But City already have this season’s Premier League, their fifth in six seasons, and it is presumed – rightly or wrongly – they will beat Inter Milan – Italy’s third-best team – in next Saturday’s European final in Istanbul. And that brings us to today, the first ever all-Manchester FA Cup final, a game that may one day be viewed as pivotal in terms of how we view one of football’s most enduring rivalries.
If United under Ferguson was all about the winning, today is different. United already have twelve FA Cups. This, strangely, feels as though it is about stopping City winning. Today United’s players are more than footballers in this story. They are charged with trying to repel City’s assault on their own club’s unique legacy. They are, as grand as it sounds, the only ones who can protect and enshrine United’s place in English football history.
This Thursday, about 300 yards away from where Ferguson spoke that day in 2009, a slight, unremarkable looking Dutch coach sat in a different building and addressed the challenging notion of how to stop a juggernaut.
Erik ten Hag’s introduction to the might of Manchester City was brutal. When his United team faced them at the Etihad Stadium last October, they lost 6-3 on a Sunday afternoon when the score line was actually generous to the losers.
Erik ten Hag is charged with both winning the cup and preventing Man City’s treble charge
Manchester United were humbled by their rivals in the first meeting this season, losing 6-3
Ten Hag, 53, has little of Ferguson’s aura, none of his abrasive machismo. But, different to the four full-time United managers that separate his United time from Ferguson’s, he already has behind him a body of work at Old Trafford that points to a possible return to relevance and genuine standing. That day at City was sobering and there have been others. 7-0 at Liverpool, for example. Weaknesses and frailties remain.
In old United money, a third placed Premier League finish and a League Cup win would not have counted for much. However, the ten years since Ferguson stood aside have been so fallow, so desperately ugly, that an FA Cup victory this afternoon would add to the growing feeling that Ten Hag’s presence at England’s biggest football club may yet transpire to be genuinely transformative.
Ten Hag’s English is not yet perfect and he is not a natural orator, neither in his own language or his adopted one. On Thursday, though, he was clear that he would not play to the theme of the day. This is not about Manchester City, he said.
‘We want to win a cup,’ said Ten Hag.
‘It is not about stopping City, it is about trying to win the cup against a great opponent.
‘Extra motivation is not necessary. It will not give more motivation for the team because their motivation is already enough. It can’t be more.
‘They want to win a cup and they have an opportunity. They want to set a crown on the season so what do you need more? What is more motivation?’
Ten Hag is insistent that he wants to mark United’s 2022-23 with a cup double triumph
United must stop 52-goal Erling Haaland (left) who scored a hat-trick against them in October
Ten Hag’s reluctance to embellish today’s story is understandable. It’s his job to win an important trophy, not contribute to a theme that only serves to make a big day feel even bigger. Managers are paid to release pressure from the shoulders of their players, not add to the load.
Nevertheless, if United can win at Wembley then it will be a victory that the club’s supporters celebrate in song for years to come. English teams have rarely come close to what City are seeking to achieve over the course of the next week.
Liverpool almost got there first only for United to beat them in the 1977 FA Cup final. The Merseyside club threatened again last season only to end up with just one of the three trophies they craved, this one.
Asked if he understood the significance in terms of United’s history, Ten Hag said: ‘Yes I know. I know what is the thinking from the fans.
‘But what we want is to restore Manchester United by winning trophies so on Saturday we have an opportunity to win a trophy and we don’t want to be distracted by anything.
‘If it is important for the fans it is important for us so we will give everything to win the cup.’
Ten Hag may be different to Ferguson but the two men have spoken regularly this season. Some of the decisions made by the former Ajax coach have mirrored the great man’s decisiveness and have undoubtedly shaped a season that grew from a dreadful start – a home loss to Brighton and a 4-0 embarrassment at Brentford – in to something on which he can expect and hope to build.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s time at Old Trafford feels as though it passed eons ago but it was not until mid-winter that Ten Hag eased him out of the door. Equally the removal of Harry Maguire, the club captain, from his defence has proved as crucial as it was ruthless.
The Dutchman could take his first steps towards restoring United’s legacy with a cup double
On Saturday at Wembley, Ten Hag’s United will need to be at their very best. While United’s treble of 1999 came laced with dramatic, ‘I was there’ moments such as Ryan Giggs’ FA Cup semi-final goal against Arsenal and Roy Keane’s tour de force performance at Juventus, City’s progress has been jarringly serene.
Their league title came with games to spare while they were presented with a route to Istanbul involving knock-out ties against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid only to sweep them aside like a cat pawing pieces from an abandoned chess board.
For Ten Hag, hope comes via the fact he has pace in his team – Marcus Rashford is fit even though Anthony Martial is not – and that United have beaten City once already this season.
Their 2-1 win over City at Old Trafford in January was controversial – Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser probably should not have stood – but it was a victory all the same.
‘I wouldn’t explain it in that way, as lucky,’ Ten Hag said.
‘Because I have also seen the statistics and XGs (expected goals) from that game and it was really on our side.
‘The belief is the difference. In the Etihad game we didn’t show belief. In Old Trafford we were determined to win from the first moment on.
‘It is up to us that we show the same belief this time.’
Bruno Fernandes’ goal against Man City in January drew controversy over an offside call
On stage in London earlier this week Sir Alex Ferguson stood and engaged with both faces of his club’s local rivals. At the League Manager’s Association annual awards, the manager of the year award that is named after him was won by City’s Pep Guardiola.
On a big screen, Guardiola articulated his gratitude in a recorded message. In the actual room, City’s chief operating officer Omar Berrada joined Ferguson on stage.
If Guardiola symbolises the beauty of City’s football, Berrada – with his American accent and business background – is the face of the English champions’ immense corporate power.
To United it all adds up to the same. A threat. Much may change at Old Trafford this summer as the Glazers’ protracted and tedious sale of the club lumbers on but the scale of the challenge when it comes to closing the gap on City remains the same.
In the long-term, it is a daunting task. Guardiola may have referenced Ferguson as the greatest of all time in his acceptance speech at the LMA dinner but the Catalan knows what we all know, namely that he has taken City so far in to the distance ahead of United it’s a wonder they can still see them.
History is not all that United have on their side. They have standing. They have a fanbase that continues to grow. Finally, they have a manager seemingly capable of taking them forwards for the duration.
Pep Guardiola was this week named LMA Manager of the Year, and was presented the award by Sir Alex Ferguson
Ferguson’s achievements included 13 league tiles and five FA Cups as boss of Man Utd
But much of what United and their supporters continue to hold dear is wrapped up in Ferguson and all that he achieved. Thirteen league titles. Five FA Cups. Two Champions Leagues. A treble.
So today, for once, is not about the future. It’s not about steady improvement or a stepping stone back to the top. It’s about the here and now. It’s about immediacy and the short-term. It’s about the neighbours and putting a block in the road.
United are far from where they need to be but today at Wembley they have an opportunity to protect something so special and cherished that it sits at the very heart of their football club.
Guardiola’s City may be the eminent team of our times and maybe even of some of our lifetimes. But the delicious thing about today and the week ahead is that, statistically at least, they probably have to win a treble if they are to prove it.
United, for one day only, hold the power.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk