TEDDY SHERINGHAM: it’s a pleasure to be ranked alongside this phenomenal Man City side
TEDDY SHERINGHAM: Only special teams win the Treble – it’s a pleasure to stand alongside this phenomenal Man City team
- Manchester City have earned the treble after a phenomenal season
- It’s an honor for my 1999 Man United side to stand next to them
- Pep Guardiola has taken City to a new level, I would have loved to play for him
Treble is talked about around March in most seasons when Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester City are doing well and I’ve always thought, ‘No, I don’t really want them to do it’.
But with this City team you almost felt it was inevitable because they are so good. Honestly, it’s a pleasure for our 1999 team to stand next to them and vice versa because they are phenomenal. It does not affect our performance.
Only special teams can do it. I watched the game on Saturday night and heard Guardiola say how incredibly difficult it is to win the Treble. What we did was brilliant and the same goes for City.
Would our United have beaten Pep’s team? We’ll never know, of course, and there’s so little to choose between us, it might have depended on the referee.
We could do a little bit of everything and Sir Alex Ferguson was one of the first to embrace the team system with four strikers he could call on at different times. Some of the challenges that were considered reasonable 20 years ago can now be punished.
Man City won the Champions League and achieved a historic Treble after beating Inter Milan
It takes a special squad to win the treble, and Pep Guardiola’s men have been phenomenal
It’s a pleasure for the 1999 Manchester United squad I played in to be alongside them
Some of the challenges we faced back then wouldn’t be allowed today, but we had a few more close calls than this City side
On the other hand, City plays with a lot of flair and those players are protected by the officials. I feel we had a few more close calls than City in 1999.
Our games against Arsenal and Juventus were epics swinging from one side to the other, while City steamrollered Bayern Munich and Real Madrid to the Champions League final.
We had a strong group so you wouldn’t have written us off against anyone and by the way, the same goes for the ’80s Liverpool team I grew up with.
They too must be talking about ‘biggest ever’.
I would have loved to play for Guardiola. Even now I would like to be a fly on the wall and hear how it works. He has taken City to the next level and is unwilling to stop now.
He needs a rest, rightly so, but in three weeks he will start making plans again. I like to listen to his ideas.
