OLIVER HOLT: The 1999 treble-winning Man United team IS the equal of this Man City side

There is a passage in Matt Dickinson’s brilliant book ‘1999: Manchester United, the Treble and All That’ which recalls a snatched interview with Peter Schmeichel at an airport check-in counter for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final in 1997 with Borussia Dortmund.

Asked to compare the United side he played in to Sir Matt Busby’s great team that won the European Cup in 1968, Schmeichel made thoughtful comments about the pace of the modern game and improvements in player fitness and fitness, concluding: ‘We would beat them 10-0.’

Schmeichel did not mean dismissively. He merely noted that the game had progressed over the course of nearly 30 years. He was wrongly accused by some of being disrespectful. George Best said the comments were offensive. A debate raged then ebbed as United lost to their German opponents.

The echoes of that debate echoed in football’s tribal discourse this weekend, as Manchester City were one win away from emulating United’s 1998-99 Treble-winning performance. They will face Internazionale in the Champions League final in Istanbul on Saturday for the right to become the only English side to match United’s performance.

Many, predictably, have been in a hurry to belittle Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in comparison to Pep Guardiola’s stunning, glamorous City side that cruised to the Premier League title, sidelined United in Saturday’s FA Cup final and Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Madrid passed in Europe.

I am not one of them and no matter what happens at Atatürk Stadium on the weekend, I will never be.

This City team are a great side but whatever they achieve and whatever the outcome of the 115 Premier League attacks the club faces it won’t diminish the magnitude of United’s Treble and the impact that Ferguson side had to all those who witnessed the march on history.

Reporting on that United team and that 1998-1999 campaign in particular felt like a blessing, not only because of the quality of the squad, but also because of the incredible drama it unleashed and the significance it had.

It is now easy to forget that after the horrors of the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, English clubs were banned from European competition for five years and that when United played Bayern Munich in Barcelona in the 1999 final, no English team had won the league since 1984.

It was a different culture than today, in which English teams regularly win and reach the final of the tournament. At the time, it felt like United were once again pioneering English teams in Europe, as they had been in the 1950s.

Greatness in a squad takes many forms and that team’s pursuit of history, the bid to become the first United team to win the trophy since Busby’s team of Best, Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles lifted it 31 years earlier , added to the sense of destiny and achievement.

What a team that was too. A goalkeeper in Schmeichel who seemed to be setting new standards for stopping shots and controlling his area and drafting his defense and a midfield on par with any midfield that has ever graced the game.

In English club football, the Liverpool midfield that won the 1981 final – Sammy Lee, Terry McDermott, Graeme Souness and Ray Kennedy – were breathtakingly good and although suspensions saw the side field like this in Barcelona, ​​David Beckham, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were just about the perfect unity in that 98-99 United season.

Beckham’s hubris and hunger, Keane’s relentless energy, drive and determination. Scholes’ passing and reading of the game and Giggs’ brilliant dribbling and running away all made United a joy to watch and opponents almost impossible to stop.

United’s greatness that season was also defined by their opponents, something Guardiola’s City side have, through no fault of their own, been lacking this season. United beat a great Arsenal team in the league and in a classic FA Cup semi-final replay.

In the Champions League they beat a fantastic Juventus team with Zinedine Zidane in his splendor, Edgar Davids, Antonio Conte and Didier Deschamps and they came from 2-0 down in the second leg of their semi-final at the Stadio delle Alpi to do it. And we all know what happened at the Nou Camp in the final.

So, I’m sorry, but if you’re tempted to curse that United side with faint praise, if you’re inclined to laugh at the idea that they can’t be considered the equal of this City team, then are you a fool.

The Ferguson side won it all and they won it with panache and audacity and resilience and a spirit that had to be seen to be believed. Guardiola’s City are so good they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. As praise goes, that’s as good as it gets.

Jose Mourinho was once a great manager, but I find it increasingly difficult to discern the redeeming qualities that others see in him as a coach.

His criminal behavior towards Anthony Taylor and other match officials during and after Roma’s defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League final last week is one thing, but the reality is that he’s actually not very successful anymore either.

I keep reading about the renaissance he has experienced in the Italian capital, but the last time I looked at the Serie A table, Roma had finished sixth, 27 points behind champions Napoli and 11 points behind the best team in Rome, Lazio.

The truth is that Mourinho is an increasingly bitter, outraged repeat offender who looks more and more like a man of his time. The strength of an ugly personality still seems to hang over the cracks of a faltering career.

Manchester City opponents are obsessed with how to stop Erling Haaland. As soon as they think they’ve found a solution, they become obsessed with how to stop Kevin de Bruyne.

Then they worry about Jack Grealish. If Internazionale is smart, maybe they will also pay some attention to Ilkay Gundogan.

More than anyone on Pep Guardiola’s side, he comes up with the big goals when it matters most.

Manchester United have made significant strides forward under Erik ten Hag and it was to their credit that they stayed within a Manchester City goal in the FA Cup final.

However, the result did not camouflage the fact that United look far from being able to challenge City over the course of a Premier League season.

They must buy several real quality players over the summer to close the gap, a task made more difficult by the painstaking sales process orchestrated by the Glazers, who seem determined to hobble the club to the bitter end of their tenure.

The Manchester United fan who wore a shirt with a disgusting message on it during the FA Cup final, referring to the Hillsborough disaster, is not representative of the club’s fan base.

He unfortunately represents a minority of fans at many clubs who continue to think it is fair to refer to tragedies that have befallen opponents.

Such people should be banned from football grounds and free society for good, long enough for them to reflect on the pain their actions cause.