[Red Devil]

Part Eight: 2000 - 2007

Manchester United started the new decade, century and millennium in typical pioneering fashion. They entered a brand new competition – the FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil – but at the expense of their participation in the FA Cup, of which they were the holders. A controversial issue at the time. The Government had been approached by FIFA to provide a team for this competition, but the dates involved clashed with the domestic FA cup. It was decided to ask United to forego their place in the cup in favour of the competition, as ambassadors for England. The storm that followed ensured the backing away of the government, leaving United, alone, to take the ensuing flak from the media. Darlington were the team selected at random to fill United's position in round 3.

The January jaunt to South America didn't result in any silverware – beating the Brazilian sides in their own backyard and stifling climate was a bridge too far – but it gave the Reds valuable relaxation time in the sun. Rejuvenated by this, they raced ahead of their rivals in the title race when they returned to England. They achieved their sixth Premiership title early, in April, and still without a convincing replacement for Peter Schmeichel.

Several goalkeepers including Mark Bosnich tried and failed to establish themselves during the 1999/2000 season. So it was hardly surprising when Fabien Barthez joined United in July 2000, fresh from adding the European Championships crown to his World Cup winners medal.

The eccentric but brilliant French goalkeeper helped United to win their third successive title in 2000/01, a feat that had previously been achieved by only a handful of clubs in England. Liverpool had been the last team to do it, in 1982, 1983 and 1984, but this was under the supervision of two different managers – Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.

Sir Alex Ferguson had been at the helm for all three of United's back-to-back titles, and was therefore the first manager in English football to achieve the hat-trick. On the back of this latest trophy, Fergie announced he would be retiring from management at the end of the 2001/02 season. Meanwhile, his right-hand man Steve McClaren announced he would be leaving immediately to replace Bryan Robson as Middlesbrough manager. (McClaren went to to manage England in 2006/7, but only survived a short time).

Ferguson filled the gap left by McClaren by promoting ex-players Jim Ryan and Mike Phelan to the posts of assistant manager and first team coach respectively. But Sir Alex then created another troublesome void by offloading star defender Jaap Stam to Lazio in a transfer that took everyone by surprise, including the player! This was due to comments made in a book recently published, and Ferguson took offence and, within hours, had sold Stam.

One of Barthez's World Cup-winning team-mates, Laurent Blanc, joined United on a free transfer to play in Stam's position and forge a new partnership with Wes Brown, Gary Neville or Ronny Johnsen. Many people assumed Blanc would be Fergie's last signing as United manager, especially after the expensive acquisitions of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Juan Sebastian Veron. But Sir Alex splashed the cash again in January 2002, to sign Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan from Independiente.

It was difficult to see where Forlan would fit in, given that van Nistelrooy had just set a new Premiership record by scoring in eight consecutive league games. United had won all those games to rejoin the title race, having previously lost more matches (six by early December) than was usual for their trail-blazing standards. Forlan was never going to settle into the squad and played a peripheral role for a couple of years before being sold to Valencia where he won the golden boot!! Fate is a strange bedfellow! His main claim to fame, and for which he will always be fondly remembered by United fans, is the two goals he scored at Anfield against liverpool.

Manchester United went on to win that year, and claimed the 2002/03 Title. Next Season , two of arguably the best midfielders in the world, Juan Sebastian Veron, midfield star of Argentina, and David Beckham left the club for London and Madrid making many fans angry with their manager. Ferguson had become annoyed at the media circus that always surrounded Beckham, in particular when he courted and married former Spice Girl, pop star, "Posh" Spice. His decision, in hindsight, was spot on, as David Beckham was becoming faded on the field, only producing his expertise in sporadic moments in the odd game. His replacement was soon to turn the spotlight well and truly full on Old Trafford again.

United however tried to infuse fresh players into the squad, with the addition of wonderkid Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon, replacement for David Beckham and the new incumbent of the famous 7 Shirt; a confident midfielder in Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson, not to mention the safe hands of American keeper Tim Howard. Although Djemba Djemba and Kleberson failed to impress and soon left the club.

The 2003/04 Season belonged to Arsenal and United finished a distant third falling behind Chelsea. This was the lowest United had ever been at the end of a Premiership season. United have also failed to impress in the CL, losing to Porto and Milan in the knockout phases and finishing at the bottom of the group phase in successive seasons.

Since then, Chelsea had "bought" their way to two back to back titles, in 2004/05 and 2005/06 with the aquisition of Chelsea by Russian Billionaire, Roman Abramovitch. Their titles were sour, many fans pouring scorn on a club that had completely bought practically two whole teams "off the shelf". During this time United raided Everton for one of their young up and coming goal scoring machines, Wayne Rooney.


The season 2006/2007 saw the tables turned with United having an excellent domestic season winning the Premiership title again. But in Europe, AC Milan knocked United out in the Semi finals. This season also marked 20 years of Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford. United signed Anderson, a Brazilian midfielder, England International Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich and Nani, a young left winger, from Sporting Lisbon.

Season 2007/2008 became underway with United having a slow start before gaining momentum, topping the league in October. United actually conceded no goals in the league in September. Chelsea, or Chelski as they became unofficially known could not keep up the chase and Abramovitch, to the surprise of many, parted company with his manager and appointed relatively unknown Israeli to the position. At this point Chelsea visited Old Trafford and lost 2-0. Arsenal were the early front runners heading towards Christmas. United currently have 20 internationals in their line up.

The 5000th game for United was on 8th December 2007 v Derby County at Old Trafford. United won 4-1.

At the turning point of the year a win against West Ham at Upton Park would have seen us cross into 2008 on top of the Premiership, unfortunately we went down 2-1 after being 1-0 up. Arsenal won pushing United off top slot. In the third round of the FA cup United travelled to Villa Park and came away with a 2-0 win.


2008 continues after Salford Reds posts. I had to delete some posts for continuity's sake ................