Alternative Football History Part VIII – Newcastle United win the 1995/96 Premiership!
In the first part of this article, Newcastle United won the 1995/96 Premiership title and Alex Ferguson was about to start a complete rebuilding of the Manchester United squad.
The United manager sat and watched Euro ’96, putting together a list of players that he wanted to bring in before the start of the 1996/97 campaign.
He also wanted to off-load a couple of players, telling the press that he wanted more bring more experience to Old Trafford. What followed was a real transfer merry-go-round amongst sever Premiership clubs!
Phil Neville joined Everton for £4 million and Nicky Butt went to champions Newcastle United in a deal worth £5 million.
Alan Shearer was then brought in from Premiership rivals Blackburn Rovers for a British record of £15 million. Rovers used part of this money to buy Patrick Kluivert from Ajax for £9 million and Tottenham’s Teddy Sheringham for £8 million.
Tottenham signed a young Norwegian striker from Molde called Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to replace Sheringham. No one had ever heard of Solskjaer so it was a real gamble to bring him for the England front man.
Ferguson now needed a left-back to replace Phil Neville and plumped for Frank de Boer from Ajax. The Dutchman cost £6 million but Ferguson hadn’t stopped there!
Karel Poborsky and Jordi Cruyff were brought in before his and final signing was made, bringing Darren Anderton in from Tottenham Hotspur, in exchange for David Beckham.
Manchester United’s first game of the league season was away at Everton and they lost the game 3-0. Darren Anderton picked up a knee injury on his debut and was replaced by Jordi Cruyff after only 23 minutes. The injury kept the England man out until February.
Things went from bad to worse as Blackburn were next and they won 2-1 at Old Trafford thanks to a brace from Patrick Kluivert. Frank de Boer over-hit a backpass to Peter Schmeichel and Kluivert ran in to score a trap-in from six yards for the winning goal.
It took Alan Shearer six games to finally find the back of the net. He scored twice in 4-0 win at his former club Southampton, Eric Cantona netting the other two goals. This was United’s fourth win in a row and it looked like things were on the up as they were third in the table.
Meanwhile, Blackburn were top of the table with maximum points, having scored 15 goals. Patrick Kluivert and Teddy Sheringham had scored eleven between them and Chris Sutton had scored two coming off the bench.
Reigning Newcastle were second in the league and former United midfielder Nicky Butt had already scored twice. Tottenham were doing well in fourth, with new-boy Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scoring twice in the first six games.
Newcastle lead the league table halfway through the campaign, Blackburn were second, Arsenal third, Liverpool fourth and Manchester United well off the pace in fifth. Ferguson’s men had also been knocked out of the Champions League after losing their final group game 5-2 to Borussia Dortmund.
By the end of the season, Blackburn Rovers had won the league, Kluivert and Sheringham having scored 68 of their 83 league goals.
Manchester United finished in 9th place, Alan Shearer only managed 12 goals all season. Alex Ferguson took most of the blame for breaking up the team too quickly.
Eric Cantona shocked the footballing world and retired from the game and Alex Ferguson resigned from his job a week later.
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