Iconic Moments in Football No.94
Alan Hansen was a fantastic centre back during his career, winning 25 major honours for Liverpool between 1977 and 1991. A year after retiring from the game, Hansen became one of the pundits on BBC’s Match of the Day.
With all of Hansen’s experience in the game, viewers took his opinions very seriously. However there would be one statement that the former Liverpool captain made on the first Match of the Day of the 1995/96 season that would backfire on him. It left him with egg on his face at the end of the campaign and is still talked about to this day.
Manchester United had won the first two Premier League titles before losing their crown to Blackburn Rovers on the final day of the 1994/95 season. Their team was made of players who knew how to win and had been playing top flight football for years.
Over the summer of 1995, manager Alex Ferguson decided to sell three of his better players. Paul Ince was sold to Inter Milan, Andrei Kanchelskis went to Everton and Mark Hughes left Old Trafford for Chelsea. United’s fans began to worry when these big name players were leaving the club but with no one coming in.
Ferguson had an ace up his sleeve. His youth team had been as successful as the first team and had won the FA Youth Cup in 1992. A few of the players had already played in the first team in cup games or covering for the more experienced players.
Two like-for-like players came into the first team for the first game of the 1995/96 season. Nicky Butt replaced Paul Ince in the centre of the midfield. David Beckham stepped up to replace Andrei Kanchelskis on the right wing. Attacking midfielder Paul Scholes also joined the first team squad with brothers Gary and Phil Neville, who were both full backs.
On a baking hot afternoon at Villa Park, Manchester United were torn apart by Aston Villa. They were resoundingly beaten 3-1 and even the most ardent Alex Ferguson fan would have been questioning his decisions. On Match of the Day that evening, Alan Hansen was given the chance to give his opinion on the plight of the club who had been a rival of Liverpool’s during his playing days.
When asked by host Des Lynam what he thought about Ferguson’s decision to trust his young players instead of dipping into the transfer market and buying big-name stars, Hansen voiced his concerns about Manchester United’s prospect for the season ahead.
“Obviously three players have departed. The trick is always ‘Buy when you’re strong’. So he (Alex Ferguson) needs to buy players. You can’t win anything with kids! You look at that line up of Manchester United today and Aston Villa at quarter past two when they get the team sheet, it’ll give them a lift. It’ll happen every time he plays the kids, he’s got to buy players!”
As we all know, Hansen was proved very wrong indeed. United won the League and Cup double in the 1995/96 season. The Neville brothers, Butt, Scholes and Beckham became regulars in the first team for many years and won every trophy going.
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