I think he undoubtedly brought Manchester United on a level when he first came to the club but his achievements since 1999 are infrequent and unspectacular. Premiership clubs have more cash than anyone else at the moment - he should be delivering success in Europe but the reality is he hasn’t even come close recently.
United got to a semi final of the Champions League and only cause of an defensive injury crisis at the back probbably cost them a final apperance. United play entertaining football and that is their downfall in Europe. Two defensive midfielders is the way to go apparently and with Hargreaves signed I can see this happening next season. Scholes is probbably going to find himself on the bench more and more next season. Against Leverkusen in 2002 they were there for the taking and the width of post cost United a final place. In 04 a referee disallowed a perfectly good goal from Scholes against Porto that would have seen United beat Porto and go on to have a great chance of winning it that season seeing as the final was Porto Monaco.
I think since 99 the only team to win their domestic league and Champions league is Barca. You have to sacrifice one for the other. Liverpool finished 5th in 2005 and won the Champions League. Arsenal 4th and lost it and of course Liverpool lost it when they finished 3rd.
for the biggest club in the world to win the CL once in tweny years is terrible
Real won it with an attacking team & so did Barca
They were comprehensively outplayed in Milan. The defensive injury crisis didn’t cause them to be utterly outplayed by Milan in midfield. Are you saying that if they had all their defenders they’d have been in the final but they couldn’t have beaten Liverpool with only one defensive midfielder?
There’s plenty of hypotheticals in what you’ve written EoE but they haven’t even reached another final since they won it. That suggests they’re off the mark.
If Ferguson thinks Hargreaves will on its own turn that team into European winners he’s sadly wrong. Why didn’t they need 2 defensive midfielders in 1999? Why didn’t Barcelona need two defensive midfielders last season?