The Class of 92

1

(CROWD CHEERING)

COMMENTATOR 1:
Welcome to Barcelona.

Almost 100,000 people here

in the Nou Camp this evening.

It really is an extraordinary atmosphere.

COMMENTATOR 2:
But you do wonder

is fate now taking a hand

in Manchester United's destiny.

They have made their own luck

with their boldness and their adventure,

but they have had just enough luck

to stand here on the brink of history.

It's the chance of a lifetime.

A treble chance,

the likes of which no English team

has had before, or may ever get again.

QUEEN ELIZABETH III 1992

is not a year on which I shall look back

with undiluted pleasure.

MALE REPORTER:
One of

Manchester's busiest shopping streets,

suddenly a living hell.

A bomb planted in bushes

behind Kendals department store

showered office workers with flying glass.

(CLAMOURING)

FEMALE PROTESTER: Smash the poll tax

and smash the Tories

and in the end put an end

to this Tory government itself.

I've only got one thing to say,

it's nice to be back.

NEWS REPORTER:
Ll' is clear tonight

that it is no longer a matter of whether,

but when there is a royal divorce.

NEWS REPORTER:
England's shattered

players arrived back at the hotel.

A few hours later we once again saw

the dark face of English football.

It has turned out to be

an annus horribilis.

ALEX FERGUSON:
A club of this size,

one would expect at the platform, the stage,

everything is geared to doing very, very well.

And that very, very well

means winning the league.

The first thing I ever did

at United was buy a map.

I had a map on my wall at The Cliff

of Manchester.

And I got the scouts in.

I just wanted to make sure

that by getting the map,

that all the areas were covered.

I got all the scouts in and told them,

"I want the best boy on your team,

not the best boy on your street."

ERIC HARRISON:

I was a Man United supporter,

and it's extra special

when you get the coaching job there.

When Sir Alex took over, everybody realised

that he wanted a vibrant youth system.

And he said to me straight out,

as typically Sir Alex does,

he says, "I'm not entirely satisfied

with the youth system," you know.

He'd only been there

probably a few weeks, or a month.

I said, "Well, you know, we've had

Norman Whiteside through,

"and Mark Hughes through."

And he looked at me with those steely eyes

and he said, "That's not enough."

I said, "Do you know how many local scouts

Manchester City have got,

"and how many

Manchester United have got?"

When I told him, he was staggered,

he was absolutely staggered.

We'd only two scouts in Manchester.

The whole of Manchester,

there were only two scouts.

Can you believe that?

If you think the population

of Greater Manchester

at that time was six million.

When I left Aberdeen,

the population of Scotland at that time

was three and a half million people,

and we had 17 scouts in Aberdeen.

And I'm not exaggerating,

within a month he trebled

the scouting system at Manchester United,

and that's when we started

getting the players.

Nicky Butt, what an absolute warrior.

What a great player Nicky Butt was.

Another Bryan Robson. Without question.

I think he nicknamed himself One Nut Butt.

He used to just head-butt people

and knock 'em out, he said.

GARY NEVILLE:
I think the lads were always a

bit nervous about giving Butty a nickname,

'cause you didn't how he was going to

react, he might just give you a dig.

You just don't mess with him.

RYAN GIGGS:
Scholesy was like the joker

that got away with it all the time.

DAVID BECKHAM:

We kind of nicknamed him The Ghost.

You know, he'd just

disappear at some point.

I know what Scholesy was like,

he was a little rascal.

And if somebody's underpants were missing,

I knew who it'd be. Paul Scholes.

GARY:

You've got a kid who's smaller than most.

He's got asthma. He's not the quickest,

but the best player I've ever played with.

Work that out.

BECKHAM:
When I first saw Giggsy,

I just saw this really skinny kid.

PHIL NEVILLE:
There's no flashness to him.

He's probably the most down-to-earth

superstar I've ever met.

NICKY BUTT:
One minute he can be

the most serious man in the world,

where he can be eye-balling somebody

and really deep-eye staring at somebody,

and then next minute he can be

dancing on the table doing Elvis, so...

GARY:
The thing that struck me early on

about Becks was his appearance.

You thought,

"He's too pretty to be a football player."

That was his nickname, "Pretty Boy".

PAUL SCHOLES:
You just think

he's a flash cockney.

GIG-GS:
I used to call him "Treacle".

"All right, Treacle." You know, and just...

That was his nickname.

We still all know him,

I still see him in his red Escort Mexico.

That's how I look at him.

EGGS:
"Busy Brothers",

"Busy One and Two",

"Nervous Nevilles".

SCHOLES:
"Nervous Nevilles", yeah.

He was a bit jittery on the ball at times.

Gary and Phil could be. Not always, though.

GARY:
I think Freddie Flintoff

on interviews has said

that the best day of his cricket career

was when Phil Neville retired,

because he then became

the best all-rounder in Lancashire.

He's just bubbly, he's always happy.

Another difference from him and Gaz.

SCHOLES:
Gary was the geek, wasn't he?

He was always sorting things out and everyone

just started calling him Busy and...

Actually, Busy (BLEEP)

we always used to call him.

(BUZZING)

Everybody, the lads used to

walk past me going... (BUZZING)

GARY:
I grew up in Bury.

Lived in a terraced house opposite a park.

All I remember about being a kid

is playing football,

playing cricket at the cricket club.

And massively about

my dad taking me to United as a kid.

I always remember the first time I went

and I was absolutely mesmerised.

You always thought

next year will be our year.

"We'll win the league. We'll

win the league." We never did.

All I ever wanted to be

was a football player.

And the only club I ever wanted

to play at was United.

And Gary was one of them lads that

when you know him, you love him to death,

he's a great lad, everyone likes him.

And when you don't know him he has

this persona of not being a nice person.

I couldn't stand his

guts when I was younger.

And all I wanted to do was kick him

whenever I played against his local team.

Gary Neville was nowhere near as talented

technically as the other boys.

And he won't mind me saying that.

I always felt as though I had to work

extra all the time.

And just live and eat better

than anybody else.

I've given up on it a little bit now.

I made a conscious decision at 16,

when I left school,

that I couldn't continue to see the friends

that I had been friends at school with,

because I knew full well

I would get drawn into doing things

that 16 to 18-year-old lads did,

and I couldn't do it.

I couldn't do it. I

couldn't have any regrets.

And he wanted to make himself a player.

I didn't make him a player,

he made himself a player.

Eric Harrison was a massive influence

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