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| We thought it would never feel so good again. Maybe it won't. But maybe it might... |
Disclaimer: This is a Man Utd-centric column so, if you'd prefer to avoid my gushing, feel free to skip ahead to the picks at the end of the piece.
Sometimes I'll say something while watching sports (or write, in this instance) and think to myself, "Hmm...I wonder if that's true or if the combination of booze and goal-induced enthusiasm has me talking utter shite (again)?"
Last week was one such instance, when I put on paper what I've been saying all season: that this year, as a Man Utd fan, felt to me very much like 1998/99.
Being just 11 at the time, I had gone through brief flings trying to support other teams after the crushing disappointment of Man Utd's league loss to Blackburn in 1994/95 (which ended with the one player who had made me a United fan, Eric Cantona, suspended for attacking a mouthy Wimbledon fan).
Without an active favourite player, I turned to (of all places) Middlesbrough in my quest to find a team that worked for me. This was because, in the summer of 1995, they'd signed a Brazilian wonderkid Juninho. I'd read about the pint-sized sensation in World Soccer magazine, and seen brief clips of him playing for Flamengo on Channel 4's old, all-sports show, 'Trans World Sport', so gave them a shot. That was until Cantona made his glorious return from suspension to see off Liverpool and re-establish himself as 'Le King'. You can't ignore stories like that. Fortunately, we won the double that season so all of the self-inflicted heartbreak of 1995 was forgotten about.
