Over the next five to ten minutes you will read about two incredible teams, the only English sides to ever win the league, FA Cup and be crowned champions of Europe in the same season.
A legitimate attempt will be made to establish which of these achievements was the most impressive, but before we proceed, some pertinent points must be made.
First off, and most importantly, comparing these remarkable feats is like pitching the Beatles against the Stones. Brando against De Niro.
Both Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in 1998/99 and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City this term managed to attain peerless perfection over nine long months, in doing so reaching a pinnacle that secures them legendary status forever more.
To pick holes in either feels redundant and petty.
Furthermore, there is a difference in eras to acknowledge. Was it more difficult to complete a treble back in the late Nineties, taking on the great teams and players from that time? Or is it significantly harder now when a colossal 89 points in needed to win the league alone?
Bluntly speaking, it will take much longer than five to ten minutes getting to the bottom of that one.
Lastly, the initial point needs echoing for greater emphasis. These two phenomenon creations deserve to be wholly celebrated, not in any way diminished.
Still though, with both sides deriving from Manchester, and with one taking the place of the other at the summit of English football, understandably a debate has raged on social media ever since City lifted the big-eared trophy in Istanbul.
Which treble was better?
Immediately veering from this criteria, United fans will have it that theirs was ‘purer’, by virtue of having so many academy players involved, and however much you believe this matters or not, they do have a point.
Across their relentlessly demanding 62-game campaign in 1998/99, 18 players competed in over a quarter of their fixtures, and seven of them came up through the ranks.
By comparison, City 61-match season had 21 players involved in 25% or more of their games, and only three were nurtured, not bought, those players being Phil Foden, Rico Lewis and Cole Palmer.
If that is rightfully a source of sincere pride for the Reds, City’s fan-base counter with two of their own unique boasts they believe elevate their club’s treble over their rival’s.
First off, in recently beating United in the FA Cup Final theirs is a treble made all the sweeter by denying their neighbours glory along the way.
More substantially – or perhaps not, depending on your point of view - it has additionally been pointed out that City won their treble as reigning champions of England, the insinuation being that Ferguson’s United got into the Champions League in 1998/99 through the back-door.
This is true. Having finished runner-up in the league the previous season, United were required to enter the Champions League at an earlier juncture, beating LKS Lodz in a qualifying round.
Does this matter though? Frankly, it’s at best debatable.
Another assertion meanwhile is highly confusing, it being put forward from opposing angles by both sets of supporters.
It is that United’s treble was infinitely more dramatic.
At face value, it’s a claim that has a good deal of merit, with their winning of the FA Cup necessitating a last-gasp decider at home to Liverpool, a tussle that subsequently led to a titanic battle with Arsenal in the semis.
With a sending off, a missed penalty in extra-time and a late, unforgettable goal it’s a game that has become iconic.
In the Champions League of course, there was that famous late turn-around that broke Bayern hearts and even in the league United struggled to impose sustained supremacy, taken to the wire by not only Arsenal – as City were – but also the emerging force of Chelsea.
The argument made by United fans is that such theatre makes their treble more impactful and memorable. City fans in reply point out that while 1998/99 was more entertaining for neutrals, the struggles and road-bumps by default makes it less impressive.
Yet it only gets further muddled when it is accepted that City themselves hardly enjoyed a straightforward path to three major honours.
Like United, their route to continental glory was formidably demanding, coming up against Bayern and Inter Milan on route, as their neighbours did a quarter of a century earlier. Swap Juventus for Real Madrid and it’s pretty much a tie in the difficulty stakes.
In the league meanwhile, the Blues’ Premier League title odds lengthened considerably heading into Spring as Arsenal consistently maintained a healthy advantage.
Granted, their triumph wasn’t exactly a miracle that took them from crisis to silverware. Guardiola wasn’t in danger of featuring in our next Premier League manager to be sacked odds at any point.
Yet a defeat at Spurs back in February had the blue half of Manchester written off by all and sundry.
To come back from that and prevail required just as much depth of character as United displayed at Villa Park and Camp Nou.
All of which returns us to the big talking point, the big question. Which treble was better? You already know our stance, that both were imperiously good and both deserve equal acclaim.
But though the history books will show that only two English sides have ever pulled off such a rare accomplishment, tribalism decrees that one must be greater.
Regrettably, or perhaps thankfully, an unequivocal answer will always elude us.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
