Roy Keane compares current Manchester City team with treble-winning 1999 Manchester United team
Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane has compared the 1999 Red Devils team with the current treble-chasing Manchester City.
Arsenal's 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, May 20, crowned Man City as the Premier League champions. It was their third consecutive league title and their fifth in the last six years.
The Cityzens are in line to complete a continental treble. They have made it to the finals of the UEFA Champions League (vs Inter Milan on June 10) and the FA Cup (vs Manchester United on June 3).
While praising Manchester City for their achievements this season, Keane refused to put them at par with the Manchester United team from 1998–99, which he was a part of. That season, the Manchester giants won the Premier League, FA Cup, and the Champions League.
When asked where City ranked when compared to the 1999 Man Utd team, he said (via football365):
“They haven’t [won a Treble yet], they’re an amazing team and they’ve got an important few weeks coming up. They’re clear favourites to get it done, but they still have to go and do it. I’d obviously have preference to the team I was involved in.”
Comparing the quality of players in both teams, Keane opined:
“I thought we had brilliant players, brilliant characters, this City group has it as well of course so I think it would be a pretty decent game. The game has changed and I suppose they’ve probably got a bigger squad.
"They’ve got probably more internationals involved, when you look at the players coming off the bench.”
He added:
“You talk about Jack Grealish there recently, a £100m player coming off the bench, particularly last year. But he’s matured this year, so City probably have a bit more strength in depth in terms of world-class quality, but I go back to the lads I played with and we always felt we had some brilliant characters, but then again so do City, so it’s maybe an unfair question to come to somebody who is involved in it.”
Micah Richards disagrees with Roy Keane's comparison of Manchester City with the 1999 Manchester United team
Former Manchester City player Micah Richards, who works alongside Roy Keane as a football pundit, disagreed with the Irishman's views. Richards expressed doubt about the 1999 Manchester United team's ability to compete with the current Man City side “in terms of style of play”.
He said:
“They’ve done it so you’ve got to give credit to them, we’ve always got to give respect to Man United, but I think as a team and the way they play football, I don’t think the Man United team could compete in terms of style of play. We talk about these new terminologies, breaking the lines, and inverting full-backs.”
Richards also stated that Pep Guardiola's Cityzens entertain viewers with their football, something the treble-winning Man Utd team didn't achieve. He said:
“I don’t think they entertained as good as Man City. He’s changing the game, he’s putting centre-backs into midfield, he’s putting full-backs into midfield.”