Comparing the treble-winning sides from the Champions League era
It is a joyous moment as a fan when your favourite football club wins a trophy and it often leaves us in an ecstatic and frenzy mode. The excitement level peaks according to the size of the tournament. It goes on increasing from winning the League Cup to winning the League to winning the Champions League. So what happens when a club wins all three trophies in the same year? That is the pinnacle of how happy and excited a fan can be.Winning a treble is one of the biggest achievements for any football club because of the sheer difficulty in doing it, especially in Europe and hence it is not surprising that in the history of the game only seven different teams have achieved the treble that involves the League, UEFA Champions League and the league cup. Of these seven teams four have won the treble in the Champions League era, namely - Manchester United (1999), Barcelona (2009), Internazionale (2010) and Bayern Munich (2013).So which of these treble winning sides from the Champions League era is the best among the lot? Here is a comparison between these four sides.
#1 Team quality and set-up
Seven of the players pictured above from Barcelonas preferred starting 11 from 2008/09 were from their academy
There is a striking similarity between three of these treble winning squads, namely - Manchester United, Barcelona & Bayern Munich, on how the core of their squad was formed. Many of the important first team players in the squad for these three clubs were from their academy and the clubs rallied on the performance of these famed academy graduates even after their successful treble winning season as well.
In the case of Manchester United, some of the important players in the side were Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, and all of these players were from their academy and would go on to represent the club for many more years. The average age of the United squad from 1998/99 with ten or more appearances was just over 27 years though because of many veteran players in the squad.
The Barcelona squad from 2008/09 was much younger than the Manchester United squad with an average squad age of just 25.5 & out of the 18 first team players who made more than 10 appearances that season, 10 were from the academy, namely Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Valdes, Busquets, Pedro, Bojan & Victor Sanchez, and of these 10, seven were regular starters for the team.
Similar was the case with Bayerns squad from 2012/13, but only six of their players were from the academy and they were Lahm, Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Alaba and Badstuber, but all six were important first team players. The average age of the squad was almost 27 due to fringe first team players like Tymoshchuk, Van Buyten & Pizzaro who were 34, 35 and 34 at that time.
Contrary to the other three squads, Internazionales squad from 2009/10 was set up in a completely different manner unlike the other three squads. Most of their first team players were nearing the end of what is usually called the peaks years of a professional footballer and majority of the first team players were brought from other clubs over the years.
The only players from the academy who had any sort of role to play in the side during that season were Balotelli & Davide Santon, but they were not regulars by any means. Moreover the Inter side was quite old with an average squad age close to 29!
In terms of the quality of the sides and how the team was set up for the future, Barcelona edge the other three treble winning sides.