On the horizon you can see the next FA Cup Final, the oldest and most prestigious tournament in English football. The most iconic stage in the country opens its doors to receive the two finalists. Wembley will be occupied by the two Manchester teams and their loyal fans. For second consecutive Year, City and United They will be the protagonists. The curtain will rise on a match that will decide who will be the champion of the Cup, par excellence, from England this season 2023/2024.
While in Mancunian lands we think exclusively about the derby that will decide another title at stake between the two neighboring teams, in the air hovers the debate of who has been the most successful team in the city. The feat achieved by Guardiola’s pupils, crowned as Premier League champions for the fourth time in a row, generates conversation and doubts in the football environment.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s United or Pep Guardiola’s City? Which of the two teams is the best in the city? Who occupies the throne?
There was only Manchester United in the city
The eyes of the youngest Manchester United fans have seen apathy, lack of control, failure and disappointment at Old Trafford. Since Sir Alex Ferguson left, the competitive pride and belief in being able to beat any team has faded. During the Scottish coach’s entire time on the bench (26 years), no one knew City’s ‘blue’for the world the city belonged to the ‘red devils’ and only them.
The wake of the ‘Busby Babes’ was glorious and he frightened everyone who stepped foot in Old Trafford, but the Scotsman was brave and liked challenges, he thrived in the face of them. Ferguson arrived in 1986 and concluded his management in 2013. A long stay embellished as the most successful era at Old Trafford. On his back he carried the greatness of a club that chained 26 years without winning a league and 31 without lifting the European Cup.
Ferguson’s insatiable thirst for victory captivated Manchester and with his knowledge and stubbornness they obtained 38 trophies among all competitions, a historical milestone. They stand out 13 Premier League and 2 Champions League. He was crowned as coach with the most English leagues. He achieved more titles in his time than his predecessors and their united substitutes. His legend is very broad, but two unforgettable teams stood out in the minds of the fans. The one that started the legend was in the 90s and the second at the end of the first 10 years of the 21st century.
The splendor of Sir’s team. Alex was produced in the 1990s. The aggressive English game was dominated by the excellence of Eric Cantona, the forcefulness of Roy Keane, the security of Peter Schmeichel and 6 youth players. David Beckham, Ryan Giggs or Paul Scholes They were the standard bearers of a generation of dreamers who longed to fight for the shield that they had embroidered on their chest and had worn since they were children. A record, which has yet to be broken, of 34 games without losing in 1993-1994, the first treble of an English football team in 1998-1999 and 7 Premier League From 1991 to 2001, three in a row, there have been incomparable and unmatched successes and figures from a group of players with great talent with the ball at their feet, but who went out of their way for their coach and did not give up until the final whistle.
After a necessary and regenerative transition, The “red devils” were eager to return to the covers of the biggest nights of English and European football. With renewed energy and an aura of greatness in the young promises with which they had been reinforced, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani or Rio Ferdinand, Sir. Alex knew the scope of his new weapons to repeat the achievements of the last century.
Three Premier League in a row for the second time in history, something inconceivable to mortals. The love affair of those from Manchester with the Scotsman and the English league was repeated a decade later. Ferguson’s greatness was indescribable in the city, he had managed to elevate United to a dream from which they could not wake up. But his legend would not end there, in the 2008 Champions League with a final against Chelsea and after penalties. They conquered Europe again for the third time in the club’s long existence. Two were in charge of Sir. Alex, the most important coach at Old Trafford, since they have not won a trophy of such importance since his departure.
The birth of a new city, Manchester is “blue”
Regularity, dominance and superiority are the hallmarks of Pep Guardiola. His arrival in England was debated and criticized by some of the most enigmatic and pure in English football. They did not trust the positional play that the Catalan and his teams boasted and characterized. The speed and aggressiveness of the Premier League It did not allow possession or monologue by 11 players on the playing field.
At the local level, in the derby against the most successful English team in history, since Pep arrived in 2016, the citizens have added 145 more points than the “red devils” in the Premier League (649 compared to 504), They have earned 60 more points and scored 229 more goals. Data and not opinions that the Catalan has created since he landed in the city. But, the transition from Guardiola to Ferguson has been the transition of the mandate of English football, not just of the city of Manchester.
The one born in Santpedor has given him a personality and his own philosophy to a team that was orphaned. He sometimes won the English league, but he was not constant, nor did he fight on equal terms with the greatest of the Old Continent. Catalan has created a unified way of thinking throughout the entity, from the smallest fan to the club owner. The Etihad wants to see its team overwhelming the rivals, locking them in their area, they are no longer capable of visualizing another type of football. With this style and management of the game, Guardiola and City have come out champions 17 times, only one less than in their total history.
The first years of the Spanish in England were not easy. Year after year he was structuring his squad, they began to sign to accompany players like Kevin de Bruyne, Kun Agüero or Vicent Kompany. The arrival of Bernardo Silva, İlkay Gündoğan, Rodri and the introduction of youth squad Phil Foden formed a team that It has been evolving step by step and reaping triumphs.
In his second campaign, more familiar with the rhythm of English football, with City in 2017-18, he became the first and only team to reach 100 points obtaining the highest margin over the second placed, Manchester United, of 19 points. Then, in the following seasons, his City won two Premier Leagues, exceeding 90 points, one with 98 points in 2018-19 and another with 93 in 2021-22.
But, there was a gift that Guardiola couldn’t hunt him down, the Champions League. Season after season, round of 16, quarterfinals, semi-finals and even in the final they were eliminated and the school “bully” stole their long-awaited gift again and again.
They say that good things come to wait, and that is what every Manchester City fan, president, physiotherapist, coach or player had to think. in 2023. After long years of waiting and falls and eliminations, They were proclaimed champions of the Champions League, but, in addition, they accompanied it with an FA Cup and the Premier League. They had been crowned the second team in England’s history to lift the three cups in the same campaign.
“Winning four titles in a row is one of the achievements of my career that makes me most proud. It is the toughest league in the world and our competitors have played incredible football”
Pep Guardiola
The beginnings were complicated, but when they reached cruising speed they were unstoppable. Manchester City has been champion of the Premier League in 6 of the last 7 editions and four of them consecutive. The consecration of a unique team, no one in the history of England had managed to be so methodical day by day and with such superiority. The citizens have climbed to a height that no one had ever conquered, They have reached the highest peak of English football and in the most competitive and complicated league in the world.
