Manchester United will never produce another Golden Generation like the Class of 92

The Class of 92

During the bleak days of the 1990s and early 2000s, the Australian cricket team would win almost every single Ashes series against the English.

In 2005, England succeeded in winning the urn for the first time since 1987. After each and every defeat, the recriminations would begin.

The English media would accuse the national team of being unprepared, unfit or unworthy of the shirt.Calls would be made for grass roots reform of the sport while cricketing icons of yesteryear would line up to dismiss the current crop as lacking mental and physical fortitude.

It is understandable to look for answers and column inches always need to be filled but the truth of the matter is that Australia were blessed to have an entire generation of remarkable players come through at roughly the same time.

It is that, more than anything else, which saw England struggle in the 1990s but succeed against their bitter rivals in more recent years. Any team that can boast the likes of Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne and Steve Waugh is unlikely to struggle.

Sunday saw the release of The Class of ’92, a documentary film about Manchester United’s remarkable youth team of the early 1990s and their journey to European success in the space of seven years. It is a warm, funny film, as much about friendship as it is about sporting prowess.

David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes are engaging and open throughout as they reflect on their remarkable rise through the ranks at United.

Much like the Australian cricketers, there was an element of luck in the fact that such an incredible batch of players should come through at precisely the same time. In Beckham, Giggs and Scholes, United were fortunate enough to be blessed with three of the finest British footballers of the last 25 years.

Of course it helped that the players were surrounded by bona fide greats like Eric Cantona and Roy Keane and nurtured by Sir Alex Ferguson, a man obsessed with producing home-grown players and arguably the country’s greatest ever football manager.

The sport has changed almost beyond recognition since that group of players made their first tentative steps towards immortality. With the influx of money in the game, it is harder for local lads to forge a place in the first-team of the biggest Premier League sides.

That being said, players like Tom Cleverley, Jonny Evans and Danny Welbeck have still managed to make the grade in more recent years. Some have questioned whether Beckham, Butt and co would be afforded the same opportunities today but, given their ability, the answer is unquestionably yes.

The good will always out in professional sport and their ability would have been impossible to ignore, whatever the year. Giggs, the oldest of the bunch and the first to break through, is the only one still playing. He dominated a difficult European game in Germany as recently as last week and it is clear there will never be another quite like him, nor the generation of players with which he came to prominence.