YOU'LL NEVER WIN ANYTHING WITH KIDS

On 19th August 1989, at the beginning of the new football season,  Manchester United were looking for their first "championship" since 1967 and were "stuttering" under Alex Ferguson. In the previous May, Arsenal had won the title with the last kick of the season at Liverpool, who themselves were only 11th in the division.

A day before the season began, a takeover of the club by property magnate Michael Knighton, bought out the unpopular Martin Edwards in a £10m deal! (yes 10). He guaranteed a further £10m to complete the "Theatre of Dreams" plans, that were first put on the drawing board by Edwards' father, Louis in the mid-1960s.

With a new era dawning, Knighton ran onto the turf at Old Trafford before a game, with tracksuit top and shorts, juggled a ball with his head and then slammmed the ball into an empty net! The crowd was warmed up and got hotter when after 2 minutes into the match, Steve Bruce headed home and United routed the "new champions" 4-1.

Following this showboating, the deal fell through when Knighton's two backers pulled out and he withdrew from the deal. Two years later, United floated on the Stock Exchange, being valued at £18m. United made excellent progress on the pitch thanks to Ferguson and the club became one of the richest in the world, as Knighton insisted that it was his idea to treat the club as a global brand.

In 1992, Knighton had bought Carlisle United with the intention of making the Cumbrian club a force in English football. With a vast number of investments, building a grandstand that was not really needed and making himself manager, Carlisle was stuck battling relegation from the Football League. Knighton was bought out in 2002 after the club had gone into "voluntary" administration and Man U fans who cheered Knighton's juggling act, 13 years earlier, thanked their lucky stars!

1995/6 season: On August 19th, after watching Manchester United lose their opening-day Premier League fixture 1-3, at Aston Villa, Match of the Day commentator, Alan Hansen was critical of United and famously said ‘you’ll never win anything with kids’. The "kids" included David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Gary Neville; these "kids" went on to help United to win the League and Cup double that season! 

I hope links below work! If not, cut and paste?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Es-RIBnba8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmMvuEj3aCQ Hansen's all time PL XI!

On January 1st 1996, there was a 1-4 defeat at Tottenham, then a run of 18 matches from January 6th, league and cup through to April 13, when they lost at Southampton 1-3, winning the last four games including the FA Cup final on May 11th, at Wembley, 1-0 v Liverpool.