The Class of '92

Subtitle synced and corrected by coolsuren.

Welcome to Barcelona.

Almost 100,000 people here in the Nou Camp this evening.

It really is an extraordinary atmosphere.

But you do wonder is fate now taking a hand

in Manchester United's destiny.

They have made their own luck with their boldness and their adventure,

but they have had just enough luck to stand here on the brink of history.

It's the chance of a lifetime.

A treble chance,

the likes of which no English team has had before, or may ever get again.

is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure.

One of Manchester's busiest shopping streets,

suddenly a living hell.

A bomb planted in bushes behind Kendals department store

showered office workers with flying glass.

Smash the poll tax and smash the Tories

and in the end put an end to this Tory government itself.

I've only got one thing to say, it's nice to be back.

ll' is clear tonight

that it is no longer a matter of whether, but when there is a royal divorce.

England's shattered players arrived back at the hotel.

A few hours later we once again saw the dark face of English football.

It has turned out to be an annus horribilis.

A club of this size,

one would expect at the platform, the stage, everything is geared to doing very, very well.

And that very, very well means winning the league.

I was a Man United supporter,

and it's extra special when you get the coaching job there.

When Sir Alex took over, everybody realised that he wanted a vibrant youth system.

And he said to me straight out, as typically Sir Alex does,

he says, "I'm not entirely satisfied with the youth system," you know.

He'd only been there probably a few weeks, or a month.

I said, "Well, you know, we've had Norman Whiteside through,

"and Mark Hughes through."

And he looked at me with those steely eyes and he said, "That's not enough."

I said, "Do you know how many local scouts Manchester City have got,

"and how many Manchester United have got?"

When I told him, he was staggered, he was absolutely staggered.

And I'm not exaggerating,

within a month he trebled the scouting system at Manchester United,

and that's when we started getting the players.

Nicky Butt, what an absolute warrior. What a great player Nicky Butt was.

Another Bryan Robson. Without question.

I think he nicknamed himself One Nut Butt.

He used to just head-butt people and knock 'em out, he said.

I think the lads were always a bit nervous about giving Butty a nickname,

'cause you didn't how he was going to react, he might just give you a dig.

You just don't mess with him.

Scholesy was like the joker that got away with it all the time.

We kind of nicknamed him The Ghost.

You know, he'd just disappear at some point.

I know what Scholesy was like, he was a little rascal.

And if somebody's underpants were missing, I knew who it'd be. Paul Scholes.

You've got a kid who's smaller than most.

He's got asthma. He's not the quickest,

but the best player I've ever played with. Work that out.

When I first saw Giggsy, I just saw this really skinny kid.

There's no flashness to him.

He's probably the most down-to-earth superstar I've ever met.

One minute he can be the most serious man in the world,

where he can be eye-balling somebody and really deep-eye staring at somebody,

and then next minute he can be dancing on the table doing Elvis, so...

The thing that struck me early on about Becks was his appearance.

You thought, "He's too pretty to be a football player."

That was his nickname, "Pretty Boy".

You just think he's a flash cockney.

I used to call him "Treacle".

"All right, Treacle." You know, and just... That was his nickname.

We still all know him, I still see him in his red Escort Mexico.

That's how I look at him.

"Busy Brothers", "Busy One and Two",

"Nervous Nevilles".

"Nervous Nevilles", yeah. He was a bit jittery on the ball at times.

Gary and Phil could be. Not always, though.

I think Freddie Flintoff on interviews has said

that the best day of his cricket career was when Phil Neville retired,

because he then became the best all-rounder in Lancashire.

He's just bubbly, he's always happy.

Another difference from him and Gaz.

Gary was the geek, wasn't he?

He was always sorting things out and everyone just started calling him Busy and...

Actually, Busy we always used to call him.

Everybody, the lads used to walk past me going...

I grew up in Bury. Lived in a terraced house opposite a park.

All I remember about being a kid

is playing football, playing cricket at the cricket club.

And massively about my dad taking me to United as a kid.

I always remember the first time I went and I was absolutely mesmerised.

You always thought next year will be our year.

"We'll win the league. We'll win the league." We never did.

All I ever wanted to be was a football player.

And the only club I ever wanted to play at was United.

And Gary was one of them lads that when you know him, you love him to death,

he's a great lad, everyone likes him.

And when you don't know him he has this persona of not being a nice person.

I couldn't stand his guts when I was younger.

And all I wanted to do was kick him whenever I played against his local team.

Gary Neville was nowhere near as talented technically as the other boys.

And he won't mind me saying that.

I always felt as though I had to work

extra all the time.

And just live and eat better than anybody else.

I've given up on it a little bit now.

I made a conscious decision at 16, when I left school,

that I couldn't continue to see the friends that I had been friends at school with,

because I knew full well I would get drawn into doing things

that 16 to 18-year-old lads did, and I couldn't do it.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't have any regrets.

And he wanted to make himself a player.

I didn't make him a player, he made himself a player.

Eric Harrison was a massive influence on me. He was just what I needed.

Took absolutely no.

I remember my wife watching me one day, because we were going to...

She wanted to go to the Trafford Centre after a training session.

I got in the car, and she was sat in the car, she said, "You're a disgrace."

I said, "What do you mean?"

She said, "You wouldn't do that to your children, would you?"

Eric has grounded them people, and he's put into 'em morals and "treat people right".

I think that if you're looking at Becks,

probably one of the biggest sports stars in the world,

you know, and he's still grounded. You know, we can thank Eric for that.

You've got to make those demands to be successful out there.

Those who could cope with those demands played, those who didn't...

And that's football.

The one I was most disappointed in was Raphael Burke.

Supremely talented player. I wish he had have had that right attitude

because he would have been a first-team player.

For me, I thought I was talented, but I didn't dedicate like these guys.

When people say, "What was Becks like?" Or, "What was Giggs like?"

I say, "Well, the first thing is they sacrificed."

If you're gonna even have a tiny chance of being like them,

if you don't practise or you don't sacrifice, you haven't got a chance.

I made Gary my youth-team captain of the Class of '92.

And he was a fantastic captain.

Gary was the leader,

because if you saw Gary doing something different on the pitch, after training,

it had me thinking, "Well, if he's doing it, I need to be doing something."

You know, he was the captain of the team.

So he always took on the mantle of looking after everyone.

I thought he was the glue that held them lads together.

Like our, I don't know, Uncle Gary, he is. He does everything for us.

It's just the way it is.

We phone each other up now and again, and I just go like that...

"Have you finished yet?"

Oh, dear me, he talks for England, he does, you know. And Phil's not bad as well.

Gaz and Phil would be, like, throwing balls up at each other.

They'd be like, you know, jogging on the spot.

"Lads, relax, there's an hour to go till kick-off yet. Relax."

If you laid back, then you just sat there, just looking at them,

and just, "What you doing?" "What are you doing?"

And they were probably doing the same.

You can probably just imagine them speaking to each other.

"Phil, have you seen these? It's cup final. Look at them.

"They're not even prepared right. We're prepared.

"Are you prepared? Yeah, I'm prepared.

"Yeah. Right. Well, we're prepared. Never mind these."

You know, you can just imagine it, that's what they were like from an early age.

They were just all about the focus, and it worked.

I'd had two really bad experiences in the Youth Cup.

I played as a schoolboy, we got beat in the semi-final.

Played as a first-year apprentice, and got knocked out in the semi-final.

So I was desperate to win it, absolutely desperate,

even though I'd played a few games in the first team.

The football was so good, I think. It was just so enjoyable to play in that.

We'd be winning four, five, six-nil most weeks.

And here's Ben Thornley. Could go it all alone!

He's scored!

Switzer trying to get in behind and there are people in the middle...

And it could come to... It's Giggs!

One of the things that I remember is Butty's overhead kick, you know.

Didn't go in, but he got so excited about it.

There was only going to be one result for this team, it was just...

You just knew.

And that was a really tough game.

But I mean, that was the biggest relief I've ever had in my life,

to come off that field winners of the Youth Cup, you know,

and see them lifting the Youth Cup.

It was sensational.

How many of these faces will we ever see

in a Manchester United first team?

They hadn't won it for such a long time.

I think it was the Busby Babes who won it last time, I think.

Went in the changing rooms and the manager was there,

the players were there, the first-team players were there.

All the staff was there. Directors were there.

It was massive. It was huge.

And I put that medal alongside every other medal that I've made.

I wouldn't put it any higher, I wouldn't put it any lower,

it's on a par with every single medal that I've ever won,

because at the time, at 16, 17, 18, it's the biggest medal you can win.

We had a great team spirit. Great bunch of lads. Great coaches.

We hadn't won it for a long time,

and we lifted the cup at Old Trafford, we couldn't ask for much more really.

It was an achievement, but it's never enough to just win one trophy.

"Okay, next year we're going to do it again."

Best time of my career was my apprenticeship.

You go to work every day together with your mates,

you've got no cares in the world, it's just fun.

You knew you was good,