Whose Treble Win Was Better – Manchester City or Manchester United?

Only two clubs in the history of the English game have landed a treble win. And both of them hail from Manchester.

Back in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United team landed the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the space of a few days.

Then this past year, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City confirmed their victories in the same three competitions. Although those wins took place over several weeks.

Respect to Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola 🫡

The best managers to ever win the treble 👌🏾 pic.twitter.com/d9AJLPaHuS

— Bayo Otedola (@mister_ade5) June 10, 2023

Fans of both those teams, and many others, are already arguing over which treble win was the best.

So let’s take a look at the facts and stats to see if we can answer the question:

Whose Treble Win Was Better, City of United’s?

“City are a great team to watch” Because they can buy the best players in the world time & time again just to win this trophy. They’ve equaled Utd’s record of doing the treble but it took billions to do so, Utd did the treble with a bunch of academy graduates.

— Andrew (@Andrew_GWilson) June 10, 2023

To do that, let’s compare the two squads of each team for their Treble Winning Season:

Treble Winning Squads

Manchester United 1998/99			V	Manchester City 2022/23
Pos.	Player	Tran. Fee		Pos	Player	Tran.Fee
GK	Peter Schmeichel	£505,000		GK	Ederson	£35m
DR	Gary Neville	£0		DR	Kyle Walker	£45m
DL	Denis Irwin	£625,000		DLR	Rico Lewis	£0
DC	David May	£1.2m		DC	Ruben Dias	£62m
DC	Ronny Johnsen	£1.2m		DRL	Nathan Ake	£40m
DC	Jaap Stam	£10.6m		DC	John Stones	£47.5m
MR	David Beckham	£0		DMC	Rodri	£62.8m
MC	Nicky Butt	£0		MC	Kalvin Phillips	£42m
AC	Andy Cole	£7m		AC	Erling Haaland	£51.2m
AC	Teddy Sheringham	£3.5m		AML	Phil Foden	£0
ML	Ryan Giggs	£0		MLC	Bernardo Silva	£43.5m
DRL	Phil Neville	£0		DC	Aymeric Laporte	£57m
DRC	John Curtis	£0		GK	Stefan Ortega	£0
AML	Jordi Cruyff	£1.4m		DLC	Manuel Akanji	£15m
AMR	Jesper Blomquist	£4.4m		MC	Ilkay Gundogan	£20m
MC	Roy Keane	£3.75m		MRC	Kevin de Bruyne	£54.5m
GK	Rai. Van der Gouw	£500,000		DRC	Sergio Gomez	£11m
MC	Paul Scholes	£0		MC	Maximo Perrone	£8.2m
AC	Dwight Yorke	£12.6m		AML	Cole Palmer	£0
AC	Ole Gunnar Solskjaer	£1.5m		AMR	Jack Grealish	£100m
DRC	Henning Berg	£5m		AML	Riyad Mahrez	£60m
AC	Erik Nevland	£400,000		AC	Julian Alvarez	£14.1m
DRC	Wes Brown	£0		GK	Scott Carson	£0
MRC	Jonathan Greening	£500,000
Man	Sir Alex Ferguson			Man	Pep Guardiola
Total Spend		£54.68m		Total Spend		£768.8m

Of course, we cannot compare the two spends until we have adjusted the amounts for inflation. But even then if we take the prices United paid for players as being in 1998, that totals just over £99m in 2023.

So, if we look at the cost to club per the three trophies they won:

• Each trophy cost 1999 Manchester United £33m in transfer fees at 2023 rates.
• Each trophy cost Manchester City £256.27m in transfer fees at 2023 rates.

However, that actual number should be worse for City. A number of players that they have spent big money on (Zack Steffen, Joao Cancelo, Benjamin Mendy) are not included in the figures above.

At modest estimates, the trio would add an estimated £90m to £100m to that transfer fee total.

That would make City’s spend per trophy closer to £300m.

Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, Manchester United come out on top in terms of value for money they got from their squad.

Although it should be remembered that the exceptional Class of ’92 played a key role in their success in 1998 to 1999. Not one of those players cost United a penny in transfer fees.

The best of @ManUtd squads have always had a crop of Academy graduates, the Busby Babes, the Class of 92. The Class of 22 has some talents that need development. I hope ETH looks into that group and the likes of @z10ane @charliesavage84 @SholaShoretire @alvaroocarreras etc. pic.twitter.com/lmPw1LrKAc

— Adam Jalloh 🇸🇱 (@aeezy_adam) June 11, 2023

Let’s now continue to compare the two Manchester giants based on their performances in each of the three tournaments they won.

Premier League Comparison

Manchester United 1999	V	Manchester City 2023
38	Games Played	38
22	Won	28
13	Drew	5
3	Lost	5
80	Goals Scored	94
37	Goals Conceded	33
79	Points	89
+43	Goal Difference	+61
Nottm For 1-8 Man Utd	Biggest Win	Man City 6-0 Nottm Forest
3-0 v Arsenal (A)	Biggest Defeat	2-1 v Man Utd (A), Brentford (H)
Dwight Yorke (18)	Leading Goalscorer	Erling Haaland (36)
Beckham, Yorke (11)	Leading Assists	Kevin de Bruyne (16)
13	Defensive Clean Sheets	13
Gary Neville (RB), Jaap Stam (DC), Denis Irwin (DL), David Beckham (MR), Dwight Yorke (AC) – 5	PFA Team of the Year Picks	N/A (announced 29th August)
PL POTS – Dwight Yorke, PL MOTS – Alex Ferguson	Awards	N/A (announced 29th August)
55,188	Average Attendance	53,249

It is worth noting that United finished just one point ahead of Arsenal in the league in 1999, while Man City finished five points clear of Arsenal.

That despite picking up just one point from their last two games.

City also scored 14 more goals and conceded four fewer. They also had the same number of clean sheets as that Manchester United team.

We are not sure how many City players will make it into the PFA Team of the Year or if any will win individual awards. These are now not announced until the start of the new season in August.

However, it would be astonishing if a number of City players are not selected.

In fact, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Rodri, Kevin de Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Erling Haaland all stand a very good chance of being included.

FA Cup Comparison

Manchester United 1999	V	Manchester City 2023
Man Utd 3-1 Middlesbrough	3rd Round	Man City 4-0 Chelsea
Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool	4th Round	Man City 1-0 Arsenal
Man Utd 1-0 Fulham	5th Round	Bristol City 0-3 Man City
Man Utd 0-0 Chelsea	Quarter Finals	Man City 6-0 Burnley
Chelsea 0-2 Man Utd	Quarter Final Replay	N/A
Arsenal 0-0 Man Utd	Semi Final (N)	Man City 3-0 Sheff Utd
Man Utd 2-1 Arsenal	Semi Final Replay (N)	N/A
Man Utd 2-0 Newcastle Utd	Final (N)	Man City 2-1 Man Utd
12	Goals Scored	19
3	Goals Conceded	1
Dwight Yorke (3)	Leading Goalscorer	Riyad Mahrez (5)

City conceded just one goal in winning the FA Cup, ironically conceded in the final against United, who conceded three in their success in 1999.

Both teams had a tough run to the final with United probably having the tougher run facing Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and then Newcastle in the final. City also faced Chelsea and Arsenal and then faced United in the final.

Champions League Comparison

Manchester United 1999	V	Manchester City 2023
Man Utd 2-0 LKS Lodz	Qualifying 1st Leg	N/A
LKS Lodz 0-0 Man Utd	Qualifying 2nd Leg	N/A
Man Utd 3-3 Barcelona	Group Stage 1	Sevilla 0-4 Man City
Bayern Munich 2-2 Man Utd	Group Stage 2	Man City 2-1 B.Dortmund
Brondby 2-6 Man Utd	Group Stage 3	Man City 5-0 Copenhagen
Man Utd 5-0 Brondby	Group Stage 4	Copenhagen 0-0 Man City
Barcelona 3-3 Man Utd	Group Stage 5	B.Dortmind 0-0 Man City
Man Utd 1-1 Bayern Munich	Group Stage 6	Man City 3-1 Sevilla
N/A	Round of 16 1	RB Leipzig 1-1 Man City
N/A	Round of 16 2	Man City 7-0 RB Leipzig
Man Utd 2-0 Inter	Quarter Finals 1st	Man City 3-0 Bayern Munich
Inter 1-1 Man Utd	Quarter Finals 2nd	Bayern Munich 1-1 Man City
Man Utd 1-1 Juventus	Semi Finals 1st	Real Madrid 1-1 Man City
Juventus 2-3 Man Utd	Semi Finals 2nd	Man City 4-0 Real Madrid
Bayern Munich 1-2 Man Utd	Final (N)	Man City 1-0 Inter
13	CL Games Played	13
6	Won	8
7	Drew	5
0	Lost	0
31	Goals Scored	32
16	Goals Conceded	5
+15	Goal Difference	+27
Dwight Yorke (8)	Leading Scorer	Erling Haaland (12)

United’s last gasp success against Bayern Munich in the final was against the run of play in that game but the two legendary late goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer turned things around and handed United a surprise win.

City though were always favourites to win the tournament from the off and proved it. Incredibly, conceding a scarcely believable 5 goals across all their group stage and knockout phase games.

Both teams came through tough games to win their respective tournaments and so it is hard to judge which one of these was the better.

The Verdict?

Both treble win are incredible achievements and it is difficult to decide which one is better.

City’s was more spectacular in terms of the quality of play, but they did spend a huge amount to get that and took a long time to win the Champions League.

United’s was more dramatic, especially in the CL Final and final day of the PL season, but they spent a lot less, and don’t have 115 breaches of financial fair play hanging over them.

Wigan Athletic start next season in League One on -8 points due to financial troubles. This weekend they were handed a transfer embargo.

In the same weekend Man City, bank rolled by an oil state are hailed as heroes for winning the Treble after 115 breaches of FFP.

Seems right. pic.twitter.com/vgibHzk1oz

— AJD (@Strawberry62) June 11, 2023

So until those issues are resolved, I’d have to say that United’s treble success is the better of the two.

Though that would change if City are exonerated from those charges.