Denis Irwin didn’t want to see Man City win the treble 

CORK'S Denis Irwin admits that he did not want Manchester City to beat Inter Milan in the Champions League final and win the treble, an achievement that once exclusively belonged to Manchester United.

The legendary full-back was with the Red Devils in 1999 when they scored twice in extra-time to beat Bayern Munich and win the treble at the Camp Nou, and that group of players has been long held up as the greatest ever English side.

When asked about what City did this season under Pep Guardiola, the legendary full-back held nothing back.

“I’m not going to lie, I didn’t want them to win,” he said. 

“It is what it is. It’s a great achievement. It’s been done in other countries. Celtic were the first team to do it (1967). 

Teams have come close in the last 10 years.

“Shows you the Premier League is tough. Winning the Champions League, no matter how good you are, is tough. 

"Real Madrid have done great in the last ten years doing what they’ve done when you consider how strong Premier League teams are becoming.” 

When asked to compare the teams and achievements from 1999 and 2023, Irwin was keen to focus on the exclusivity of the treble instead of the inter-generational arguments.

“I think it’s hard to compare,” he explained. “What I will say is that anybody who wins a treble, only two teams have done it, have very good managers and very good teams. 

It’s impossible to compare because the money is totally different in this day and age to where we were.

“What I will say is that English teams in the last six or seven years have got a foot in the Champions League. If you look at the last seven years there’s probably been seven English teams in the final.

“Two of them against each other of course, whereas in our era we were the first English team in the Champions League final in quite a while and there wasn't another for a few years after. 

"So we were still trying to get to grips with European football. But it's impossible to compare, they are both great achievements. 

"Don’t take anything away from either club. Whoever does the quadruple, that will take some doing. City were the same as us I think, quarter-final in the league cup.” 

EASIER

Irwin does believe that the Sky Blues had an easier run-in over how the fixtures worked out.

“Because the Champions League is on a Saturday now, then it was a Wednesday night,” he reasoned.

“We had to win the last game against Spurs, and it just felt like it was... like 10 days. It came very very quickly, on a bit of a roll.

“But they're both great achievements, I'm not going to take anything away from City. 

"To win a treble... it shows you how hard it is, because they were nowhere near the best in the final.

“They're more resolute now than they've ever been, Manchester City. I said that to you... they're a different Man City than (what) they were a couple years ago, they're a big team, they're quite a physical team, and they don't concede as many goals, and kind of, when they get ahead, they don't really give that up.”