It would be no kind of appraisal of this century’s greatest ever football teams without a look at the team that kicked off the new Millennium at the top of the tree. While Manchester United’s treble-winning team of 1998/99 will never be forgotten, and even the 1999/2000 side has its superfans, the vintage of 2000/01 is one that often gets overlooked.

The eve of the season could hardly have gone worse. Sir Alex Ferguson knew that his frontline needed freshening up and as a consequence, planned to invest upwards of £20 million on the Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy… until this happened.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE-Tm-rS6Po?feature=oembed&w=500&h=375]

United, perhaps sensing that Van Nistelrooy’s injury would rule him out for exactly long enough to be signed the next summer (and that’s exactly what happened), focused on the other end of the pitch, signing French World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.