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Manchester United

1999–2000 season
Chairman	Martin Edwards
Manager	Sir Alex Ferguson
FA Premier League	1st
League Cup	Third round
UEFA Champions League	Quarter-finals
Charity Shield	Runners-up
UEFA Super Cup	Runners-up
Intercontinental Cup	Winners
FIFA Club World Championship	Group stage
Top goalscorer	League: Dwight Yorke (20) All: Dwight Yorke (24)
Highest home attendance	61,629 vs Tottenham Hotspur (6 May 2000)
Lowest home attendance	53,250 vs Croatia Zagreb (14 September 1999)
Average home league attendance	58,017
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 1998–992000–01 →

The 1999–2000 season was Manchester United's eighth season in the Premier League, and their 25th consecutive season in the top division of English football. United won the Premier League title for the sixth time in eight seasons (with a record 18-point margin and 97 goals scored) as well as becoming the first English club to win the Intercontinental Cup when they defeated Palmeiras in Tokyo. However, they surrendered their Champions League title with a 3–2 defeat by eventual champions Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. The club controversially did not defend their FA Cup crown, upon request by The Football Association, to compete in the inaugural FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil instead.

Mark Bosnich, previously at United as a reserve goalkeeper from 1989 to 1991, returned to the club as Peter Schmeichel's successor, but failed to live up to expectations and in September, the club swooped for Italian Massimo Taibi to provide competition for him. However, Taibi suffered some high-profile mistakes and returned to his homeland at the end of the season after just four games for the club. As the season wore on, long-time reserve goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw was increasingly called on as the starting goalkeeper, and proved a fairly reliable performer, but at 37 years old as of the end of the season, it was clear that he would not be a long-term solution. United then solved the goalkeeping crisis by paying AS Monaco £7.8 million for Fabien Barthez. Also new to the squad for 1999–2000 were French defender Mikaël Silvestre and South African winger Quinton Fortune. Jesper Blomqvist and Wes Brown missed the entire season due to injury, while similar misfortune restricted defenders David May and Ronny Johnsen to three first-team appearances between them. Jordi Cruyff left the club on a free transfer to Deportivo Alavés at the end of the season, seeing out his four-year contract at a club where he had failed to claim a regular first-team place.

Pre-season and friendlies

FA Charity Shield

UEFA Super Cup

FA Premier League

1. Chelsea qualified for the UEFA Cup as FA Cup winners.

League Cup

UEFA Champions League

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Manchester United	6	4	1	1	9	4	+5	13	Advance to second group stage
2	Marseille	6	3	1	2	10	8	+2	10
3	Sturm Graz	6	2	0	4	5	12	−7	6	Transfer to UEFA Cup
4	Croatia Zagreb	6	1	2	3	7	7	0	5

Second group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Manchester United	6	4	1	1	10	4	+6	13	Advance to knockout stage
2	Valencia	6	3	1	2	9	5	+4	10
3	Fiorentina	6	2	2	2	7	8	−1	8
4	Bordeaux	6	0	2	4	5	14	−9	2

Knockout phase

Intercontinental Cup

FIFA Club World Championship

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Vasco da Gama	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5	9	Advance to final
2	Necaxa	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4	Advance to match for third place
3	Manchester United	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
4	South Melbourne	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

Squad statistics

No.	CWC no.	Pos.	Name	League		League Cup		Europe		Club World Championship		Other		Total
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	1	GK	Mark Bosnich	23	0	1	0	7	0	2	0	2	0	35	0
2	2	DF	Gary Neville	22	0	0	0	9	0	2	0	2	0	35	0
3	3	DF	Denis Irwin	25	3	0	0	13	0	2	0	2	0	42	3
4	–	DF	David May	0(1)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0(1)	0	1(2)	0
5	–	DF	Ronny Johnsen	2(1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2(1)	0
6	6	DF	Jaap Stam	33	0	0	0	13	0	2	0	3	0	51	0
7	7	MF	David Beckham	30(1)	6	0	0	12	2	1(1)	0	3	0	46(2)	8
8	8	MF	Nicky Butt	21(11)	3	0	0	4(2)	0	2	1	2	0	29(13)	4
9	9	FW	Andy Cole	23(5)	19	0	0	13	3	2	0	2	0	40(5)	22
10	10	FW	Teddy Sheringham	15(12)	5	0	0	3(6)	1	0(2)	0	1(2)	0	19(22)	6
11	11	MF	Ryan Giggs	30	6	0	0	11	1	2	0	1	0	44	7
12	12	DF	Phil Neville	25(4)	0	0	0	6(3)	0	2(1)	0	2	0	35(8)	0
13	–	DF	John Curtis	0(1)	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	1(2)	0
14	14	MF	Jordi Cruyff	1(7)	3	1	0	1(3)	0	1(1)	0	1(1)	0	5(12)	3
15	–	MF	Jesper Blomqvist	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	16	MF	Roy Keane (c)	28(1)	5	0	0	12	6	2	0	2	1	44(1)	12
17	17	GK	Raimond van der Gouw	11(3)	0	0	0	7	0	1	0	1	0	20(3)	0
18	–	MF	Paul Scholes	27(4)	9	0	0	11	3	0	0	3	0	41(4)	12
19	19	FW	Dwight Yorke	29(3)	20	0	0	9(2)	2	2	1	1(1)	1	41(6)	24
20	20	FW	Ole Gunnar Solskjær	15(13)	12	1	0	4(7)	3	2(1)	0	2(1)	0	24(22)	15
21	21	DF	Henning Berg	16(6)	0	0	0	11(1)	0	1	0	2	0	30(7)	0
23	–	DF	Michael Clegg	0(2)	0	1	0	1(1)	0	0	0	0	0	2(3)	0
24	–	DF	Wes Brown	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
25	22	MF	Quinton Fortune	4(2)	2	0	0	1(3)	0	1(1)	2	0	0	6(6)	4
26	–	GK	Massimo Taibi	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
27	5	DF	Mikaël Silvestre	30(1)	0	0	0	2(2)	0	2	0	1	0	35(3)	0
28	4	DF	Danny Higginbotham	2(1)	0	1	0	0(1)	0	1	0	0	0	4(2)	0
30	23	DF	Ronnie Wallwork	0(5)	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2(5)	0
31	–	GK	Nick Culkin	0(1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0
33	18	MF	Mark Wilson	1(2)	0	0	0	2(1)	0	1	0	0	0	4(3)	0
34	15	MF	Jonathan Greening	1(3)	0	1	0	1(1)	0	1	0	0(1)	0	4(5)	0
37	–	DF	John O'Shea	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
38	–	FW	David Healy	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0
39	–	MF	Luke Chadwick	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
41	–	MF	Richard Wellens	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0
42	–	MF	Michael Twiss	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
–	13	GK	Paul Rachubka	0	0	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0(1)	0

1. Clubs had to submit a 23-man squad to compete in the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship, who all had to be numbered between 1 and 23. Some players had to be assigned a different squad number specifically for the competition.
2. Rachubka was not assigned a number for the rest of the season.

Transfers

No players left Manchester United in the 1999 summer transfer window.

On 21 August, South African midfielder Quinton Fortune signed from Atlético Madrid for a fee of £1.5 million. Also arriving were Italian goalkeeper Massimo Taibi and French defender Mikaël Silvestre. All three players had slightly different careers at United and all stayed at United for a different number of seasons: Fortune spent seven years at Old Trafford, and his career was mixed; Taibi turned out to be a major flop and left after just one season; Silvestre left in 2008 and had a successful career with United.

United's only winter departure was Norwegian Erik Nevland, who returned to homeland club Viking Stavanger after two seasons. Richard Wellens departed on 23 March to Blackpool for a nominal fee. John Curtis joined Blackburn Rovers on 31 May for a fee of £1.5 million, while Michael Twiss joined Port Vale on 30 June on a free transfer.

No players joined United in the winter transfer window, but on 21 May, French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was acquired.

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
2 June 1999	GK	Mark Bosnich	Aston Villa	Free
21 August 1999	MF	Quinton Fortune	Atlético Madrid	£1.5m
31 August 1999	GK	Massimo Taibi	Venezia	£4.5m
10 September 1999	DF	Mikaël Silvestre	Internazionale	£4m
21 May 2000	GK	Fabien Barthez	AS Monaco	£7.8m

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
20 December 1999	FW	Erik Nevland	Viking Stavanger	£250k
23 March 2000	MF	Richard Wellens	Blackpool	Nominal
31 May 2000	DF	John Curtis	Blackburn Rovers	£1.5m
25 July 2000	MF	Michael Twiss	Port Vale	Free

References

1. "Manchester United Season 1999/2000". StretfordEnd.co.uk. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
2. "United pull out of FA Cup". BBC Sport. BBC. 30 June 1999. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
3. "FIFA Club World Championship Brazil 2000 - Clubs - Manchester United". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
4. "Bosnich signs four-year United deal". BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation). 2 June 1999. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
5. Anderson, David (26 August 1999). "Football: Ferguson defends Strachan remarks". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
6. "Man Utd complete Taibi signing". BBC Sport. BBC. 31 August 1999. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
7. "Silvestre on red alert". BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation). 10 September 1999. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
8. "Man Utd confirm Barthez signing". BBC Sport. BBC. 31 May 2000. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
9. ^ Butler, Cliff; Ponting, Ivan (June 2000). Manchester United Official Yearbook 2000: The Definitive Guide to the 1999−2000 Season. Carlton Books Limited. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-2339978-3-4.
10. "Vale sign Twiss from Man Utd". BBC Sport. BBC. 25 July 2000. Retrieved 9 February 2012.

• Manchester United F.C. seasons
• 1999–2000 FA Premier League by team
• English football championship–winning seasons
• Laureus World Sports Awards winners