It’s a photo that often goes viral, usually to illustrate how great Manchester United used to be compared to the present.
A band of United brothers, arms around each other in unity, soaked from the late May rain and wearing that gorgeous all-black kit. Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand, Mikael Silvestre and Quinton Fortune. At least six world-class footballers, all in the same team.
“Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end,” sums it up perfectly.
And all that talent isn’t even the total of what was there that day. Ruud van Nistelrooy was just in front taking a penalty. Gary Neville, Darren Fletcher, John O’Shea and Wes Brown were there too. United, managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, had a magnificent side, yet the iconic picture doesn’t tell the whole story. What do those players think when they see it now?
“‘When we were kings’ is the first thought that comes into my head,” Fortune tells The Athletic. “But it was a strange day because there was a good atmosphere in the dressing room after the game. That’s not often the case after a defeat. The dressing room is normally silent, but this time the players were talking. The feeling was different. We’d played well, knew we were the better team and should have won the final.”
Yes, the photo is of a defeat. It’s the 2005 FA Cup final: Arsenal vs Manchester United, the same tie which is the biggest fixture in this weekend’s third round.
“That I’m clearly not expecting to take a penalty,” says French defender Silvestre of the photo, laughing, before becoming more serious. “What a team that was. I remember having a good game but I have regrets because we bossed that game against a very strong Arsenal team and deserved to win.”
“I’m thinking who misses out on the five-a-side team,” says Ryan Giggs. “I’d be captain.”
They can laugh about it now, but the picture is misleading — all was not well on or off the pitch. Black kit was appropriate, and many fans wore it that day because a week earlier, the Glazers’ controversial and highly leveraged takeover of United went through. Black was the colour the United fan groups encouraged those at the final to wear.
Fans protesting before the FA Cup final in 2005 (John D McHugh/AFP/Getty Images)
While the players kept their heads down on that one, fans were furious. For some, it was the last time they ever watched a United game. FC United of Manchester were formed that summer and many in United’s hardcore chose to support the rebel club rather than the Glazers.
The players in the picture are watching their team-mates lose a penalty shootout too, despite completely outplaying an Arsenal side they’d also knocked out of the FA Cup the previous year in the semi-finals.
Over 120 minutes, United had eight shots on target to Arsenal’s one, 12 off target to Arsenal’s four, and 12 corners to one, but couldn’t score in front of the 71,876 crowd at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium — the final’s venue for six years while the new Wembley Stadium was being built.
That calendar year, 2005, wasn’t a happy one for Manchester United. It was the year of Roy Keane’s famous non-broadcast interview and subsequent departure, the year United failed to get past the Champions League group stage for the first time in a decade despite a weak group (Villarreal, Benfica and Lille), the year the team finished outside the top two and didn’t win anything — rare back then.
Ferdinand was booed by his own fans for stalling on a contract despite being on full pay after his ban for missing a random drugs test the previous year. Fans openly questioned Ferguson, too. The cover of the final United We Stand fanzine of 2005 was all black with the words: “2005 — goodbye and good riddance to United’s annus horribilis”.
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Losing the FA Cup final — amid Arsenal fans’ taunts of “USA! USA!” — having played so well summed up United’s year. But the truth is not everyone performed at their best that day. Ferguson said that Van Nistelrooy had asked to leave the club on the eve of the FA Cup final — and the forward played horribly.
Keane later said: “I’d got injured in the first few minutes of that final, and ended up with a torn groin.” You wouldn’t have guessed it as he lasted for 120 minutes and did well. For him, Arsenal were the club’s main rivals.
At the start of that season, I interviewed Keane in a Philadelphia hotel where United were staying for the pre-season. “People mention Chelsea’s, Liverpool’s and Newcastle’s pre-season but we have to be realistic,” he told me. “For me, Arsenal are our biggest rivals. They have been our biggest challengers in the last 11 or 12 years.
“I know games against Liverpool, City and Leeds mean a lot to the fans — and I can understand that — but Arsenal are our biggest challengers. The rivalry is based on respect. And I think it goes both ways. There have been one or two incidents over the years but things like that happen. I’m sure they have a respect for us too.”
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Keane would leave in the months afterwards but United would return to Cardiff the following season for the League Cup final, beating Wigan Athletic 4-0 to win their first trophy in two years. Whereas fans liked Cardiff — due the abundance of pubs near the stadium and the non-London prices — the players didn’t. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reckoned the pitch was dry and slow, but that wasn’t a factor in the 2005 defeat.
“We battered them for 90 minutes, then ran them ragged in extra time and we created chance after chance but couldn’t take any of them,” said Paul Scholes in his book My Story.
“Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the bar when it seemed a certainty that he’d score and I missed a couple of opportunities which haunt me to this day. I just don’t know how we didn’t win. In the end, it was my fault that we didn’t take the FA Cup home to Manchester. Ten people took penalties and only one missed. Me!”
Arsenal were winners on the day of the ‘kings’ photo (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)
Scholes took the second kick, Van Nistelrooy having put his away. “In truth, it wasn’t a great effort,” Scholes wrote. “I telegraphed where it was going and it was the perfect height for Jens Lehmann to make a save, diving to his right. I was praying that Arsenal would cock one up but they never did.”
It was the only one of the 10 penalties which were missed and Arsenal won a 10th FA Cup, one behind United. They now have 14 to United’s 13. What happens on Sunday at the Emirates means a great deal to both clubs, though Arsenal are still in the League Cup and are second in the Premier League, chasing the title — their likely priority.
For United, if they lose at the Emirates on Sunday there may be some comfort in the 2005 photograph in a ‘darkest hour before the dawn’ sense.
After that Cardiff loss, United went on to win the League Cup in 2006, the Champions League in 2008, and three Premier League titles between 2007 and 2009. All the players in the picture, bar Keane and Fortune, played their part.
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( Top photo: John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)
