Liverpool supporters of a certain vintage spent part of their teenage years and early adulthood watching the superstars of Manchester United sweep all before them. How times have changed.
A huge part of that success was down to, of course, the managerial genius of Alex Ferguson, but also the emergence of a group of youth players that would go on to dominate top flight English football for well over a decade. Spawning the likes of Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville and Nicky Butt, the 'Class of '92' were young, talented and fearless and try as they might, Liverpool just couldn't match them.
Fast forward to 2021 and that tortured youth is now nothing but a distant memory. The footballing landscape could hardly look any different to how it was under Ferguson, certainly when it comes to comparing Liverpool and Manchester United. For their part, the Reds still produced a number of youngsters who went onto footballing stardom. Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and latterly Steven Gerrard were some of the clear success stories. The problem was, there just wasn't enough of them. Instead the Reds would speculate in the transfer market, with mixed results, in an attempt to keep pace with the all-conquering Manchester United. Often it was a futile exercise.
