Andrew Cole agrees with fellow Manchester United Treble winner Gary Neville that he would not swap any of his 1999 team-mates for the current Manchester City side amid Treble comparisons.
United won the Treble that year, beating Arsenal to the Premier League before an FA Cup final win over Newcastle United. A remarkable stoppage time comeback in Barcelona saw Bayern Munich beaten 2-1 and the Champions League claimed.
City have completed one third of that feat this season. They have sealed the Premier League title and take on United in the FA Cup final at Wembley, before heading to Istanbul to take on Inter Milan in the Champions League finale.
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That has naturally created debate comparing the two sides. On Monday Night Football recently, Neville did not select any of the current City players in his side when it came to a combination of Pep Guardiola's team and the 1999 United side.
Cole agrees with that stance and believes until another side matches their achievement, they are still the best. And the striker feels there is a lot of 'nonsense' spoken on the subject, taking issue with how the 1999 United side is being spoken about with hindsight.
He told the Daily Mail: "I wouldn't change what that team achieved. We're the first team to do it and until someone else actually does it, we're still the best team. You see all the nonsense people are saying.
"What makes me laugh is they talk about this '99 team as if it was bang average. That's just the disrespect people have for Manchester United and even more so that team.
"The craziest thing is everyone's trying to forget about what Manchester United achieved and the possibility of another team doing it and how this other team is far superior to the United team that actually achieved it.
"Of course, I'm going to sit here and say United [would beat current City team]. The eras are totally different, too. What you have to look at, too, is out of our '99 team, how many were home-grown talents? Six? So, you don't pay £50m, £60m, £70m for these players.
"If you look at how much money Man City have spent to find themselves in this position. In '99, that couldn't have been done. And because we had so much home-grown talent we didn't have to spend that money."
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