Manchester United needed a title. It had been 26 long years and as the Premier League era dawned in August 1992, the memories of a painful second place finish were still fresh in Old Trafford minds.
United had come within a whisker of ending their title drought in the final campaign of the old first division. Sir Alex Ferguson's side finished four points behind rivals Leeds United, after a stuttering finish not helped by fixture congestion.
It meant the weight of expectation was heavy on the squad ahead of a new season. But by May and a landmark title success, that weight had been lifted.
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Speaking 30 years on from a pivotal campaign in United's history, defender Gary Pallister, who was an ever present that term, recalls just how much of a milestone the success really was.
"Listen, it was the Holy Grail," he said, speaking to MEN Sport via aceodds.com. "It had been 26 years without winning the title which, for a club like Manchester United, the size of club that it was, there was no real threats - except Liverpool in terms of football - but the size of Manchester United, it was still seen as the biggest club in the world. One of the top three biggest clubs in the world. It had gone 26 years without winning the title. So, yeah, it was just getting the monkey off the back, wasn't it? It was laying that ghost to rest.
"We came close the year before when we got pipped by Leeds. We had to play, I think it was four games or five games in 10 days, whatever ridiculous amount of games it was, it was crazy."
United's start to the inaugural Premier League season could not have gone much worse with back-to-back defeats against Sheffield United and Everton leading to a negative atmosphere. However, similarly to Erik ten Hag's class of 2022/23, United found their feet and went 11 games unbeaten. In late November, disaster struck for Dion Dublin as a broken leg saw him ruled out for six months.
To fill the striker gap, Ferguson turned to old foes Leeds and Eric Cantona. The Frenchman's arrival at Old Trafford would prove a masterstroke.
Cantona scored his first league goal for the club in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea in late December and netted another eight while grabbing 11 assists as the catalyst behind United's push for glory. The Reds lost just twice between Cantona's arrival and the end of the season and finally broke their duck. For Pallister that was the turning point which set the club on the road to greater triumph.
"To get over the line and take that pressure off teams that came after 1993 was integral, I think," the former centre-back said. "I think it just freed everything up, freed the players up, freed the manager up, took away that feeling from the fans on a match day when you were getting closer, and that maybe fed through with the players on the pitch sometimes.
"So to get that over the line and get it done in '1993 was pivotal to this success. I think under Sir Alex after that, I think the teams that came through until he left didn't have to deal with that kind of pressure that maybe we dealt with in 1992 and in 1993. It just laid the foundations for them to go on and be the best in Europe as well."
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