Manchester United were set to be crowned Premier League champions on Saturday, May 13 2012. The final whistle had gone at the Stadium of Light and United had done everything within their power to clinch the title.
Wayne Rooney scored the game's only goal against Sunderland that afternoon and Sir Alex Ferguson sheepishly applauded after the match from the touchline, as his players uncomfortably stood on the pitch. It was awkward. The uncertainty was insufferable.
United were waiting on news from the Etihad and Rene Meulensteen, United's first-team coach, walked down the tunnel in search of answers. He knew Simon Wells, United's video analyst, was following the Manchester City match.
READ MORE: Our Rene Meulensteen interview from 2020 on why United flopped after Ferguson's retirement
"I wanted to see what was really going on," Meulensteen explained to the Manchester Evening News , over a coffee in Wilmslow, Manchester. "Then Simon walked out. He had his hands on his head. He said ‘they’ve just f***** scored’."
It is the 10th anniversary of Sergio Aguero's goal in two months yet Meulensteen still struggles to find the words to describe how that moment felt. The disappointment was toxifying and Ferguson knew he needed to somehow turn that to his advantage.
"Everyone came back to the dressing room and Ferguson made his speech," Meulensteen recalled. "It was so good in the circumstances, especially for the young kids. He said: ‘just remember this, just remember how it feels.
"I want you to remember how it feels to be so close and then for it to be ripped out of your hands."
It wasn't just the players that were bereft. Meulensteen admitted he and his colleagues went on holiday in an awful mood that summer, but when he returned for pre-season, he encountered hunger in the player's eyes. They wanted revenge.
"It was the mentality of, let's get a rest and we’ll come back and we'll smash them. That was from day one," Meulensteen added.
While Ferguson drew up his plans for the next campaign, noise emerged from North London that last season's Premier League Golden Boot winner, Robin van Persie, who had just scored 30 goals, wasn't keen on staying at Arsenal.
"We heard if he was going stay in England, there was only one club and one manager he wanted to play for," Meulensteen explained.
Ferguson knew he needed to act on that information. United made their advances and the transfer was sealed three days before the season's opener against Everton. Van Persie, then aged 29, had officially left Arsenal for United in a £24m deal.
"Robin was so keen on coming to United because he desperately wanted to win the Premier League," Meulensteen added. "At the beginning of the season. Ferguson was saying to Robin, 'look you need a squad number and there’s only two available'.
"I stood there and said well that’s easy because if we win the title it’s going to be the 20th title, and he thought that was great."
Van Persie scored on his full debut at Old Trafford, producing the game's first goal in United's 3-2 win over Fulham, and he scored a hat-trick in the following match against Southampton, with two of those strikes coming in the last five minutes.
Meulensteen admitted Van Persie had made a stellar impression in training from the moment he arrived at Carrington and, with his fellow countryman making an excellent start to life at the club, he wanted to 'pick his brains' to get insight into rivals Arsenal.
"I used to pick his brains about well, what were you guys doing at Arsenal? Is it comparable? Because obviously at Arsenal, Wenger was still doing a lot of training sessions," Meulensteen recalled.
"With us at United, I was doing it and Ferguson was on the sideline. Those were the sort of differences and he would say overall, this is a massive, massive difference in terms of quality, intensity, and it's far more game-realistic.
"He said the key information that's given about how are we going to win games was different, and analysis on the opposition."
Although Van Persie hit the ground running at United, scoring five goals across his first five games, Meulensteen knew the importance of building a relationship between the centre-forward and United's players during training sessions at Carrington.
"I had the task to very quickly establish a wide connection between our midfield players and Robin," Meulensteen explained.
"He was a sniper and he timed his runs. There's a very small window and it’s offside if you don't pick that window. So I needed to make those midfielders aware, this was the link between Fabregas and Van Persie, this was a link with Arteta.
"We'd show them clips. With Scholes, you’d only have to tell him once, but all the other ones, Michael Carrick, Anderson, for example, I’d say have a look at this because it might be you in that position and you need to spot his runs.
"I'd devise a lot of sessions around it and they got that click that we were after, which happened quickly."
Meulensteen's training sessions were devised around five principles: purpose, challenge, quality, intensity and enjoyment. He speaks with great passion in our coffee shop chat, and he was visibly proud when revealing that he never had a complaint from a player over his sessions.
He described that as the 'biggest compliment' he got during his time at the club and he also revealed that most players at United would stay back for extra training every day. Meulensteen was in charge of extra shooting drills after regular sessions.
United had been involved in four 3-2 wins by the time they beat Reading 4-3 on Saturday, December 1. Van Persie scored his 10th goal of the season in that match, however, United weren't winning games like Ferguson's Premier League winners of yesteryear.
They were conceding more than usual, outscoring the opposition instead. "We were conceding goals, but we were still winning," Meulensteen recalled. "But Ferguson always emphasised the importance of clean sheets.
"We took pride in having good records about not conceding, but we also knew that we wanted to play in an attacking type of style of football. Sometimes we were maybe a little bit open and maybe a little cavalier."
Meulensteen explained one of Ferguson's greatest strengths was he delegated to his staff. That's already on record and well known; Ferguson trusted his coaches and they wanted to repay that faith. It was an approach that obviously worked.
Meulensteen developed a great relationship with players during his time as first-team coach and he admitted they appreciated the one-to-one feedback. He was the go-between. Solutions to any tactical problems could be found before they reached Ferguson.
But United didn't have many problems in the 2012/13 season and they went into the Manchester derby in December with a three-point advantage over Roberto Mancini's side. United were hungry and prepared to lay down the marker at the Etihad.
United were two goals ahead at the interval thanks to Rooney's brace, but Yaya Toure halved that advantage in the second half. Carlos Tevez, already loathed by United fans, then brought City level with four minutes of normal time remaining.
"We were the better team, but we gave our advantage away and let them come back into the game," Meulensteen explained.
United had allowed City to draw level, but they managed to win a free-kick in the 90th minute — it was their last opportunity.
"Robin lines up for that free-kick and I think to myself, if there’s any such thing as karma or something happening for a reason, then if this goes in, we must be on to win the league. We were perfectly behind him to watch it," Meulensteen added.
"When that f****** ball went in, it was just great, to win the derby, away from home, 3-2, we knew how significant it was. It was also significant for Robin." United extended their lead in the Premier League to six points with that win at the Etihad.
" No, there was no complacency," insisted Meulensteen. "With the sort of experience that we had in that group, especially with what had happened the season before, there was absolutely no danger of complacency."
The Manchester derby win was the fourth game in a run of 18 fixtures [16 wins and two draws] in the Premier League stretching between the end of November to the start of April in which United went undefeated. They had the momentum.
Across those fixtures was a derby defeat of Liverpool at Old Trafford in January, but the most enthralling match from that sensational run was on Boxing Day 2012, when United beat Newcastle 4-3 with a late Javier Hernandez goal at Old Trafford.
"I have to say I loved Chicharito from the moment he walked in the door," Meulensteen said. "This great Mexican kid just had bags of energy. He was brave like a lion, he was small, but he wasn’t fazed by coming to United. He was just loving every minute of it.
"He knew his role and place. Of course he wanted to start more and if he did start, he would press and he would put himself about, but we also knew if he had to come from the bench, he was that guy that would be an absolute nuisance.
"He wanted to prove the manager could count on him when he needed him and that’s a big attitude to have."
Ferguson had United rolling along and then an opening appeared. City drew against QPR, Liverpool and lost against Southampton across three consecutive games and it was a chance for United to put some daylight between themselves and their rivals.
United played Everton next and Ferguson started a full-strength side despite being set to play Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16 at the Bernabeu just three days later. United beat Everton 2-0 and drew 1-1 in the Spanish capital.
United had extended their lead at the top to 12 points and Danny Welbeck's goal against Madrid had given them an away goal to take back to Old Trafford in the next leg, but that game would be marred by controversy, with Nani receiving a dubious red card.
"I've never seen the stadium in shock like that," Meulensteen recalled. "I couldn’t believe my eyes. Ferguson went to the fourth official and went bananas. He was furious, and in hindsight, even more so because he knew it was his last chance."
United lost 2-1 at home to Madrid in that match, crashing out of the Champions League. Ferguson was incensed at the red card and refused to do media interviews after the defeat, but United's 12-point lead at the top of the table soon offered him some comfort.
There was one problem: Van Persie's goals had dried up (United were still scoring without him, though).
"He was on a little bit of a dry spell and I sat him down. I developed a video with Simon and we included all of the goals he had scored and the chances he had missed," Meulensteen explained.
"In the beginning, he wasn't looking for goals, he was looking for opportunities and the results were goals. Now he was looking for goals and they weren't coming. So I said you need to reset your button, trust your instincts, do it quickly and don't think about it.
"And then the penalty came, you know against Stoke, and he scored and came running over. That was brilliant."
After Van Persie's goal at Stoke, United were officially Premier League champions two games later, beating Aston Villa 3-0 at Old Trafford. It is a game that defines the season for many, with Van Persie scoring a hat-trick through priceless brilliance.
Van Persie's second goal — a special volley from the edge of the box — took the Old Rraffird roof off, but Meulensteen took a unique sense of pleasure from the strike. He had practised that exact routine with Van Persie and Rooney at Carrington just days before.
"W e discovered a trend with their centre-backs and we practised the routine in training," Meulensteen explained before picking up a pen to draw the drill. "That’s when the whole season came together in one move and one finish. It was amazing.
"You look at everybody enjoying it in the stadium, the players engaging with the fans, Ferguson loved it, the interview he did after it, it was brilliant. Especially after the fact that the year before we lost it on the final day."
After losing the title by one goal the season before, United won the Premier League that day with four games remaining. The trophy was lifted on the final home game of the season and Old Trafford was awash with a sea of red and emotion.
Manchester United were Premier League champions again. "After, I really celebrated it with a lot of friends, who we were Man United fans. They loved it and they loved me being there with them," Meulensteen recalled.
"The big parade was truly amazing, though. Unbelievable. It was spread everywhere in Manchester. It was just incredible.
"I always said to David Gill [United's former chief executive], you need to celebrate every trophy because if you start not celebrating your small trophies, it could be a long time before you start winning a big one."
"It was the best time I’ve experienced, especially working with Sir Alex Ferguson so closely," Meulensteen added. "There was always high expectations at United, but those expectations never transferred into stress or anxiety.
"That was purely because of how the manager went about his daily business and his man-management skills. I always say to the players, the number of laughs we had, the amount of fun we shared together - it was just phenomenal."
United are unrecognisable to the club Meulensteen left behind in 2013. They're set to equal their longest run without a trophy for 40 years at the end of the season and Meulensteen admitted the Glazers took the success Ferguson achieved for granted.
"From an owner point of view, United have been exported as a brand, which is great, but now the success isn’t there," Meulensteen said, with the coffees now finished. "They're still a big brand, but what is United without success? It’s not Man United."
It's the Manchester derby on Sunday and the gulf in quality between the two sides has the potential to shine a bright light on United's decline.
United fans will certainly agree with Meulensteen. Manchester United aren't Manchester United without success.
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Muelensteen was speaking to the Manchester Evening News in association with Optegra Eye Hospital.
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