Throwback Thursday: Alan Hansen Tells Manchester United “You can’t win anything with kids”

In the early stages of the Premier League era, Manchester United was the team to beat. Having won two of the first three Premier League titles, Sir Alex Ferguson decided to cast away some of his stars in favour of promising prospects from the United academy.

As the world was gearing up for the release of Windows ’95 in late August, Manchester United appeared to be in limbo. Having won the first two Premier League titles, they had been beaten out by Blackburn Rovers for the 1994/95 title, despite the marquee signing of Andrew Cole.

Many predicted that United would strengthen over the summer. Surely Alex Ferguson, back in the days before his knighthood, would not let this slide.

As news broke of Alan Shearer, one of the stars of the title-winning Blackburn side, signing with Newcastle United, it was clear that Ferguson would have to do something drastic to win back the title.

The Scot had seen his team collapse in the title race without Eric Cantona, who was serving a ban for that infamous kung-fu kick in a game against Crystal Palace. His mind was made up; changes needed to be made.