"Can't Win Anything With Kids" Manchester United's 1996 Triumph
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. In this week's episode, co-hosts Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper revisit the 1995-96 Premier League season. 30 years on from one of the great title races. They trace Manchester United's unlikely triumph, beginning with the summer meltdown that saw Ince, Hughes, and Kanchelskis all depart, the infamous opening-day defeat to Aston Villa, and Alan Hansen's immortal verdict. From Cantona's Paris crisis and Ferguson's diplomatic dinner to Newcastle's flying start and that seemingly insurmountable 12-point lead, Wilson and Draper unpick every twist. They examine Schmeichel's heroics in the pivotal March showdown at St James' Park, the Tino Asprilla effect, the curse of the grey shirts at The Dell, and finally the extraordinary moment Kevin Keegan lost his composure on live television.
00:00 Alan Hansen Sets the Scene
06:30 The Summer Meltdown — Ince, Hughes, Kanchelskis
12:45 Class of '92 and the Aston Villa Opener
19:20 Cantona's Paris Crisis and Ferguson's Rescue Mission
27:10 Newcastle's Flying Start and the 12-Point Lead
34:50 The March Showdown at St James' Park
42:15 Tino Asprilla and the Rodney Marsh Debate
48:00 Liverpool 4, Newcastle 3 — The Moment It Turned
53:40 The Grey Shirts and the Southampton Collapse
58:10 The Mind Games Begin
01:03:20 Keegan's Meltdown — "I Will Love It"
01:09:00 United Win the League and the Double
01:14:30 Why This Season Made the Premier League
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think they've got problems. I wouldn't say they've got major problems. |
| 0:11.0 | Obviously three players have departed. The trick is always buy when you're strong, so he needs to buy players. You can't win anything with kids. |
| 0:18.0 | You look at that line up today and Assyneville at quarter past two when they get at the team sheet, they're just going to give him a lift, and it'll happen every time he plays their kids. He's got a by-play is as simple as that. The trick of winning the championship is having strength in depth. They just haven't got it. Hello and welcome to It Was What It Was. I'm Jonathan Wilson and with Rob Draper. |
| 0:38.5 | And that was Alan Hanson himself coming on the show to read out and recapitulate his famous quote for match of the day on the opening weekend of the season in 95, 96, when he responded to Manchester United's 3-1 defeat to Ashton Villa by rising off them and all their young players |
| 0:58.3 | after they'd famously culled the squad in the summer. |
| 1:02.8 | So Rob, today we're going to be talking about that 95-96 season, famous, of course, for Sondon's promotion, |
| 1:08.5 | for Newcastle, failing gold under 12 point lead and some other team |
| 1:12.0 | won the league. Is that right? That's pretty much here. Yeah. Yeah, it was like Alan Hanson was in the room to be fair. That was one of your better impressions. I've got to say. I think very much. Yeah, it was like he was here. Let's not ruin the illusion. He was here. We got him to dial it in. |
| 1:26.9 | Yeah, it's 30 years since the |
| 1:28.8 | 1995-6th season came to a climax. And it was one of the |
| 1:33.2 | great seasons in the Premier League. So there's a couple of things we're |
| 1:36.0 | going to do today. We're going to look at the class of 92 |
| 1:39.7 | and how they were written off by Alan Hanson. And we're going to look at |
| 1:42.8 | Kevin Keegan's Meltdown and the other famous quote in part two. |
| 1:47.4 | And then we're just going to talk about how I believe this season, this period, I think it really makes the Premier League. |
| 1:54.1 | I think it's a springboard on which they can build because the entertainment is just so riveting and fantastic. |
| 2:01.7 | Our storylines are great. |
| 2:03.9 | But shall we start with a little bit of prehistory, the summer? |
| 2:08.5 | Yeah, why don't you give us some background? |
| 2:09.7 | So 94-5, Blackburn have won the league title, Everton have won the FA Cup, |
| 2:15.5 | and United have won nothing having, you know, |
| 2:19.4 | won the first two Premier League titles. |
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