296: David May, Manchester United, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

The 1998/99 season wasn’t a bad one for Manchester United. In the space of ten days they won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League to secure a unique treble of trophies and ensure that any United fan will always have a riposte should you mention Eric Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson or, worst still, David Moyes. As the third and final piece of silverware was presented to the jubilant players in Barcelona’s Nou Camp one man stood head and shoulders above his team-mates. Not the giant goalkeeper and captain for the night Peter Schmeichel, not the goal-scoring heroes Teddy Sheringham or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and not the suspended club captain Roy Keane who, for all his faults, was never a man to ‘do a John Terry’. Instead the picture capturing arguably Manchester United’s greatest moment was dominated by the smiling face of unused substitute David May.


May was widely ridiculed at the time for his enthusiasm on that famous night in Barcelona and, in some ways, it’s fair to see why. Not only had May spent the entire night on the bench but he had not even featured in a single game during United’s run to the final and had only notched up nine appearances in all competitions throughout the season. Despite this he ended the season with two winner’s medals – one for the Champions League and one for the FA Cup where he started the final, his sole appearance in the competition that season. Not a bad return for nine days’ work.

However, it seems unfair to judge David May too harshly. A very limited number of professional footballers can claim to have been in the matchday squad for a Champions League final and surely the likes of Jonathan Greening and Scott Carson deserve to enjoy their moment of glory as much as David Beckham and Steven Gerrard? After all, by playing the full ninety minutes and keeping a clean sheet in the FA Cup final, David May allowed United to rest their preferred centre-half pairing of Jaap Stam and Ronny Johnsen for the clash with Bayern.

There’s also a chance that David May was merely releasing some pent up frustration in his exuberant celebration of United’s treble triumph. May was an integral part of Kenny Dalglish’s Blackburn Rovers side that had risen from the old Second Division to become Premier League title challengers in the early 1990s. However, at the end of the 1993/94 season, talks between May and the Rovers’ money men stalled and Alex Ferguson shelled out £1.2m to bring the versatile defender to Old Trafford to bolster his squad ahead of their defence of their Premier League title. May underperformed in his debut season, often covering at right-back for the injured Paul Parker, and, having lost his place in the side to a young Gary Neville, saw the title go to his former employers Blackburn at the end of the 1994/95 season.

May finally got his hands on a Premier League winner’s medal in the following season as he regularly filled in for the ageing Steve Bruce and he scored the first goal in the title-clinching win over Middlesbrough. When Bruce departed ahead of the 1996/97 season May ably stepped into the centre of defence and racked up over 40 appearances in all competitions as United regained their Premier League crown. Despite remaining with the club until 2003, and playing in six title winning seasons, these were the only Premier League medals that May collected owing to the somewhat questionable rules behind their allocation.

Having fought hard to force his way into one of the best sides in Premier League history it seems unfair that David May has so little personal silverware to show for his time at United. However, judging by his regular appearances on the club’s official channel MUTV, he does not seem bitter about it. A quote attributed to May suggests he has a half-decent sense of humour. After starting the scoring in United’s title-winning defeat of Middlesbrough in 1996 he is said to have stated that “the defender leapt like a salmon…but I leapt like a fresher salmon and scored.” With such a spring in his step it’s perhaps unsurprising that he towered above his more celebrated teammates on that fateful night in Barcelona and, despite his travails at Old Trafford, that was one medal that couldn’t be taken away from him.

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