283: Massimo Taibi, Manchester United, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2000, Millennium Edition Sticker Collection

During a recent episode of Richard Osman’s House of Games the comedian Ivo Graham answered an obscure question about Renaissance art with the name “Massimo Taibi”. Two years ago Ivo Graham led his cricket club to a one wicket win against mine courtesy of some hastily recruited ringers from a sun-drenched London Fields basking in the aftermath of England’s 6-0 win over Panama. As the man tasked with bowling at the death and seeing Ivo’s very new mates score the winning runs I’ve held a completely unnecessary grudge against him ever since but, with two simple Italian words, all was forgiven. That’s the power of Massimo Taibi for you.

In May 1999 Manchester United completed an historic treble capped off with an infamous win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final which was so dramatic that David May couldn’t contain his excitement. That famous night in Barcelona was also the last competitive game that the great Peter Schmeichel played for the Red Devils and he demonstrated his joy at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s injury-time winner with a cartwheel across his penalty area. Since joining United in 1991 the Danish keeper had won five Premier League titles, three FA Cups, one League Cup, four Charity Shields, one European Super Cup and now, in his final game, the Champions League. Filling his shoes would not be an easy task.

United managed to convince Mark Bosnich to return to the club from Aston Villa to work alongside Schmeichel’s long-term understudy Raimond van der Gouw. However, early season injuries to both men led the newly knighted Sir Alex Ferguson to fork out £4.5m to bring Massimo Taibi to Old Trafford. Taibi was an experienced goalkeeper who had had two spells at AC Milan and had helped promoted side Venezia to a solid mid-table finish in Serie A during the 1998/99 season. His United debut came against fierce rivals Liverpool and, despite an early error leading to a Sami Hyypia goal, Taibi made a series of impressive saves to help his side to a 3-2 victory and himself to the man of the match award. So far, so good.

United drew their next game with Wimbledon before taking on Southampton at Old Trafford. With United 2-1 up Matt Le Tissier took aim from 25 yards out. Now several great goalkeepers had been embarrassed by the Saints’ legend’s long-range strikes over the years and, had ‘Le God’ connected with his usual aplomb, no one would have blamed Massimo Taibi for being beaten from such a distance. Except Le Tissier had connected so poorly with the ball that he had turned away in disgust as it trickled towards the Italian keeper. Taibi did everything right in lining up the shot and getting his body behind his outstretched arms but then the ball got past his arms. And then under his body. And then through his legs. Oh mate.

Dwight Yorke swiftly made amends at other end but Marian Pahars’ cross was turned in by Le Tissier to give Saints an impressive draw and pundits several reasons to question United’s new signing. In Taibi’s defence Southampton had been something of a bogey side for the Red Devils in the late 90s with their 3-1 win in the 1995/96 season prompting Ferguson to change his team’s kit at half-time. An even more embarrassing 6-3 loss at The Dell came in the middle of a disastrous run of three defeats in the 1996/97 season which saw United concede 13 goals. Schmeichel had kept goal in all four of these games and was prone to the odd howler as shown in Barnsley’s famous FA Cup win over United in the 1997/98 campaign. The Dane always bounced back though and so did United so hopes were high that Taibi’s nightmare performance against Southampton was a one off.

United travelled to Stamford Bridge for their next Premier League game and, despite the disappointment of the results against Wimbledon and Southampton, were secure in the knowledge that they had not tasted defeat in 29 league games. After just 27 seconds Taibi flew off his line to collect Dan Petrescu’s cross but instead collided with teammate Dennis Irwin allowing Gus Poyet to head into an empty net. Oh mate. Chelsea doubled their lead after 15 minutes when Chris Sutton headed home his first goal for the club and when Nicky Butt was sent off for kicking Dennis Wise the wheels well and truly came off. Paul Scholes was lucky to escape a red card for lashing out at Sutton, Poyet scored again and Henning Berg contributed an own goal to make it 4-0 to the hosts. Substitute Jody Morris completed the rout when he nutmegged Taibi with eight minutes left who must have been wondering what he’d done to deserve such a bad day at the office.

Massimo Taibi never played for United again and was farmed out on loan to Reggina in January 2000. At the end of the season he made the move permanent for the sum of £2.5m. Finally Taibi was able to put in a Schmeichelesque performance when he headed home a late equaliser to secure a point at home against Udinese. Unfortunately Reggina were relegated from Serie A at the end of the 2000/01 season and Taibi moved on to Atalanta where he racked up over 100 appearances for the Bergamo club. When he finally hung up his gloves in 2009 Taibi had made 569 professional appearances during which he had saved twelve penalties placing him in ninth place in the all-time list of Serie A penalty stoppers; some way ahead of the likes of Dino Zoff and Sebastiano Rossi. Yet, somewhat unfairly, the poor bloke will always be remembered for those four fateful games for Manchester United. Just ask Ivo Graham.