I fired Manchester United to the Treble - but Sir Alex Ferguson told me I was a failure

After winning back-to-back Premier League titles in 1996 and 1997, imagine the frustration Manchester United must have felt at missing out on a third successive crown in 1998 by a single point.

United had won four of the first five Premier League titles, scooping two either side of being pipped to the 1995 crown by Blackburn Rovers.

The Lancashire outfit, who were under the stewardship of Sir Kenny Dalglish at the time, beat United to top spot by a single point. It was the exact same scenario when Arsenal pipped United to the summit in 1998.

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United ended the 1997/98 season having won just the Community Shield. They exited the FA Cup at the fifth round stage, bowed out of the League Cup at the third round stage and said farewell to the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.

It meant United, during the summer of 1998, had to come up with the plan for how they could wrestle back the Premier League title and become a stronger force in Europe. Sir Alex Ferguson decided loosening the purse strings in the transfer market would help his team's case.

Jaap Stam was the first statement signing of the summer, arriving from PSV Eindhoven to strengthen the defence, before Trinidad and Tobago international Dwight Yorke arrived from Aston Villa. United signed the striker in a deal worth north of £12.5million two days before their second Premier League game of the campaign.

Yorke had established himself as one of the Premier League's most reliable goalscorers, scoring 46 times across the three proceeding Premier League campaigns prior to moving to Old