The previous year we’d been knocked out of the Uefa Cup in the first round by Rotor Volgograd. We might be champions of England but this wasn’t form to terrify the rest of the world, especially when in the autumn of 1996 we stumbled through the Champions League group stage. We lost the club’s 40-year unbeaten record at home, defeated by Fenerbahçe, and went down in both games to Juventus – the European champions, and one of the best teams I ever faced.
