Sir Alex Ferguson is wrong when he says 2013 Manchester United side ranks alongside the greats Which Manchester United team do you rate highest? Ferguson's first great team, the one which ended the club's 26-year wait for a league title in 1993 and then won the league and FA Cup double 12 months later, stands out as the manager's most fearsome and combative. But for Uefa's controversial "foreigners" rule" in Europe, which forced Ferguson to omit Peter Schmeichel in favour of Gary Walsh for a 4-0 Champions League mauling against Barcelona, the team of Cantona, Hughes, Kanchelskis, Keane and Ince would have gone much closer to European glory. Domestically, however, that team was dominant. It possessed the flair of Giggs, Kanchelskis and Cantona, the brilliance of Schmeichel and the warrior spirit of Hughes, Bruce, Ince and Keane. The second Ferguson team to win votes is the Treble-winning outfit of 1999. Like the 1993-94 team, this side had power and physical presence - Roy Keane was at his peak - but it also possessed the pace and craft required to conquer Europe and the four-pronged attack of Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer which ultimately delivered the historic achievement of three major trophies in one season. That team won countless games at the death, most memorably against Bayern Munich in the Nou Camp in the Champions League final, and to many, it remains Ferguson's greatest. Treble winners: the United team of 1999 is considered by many to be Ferguson's greatest Yet the class of 2008 goes close to claiming that mantle. But for a controversial FA Cup quarter-final defeat at home to Portsmouth, United could have landed a second Treble, rather than the double of Premier League and Champions League. In 2008, United had the experience of Edwin van der Sar in goal, a formidable defensive pairing of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand in their prime, Owen Hargreaves dominant in defensive midfield and the devastating ability of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tévez upfront. It was a team which almost became the first to retain the European Cup in the Champions League era, ultimately losing to Barcelona in Rome in the 2009 final, so it's greatness was marked out by its ability to remain at the summit for almost two years. The team of 2013 does not have an Eric Cantona or a Roy Keane, there is nobody to match Cristiano Ronaldo and it could even be argued that it does not have the Wayne Rooney of 2008. It will win United's 20th title and that is an achievement in itself, but it is not one of Ferguson's greatest.