Manchester City and Manchester United are two of the greatest rivals in English football.
Indeed, Manchester is very much divided into two halves – red and blue.
However, despite this fierce rivalry, a number of players over the years have crossed this divide.
Carlos Tevez controversially joined Manchester City from United in 2009, while, just this week, Joao Cancelo has been linked to Manchester United after a spell at City.
Speaking on The Rest is Football, Peter Schmeichel has been discussing his decision to cross the Manchester divide as he signed for Manchester City in 2002.
The Dane says that this was a difficult decision, and he actually called Sir Alex Ferguson before making this move.
What Alex Ferguson told Peter Schmeichel before Manchester City move
Schmeichel spoke about his decision to join Manchester City.
The goalkeeper says that he didn’t take this decision lightly, and he sought approval from Alex Ferguson before making the move.
The goalkeeper says that Fergie was fine with Schmeichel’s move to City. However, overall, he didn’t enjoy his time with the Cityzens.
“But then my option was to go back to Manchester and to Manchester City. That was an opportunity for me to go and work with Kevin Keegan. And what Kevin Keegan had done at the time was he’d taken the club from League One into the Championship and then into the Premier League,’ Schmeichel said.
And I started when they entered into the Premier League. And I didn’t do this lightly. Of course, I phoned Sir Alex up.
I spoke to him about it and he was fine. And the club was no threat to Man United at that time. And I felt that was really important that I wasn’t going to a Man United competitor.
And that’s how it came about. But I have to be honest. I mean, again, I met a lot of very, very nice people.
And some of them are still my friends now. But I didn’t like being there. I just didn’t sit well with me.”
Manchester City’s signings in 2002
Schmeichel says that he didn’t enjoy his time at Manchester City during the 2002/03 season, but this was a very exciting side.
Indeed, while it’s easy to forget about this City team in the wake of the club’s success over the past 15 years, that 2002 transfer window was rather groundbreaking.
This was a newly-promoted team signing big name players and trying to seriously push on.
| Manchester City signings in 2002/03 | Fee |
|---|---|
| Peter Schmeichel | Free transfer |
| Nicolas Anelka | £12m |
| Sylvain Distin | £4m |
| Robbie Fowler | £7m |
Robbie Fowler and Nicolas Anelka were world-class talents around this time, and while Schmeichel was a veteran, he was one of the greatest goalkeepers of all-time.
Sylvain Distin was another high-profile signing off the back of a successful loan spell with Newcastle too.
Ultimately, City would finish a respectable, ninth that season, qualifying for the UEFA Cup via the Fair Play League.
| Games | Wins | Draws | Losses | Points | League position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester City 2002/03 | 38 | 15 | 6 | 17 | 51 | 9th |
As for Schmeichel, he put up decent numbers at City, conceding just 38 goals in 29 Premier League apperances for the club.
| Games | Goals conceded | Clean sheets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Schmeichel stats for Manchester City | 29 | 38 | 9 |
City would kick on in years to come under the Abu Dhabi ownership, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that City were incredibly ambitious in the early 2000s too.
