Neville argues why 2008 squad is best Manchester United side ever

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has explained why the side that won the Champions League against Chelsea in 2008 were United's best-ever team.

During a stunning three-year period between 2006 and 2009, United won three consecutive Premier League titles as well as beating Chelsea in Moscow on penalties.

On top of that, United lost in the semi-finals of the Champions League to eventual winners AC Milan in 2006-07 and then lost the 2008-09 final to Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, widely considered to be the best ever club team in world football.

All of that aids Neville's belief that this particular Sir Alex Ferguson squad was the club's greatest ever - and was only slightly short of being remembered in the same way as that aforementioned Barcelona side.

“Without that great Barcelona team, I think that this would've been the greatest. There were eight players, I would say at the time Edwin Van der Sar, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, you could put them in any team in the world, they were world class," he told Sky Sports.

“I don't think Manchester United have ever had a team that had so many world class players, and I look back at all the teams in history. Of course there has been world-class players at Manchester United but to have eight almost nine best in position almost in the world at that time, it was an unbelievable team.

“I watched it first-hand from the stands as at the time I was captain but I was injured. I was thinking 'woah'. Ronaldo for two years, Rooney at his peak, Tevez at his peak, it's a different level to the front threes now that we have in the Premier League and there's some real high standards. It's a different level.

“The best front three I've ever seen is Luis Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi and that's the only front three where I think yeah, ok. You might have to go back to the 1980's of AC Milan, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and those players. That to me was something special at Manchester United, it was breathtaking, something continental.

“In 1999 it was a British team, this was a truly international team. By design, by faith in Ronaldo, faith in Rooney, signing Vidic and Evra at the time for very low money in the January transfer window, good recruitment, some good homegrown players still in the team, great experience and great players. I think it is the greatest Manchester United team of all time.”