15 hours Ago By Ciaran Wiseman
Gary Neville once got in trouble for organising a 'crazy' Manchester United Christmas Party. The Red Devils' festive celebrations featured Dwight Yorke performing a party trick for his team-mates. Meanwhile, Roy Keane inspired a turnaround in United's season with an epic speech to end the party.
The wild festivities occurred during the club's historic 1998/99 campaign. Although they would end the season as treble winners, United were third in the Premier League and out of the League Cup. Sir Alex Ferguson's side had also only just squeezed through their Champions League group.
Several players recalled the turnaround following Neville's Christmas Party in Amazon Prime Video's '99' documentary . Speaking in the series, Yorke explained: "We needed some fun. The lads needed to release some of that tension that was building up.
"The Christmas party was a proper Christmas party. I've been to a few Christmas parties, but nothing like this one. "Before Keano has his say, Giggsy has his say, Gary Neville is in there somehow, I don't know what he's doing in there, but he's part of the organisers.
"What does he know about Christmas parties? A guy that hardly ever goes out. "I think it was 250 invites. I think I must have got 150 myself.
" Neville added: "We knew, more often than not, how to make sure that we looked after one another and we kept it private." However, Yorke - who scored 66 goals and provided 32 assists in 152 Man United appearances - admitted: "When we got there, the boys couldn't believe how many people were there. It was just crazy.
"And it's the best night. People who never drank, drank. I can tell you that.
" Meanwhile, Neville detailed some of the wild sights he came across during the festivities. The ex-Red Devils captain said: "The only thing that makes me sick if I'm ever out on a drink is shots. "And Yorkie used to walk around with shots on his head, balancing them.
You take a shot off and you stand up and you walk around to the next person. "Some of the lad's wives walked in and a couple of them had a go at me. This is your fault.
And I always remember thinking, ‘It ain't my fault that your husband's dancing on the bar with a girl’." Then skipper Keane went on to end the party with a rousing speech to his teammates in a bid to turn around their form. Neville added: "I remember Roy's speech at the end.
Galvanising everyone. "‘Enough's enough. Sort this out.
We need to start now." Peter Schmeichel continued the speech, recalling: "‘We can't do this. We can't play like this.
That's not who we are. We're a lot better than this.’ "So what we did was agree that we would not lose again.
And once we'd made that kind of commitment to each other, it kind of pushed us in the right frame of mind again." Following the party, United would go on to secure each of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Their trophy haul also saw the Red Devils avoid defeat from Boxing Day onwards across all competitions.
Ferguson's side completed their treble with a dramatic final victory over Bayern Munich in May 1999. Stoppage time goals from substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer snatched a 2-1 victory at the Nou Camp. Yorke also ended the historic season as United's top goalscorer in the Premier League [18] and in all competitions [29].
He really did like his shots..
