Manchester United documentary ‘99 is an exquisite hit of nostalgia to distract from club’s present woes

There was a time when the period dramas television executives rushed to commission involved the writings of Jane Austen, not the musings of Phil Neville. Though that time was the 1990s, a decade that has led to a growth industry in Manchester United nostalgia. Which, as the last quarter of a century has taken them from “football, bloody hell” to “football, bloody mess”, may be unsurprising. The past is infinitely preferable to the present for them.

After Netflix’s documentary comes Amazon’s ’99; made by the same production company, covering some of the same ground, with many of the same faces; most of the stories are familiar, the footage well-worn but still spine-tingling. United’s greatest season is ripe for revisiting,