Okay, so the other day I was rummaging through some old boxes, you know how it is, looking for something completely different. And what do I find? An old matchday programme from the 16/17 season. Instantly brought back a flood of memories, that whole weird, kind of up-and-down year under Mourinho’s first spell.
Seeing that programme, it got me thinking. I decided, right then and there, I wanted to sort of ‘relive’ that season a bit. Not just look up the results, but really try and remember the feel of it. So, first thing I did was dig out the old home shirt from that year. Found it stuffed at the back of the wardrobe, thankfully.
Getting Started
Then, I started trying to piece the season back together in my head. The big signings, right? Pogba coming back, Ibrahimovic arriving like royalty, Mkhitaryan, Bailly… quite the summer haul it felt like at the time. I spent a good chunk of an afternoon just searching online, not for articles, but for old fan forum threads and video clips from that period. It’s funny how much you forget.
Finding full matches is tough these days, obviously, but I managed to find extended highlights for a lot of the key games. I made a point of watching them chronologically, trying to get the flow of the season back.
The Ups and Downs
What really struck me going back through it was the contrast.
- The league form… man, so many draws! Especially at home. It was genuinely frustrating watching those highlights back, remembering how we’d dominate games but just couldn’t finish teams off.
- But then, the cups! Winning the Community Shield felt like a good start.
- The League Cup final against Southampton – what a game that was. Ibrahimovic really dragged us through that one.
- And of course, the Europa League. That felt massive at the time, not just the trophy, but getting back into the Champions League. The final in Stockholm, remembering the context around the Manchester Arena bombing just days before, it was quite an emotional win.
Key Moments I Revisited
Some specific things I hunted down clips for:
- Mkhitaryan’s scorpion kick against Sunderland. Still incredible to watch.
- Zlatan’s goals, obviously. He scored so many important ones that year. His free-kick winner in the League Cup final.
- Some of the frustrating league draws, just to remind myself it wasn’t all rosy.
- The celebrations after the Europa League final. You could see how much it meant to the players and Mourinho.
So yeah, that was my little project. Spent a few evenings just diving back into that 16/17 season. It wasn’t our best league campaign by a long shot, far from it, but winning three trophies? You can’t really argue with that. It was a strange, pragmatic, but ultimately successful season in its own way. Going through the motions of finding those old clips and just remembering the feeling around the club at that time was a pretty interesting way to spend a few hours. Definitely brought back a mix of frustration and pride, which pretty much sums up that whole year, I reckon.
