What happened next after teams won the treble?

Manchester City were rightly crowned Kings of Europe in 2023, won the Premier League by five points, and beat rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup final.

Many fans expected City to win the treble. After all, they are one of the richest clubs on the planet and have Pep Guardiola leading the team. Erling Haaland’s acquisition and subsequent record-breaking debut season was the final piece of the jigsaw.

But what happens to treble winning sides afterwards? City became only the 10th team in history to claim the European Cup / Champions League, the domestic championship and the domestic cup. They joined an illustrious list of treble winners.

Looking back in history, it’s possible to gauge just how good this City team is as Guardiola seeks to achieve a repeat of the 2022/23 season. Will their supremacy last, or will they stumble a year on from their remarkable triumph?

List of Treble Winners

Here are the 10 treble winning teams in history. We’re defining football treble winners as a team claiming their domestic league, domestic cup, and either the European Cup or Champions League. So, while Liverpool achieved a cup treble in 2001, and Rangers have claimed nine domestic trebles, they don’t count here.

After all, we’re comparing City’s treble defence to what others did down the years. We need to therefore compare like-for-like.

Bayern Munich and Barcelona are the only teams in the treble winners list to have ever done it twice. Remarkably, Real Madrid have never won a treble despite being crowned European champions on 14 occasions.

There were just four treble winners in 32 years between Celtic’s triumph in 1967 and Manchester United’s remarkable achievement in 1999. Six more teams have managed the feat since 2009.

What Happened Next to Each Treble Winning Team?

Celtic – 1967/68

The famous Lisbon Lions won the treble in 1967. The following season Jock Stein eyed another European campaign but Celtic suffered a first-round defeat to Dynamo Kyiv. They also slumped to a 2-0 first-round defeat to Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup.

Still, Stein steered Celtic to a successful league title defence and they also won the Scottish League Cup. They also played Racing Club of Argentina in the Intercontinental Cup, losing 1-0 in Montevideo after drawing the two-legged game 2-2 on aggregate.

Celtic reached the European Cup final again in 1970 where they lost to Feyenoord, and added six further Scottish championships before their streak came to an end in 1975.

Ajax – 1971/72

Ajax's remarkable treble in 1972 would, for most clubs, have been the standout achievement of their history. However, their Eredivisie, KNVB Cup and European Cup triumph that season came in the middle of Ajax's period of global dominance.

Ajax won the Eredivisie six times between 1966 and 1973. They won four KNVB Cups, three European Cups, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. The treble was an achievement but not out of the norm.

They won the league the following season and the European Cup for a third straight year, defeating Juventus 1-0 in the final. They bombed out of the KNVB Cup, so there was no repeat of the treble. To make up for that, they won the UEFA Super Cup and beat Argentina's Independiente to lift the Intercontinental Cup.

PSV – 1987/88

Ajax were still winning trophies into the 1980s but PSV, not Feyenoord, become their main rivals. PSV beat Ajax to the Eredivisie title every season from 1986 to 1989. PSV also went on to match Ajax's treble in 1988 when sweeping the league, KNVB Cup and European Cup.

It was a remarkable achievement for the Dutch champions, who had beaten Real Madrid en route to a final with Benfica. They edged the showdown 6-5 on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes.

PSV completed a league and cup double the following season but fell to Real Madrid in the European Cup quarters.

Manchester United – 1998/99

Manchester United survived multiple instances to become the first English treble winners in 1998/99. Arsenal's defeat to Leeds two games before the end of the Premier League season opened the door for United to win the title. They got through that famous FA Cup semi-final replay with the Gunners before waltzing past Newcastle in the final. In Europe, two stoppage-time goals reversed the final against Bayern Munich, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the hero.

United won the league the following season at a canter. However, they bombed out of the League Cup at the earliest opportunity, controversially withdrew from the FA Cup, and fell at the Champions League quarters.

A year later Sir Alex Ferguson announced he would retire following a falling-out with the club's board. He relented and stayed on for another 12 years, during which time United won another Champions League, seven more Premier League titles, and a further FA Cup.

Barcelona – 2008/09

Pep Guardiola took over as Barcelona head coach in the summer of 2008. Within a year Barca were treble winners. They smashed the league, beat Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final, and edged Manchester United 2-0 in the Champions League final. Lionel Messi was the most talked-about young player in world football, although it was Samuel Eto'o who top-scored for Barca that season.

A year later and Barcelona recorded 99 points to beat Real Madrid to the La Liga title by three points. They slumped out of the Copa del Rey, and lost to Inter Milan in the Champions League semis.

However, they also won the Supercopa, UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Real's domestic campaign pushed Barcelona all the way – so much so that even a team as dominant as Guardiola's tiki-taka maestros had to relent somewhere.

Inter – 2009/10

After Barcelona there came Inter. Trebles were beginning to be the norm in Europe. Inter won their fifth straight Serie A title in 2010, edging Roma by two points. They also beat Roma in the Coppa Italia final. The Champions League final later that spring was a display of Jose Mourinho mastery as he orchestrated a 2-0 triumph over Bayern Munich in the Bernabeu.

Mourinho quit Inter at the peak of his powers in the summer of 2010. Rafael Benitez took over but lasted until December, when he was sacked. Leonardo took over and managed to haul Inter to second place in Serie A.

The team won the Coppa Italia again and landed the Club World Cup. However, they surrendered the Serie A to rivals Milan, and a year later Juventus began their decade of dominance. Never had a team collapsed so badly after winning a treble.

Bayern Munich – 2012/13

Bayern Munich had gone two whole seasons without winning the Bundesliga when heading into the 2012/13 campaign. No wonder they went big that year. Stung from using the Champions League final on their home patch to Chelsea the year previous, Philipp Lahm and co. went on the offensive.

They won the Bundesliga by 25 points, the DFB-Pokal with a win over Stuttgart, and beat Dortmund to claim the Champions League. A year later Bayern won the league and cup again but fell at the Champions League last-four.

Pep Guardiola was in charge by then but Bayern's dominance receded under the Spaniard's stewardship. The Bundesliga title was always assured but Bayern wouldn't reach a European final again for seven years.

Barcelona – 2014/15

Barcelona came close to a second treble in 2010/11 but fell short in the Copa del Rey final when losing 1-0 to Real Madrid. Yet fans didn't have to wait long to conquer Europe once more. In 2015 Barca again beat Madrid to claim the La Liga title and edged Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final. They faced Juventus in the Champions League final in Berlin and outclassed the Italians as Andres Iniesta ran the show.

The next year Barcelona won the league and cup again, but fell at the Champions League quarters. However, just like Ajax, Manchester United, Inter, Bayern, and indeed Barca in 2009, they did manage to beat their fellow continental champions to win the Club World Cup.

Barca didn't spend much in the transfer window following their treble but did have to contend with Xavi's departure. Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal were the only big-money signings after the treble. In all honesty, the squad had proved it didn't need much tinkering.

Bayern Munich – 2019/20

Bayern returned to the top of Europe in style during the 2019/20 season that was affected by Covid-19. Bayern won the Bundesliga shortly after the season resumed following a two-month hiatus. They beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 in the DFB-Pokal final that July, and edged PSG 1-0 in the Champions League final as late as August.

A year later and Robert Lewandowski scored 41 goals as Bayern waltzed to another league triumph. However, they crashed out in the second round of the cup, and fell at the Champions League quarter-finals.

Bayern were less affected by Covid than other teams in Germany and financially they steered through the crisis fairly well. In 2021 manager Hansi Flick quit to take over the German national team, but they crashed out of the 2022 World Cup group stage. Perhaps he should have stayed in Munich.

How Man City Compare

At the time of writing, Manchester City are well placed to successfully defend their treble won in 2022/23. They are in a title battle with Liverpool and Arsenal, have defeated Huddersfield Town and Tottenham to set up an FA Cup fifth-round clash with Luton, and are expected to bypass F.C. Copenhagen to reach the Champions League quarters. Pep Guardiola has a near-fully fit squad to choose from, Kevin De Bruyne is on remarkable form, and Erling Haaland is the goalscoring cheat code that no other team possesses.

Guardiola demands a lot from his players and burn-out could be an issue come the latter weeks of the season. In past years they've only had to take down one Premier League rival for the title. This time Arsenal and Liverpool are right in it.

The FA Cup is something of a lottery, while all teams need luck to get through the Champions League knockouts.

The 2022/23 success was a remarkable achievement purely because of the demands put on modern-day players to persistently perform. However, there's a real possibility that we’ll be calling Man City treble winners once again come the summer.

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