Having cruised past Newcastle in a painfully one-sided FA Cup final, Manchester United left Wembley with words to live by from Sir Alex Ferguson.
'Put your medals away, there is more to do,' Ferguson told his players, that message resonating as the squad's coach pulled up at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, where families waited to celebrate the second trophy of a Treble during an 11 days that came to define United's history.
Barely a drop of alcohol was touched in merriment that night. They'd already had a proper party after lifting the title the weekend before. Bayern Munich, and that Champions League final, were in sight. They would not see their loved ones until after full-time at the Nou Camp.
By the next morning, United were travelling to Bisham Abbey in Buckinghamshire, before Concorde flew them to Barcelona on the Monday. A little bit of light training, nothing taxing.
'Everything went smoothly in that run-in - apart from practising penalties,' assistant manager Steve McClaren recalled. 'We lined everybody up on the halfway line, make it as realistic as possible. Good practice for Peter Schmeichel.'
A grinning Dwight Yorke strolled up, told by the coaching staff to take the penalty he envisaged if the final were to end in a shootout. Nonchalantly, Yorke decided to Panenka the goalkeeper, chipping down the middle. Yorke's grin widened; Schmeichel's face reddened.
'You just cannot do that to Schmeichel,' McClaren said. 'Peter picked the ball out of the net, tried to volley at Yorke but missed him. So he chased him.
'When they finally came together Peter went absolutely mad but Yorkey promised he would Panenka the Bayern goalkeeper too.
'Some moments are there to just diffuse the tension. Watching that incident, them running around, kind of relaxed us. It epitomised what the squad was about.'
Twenty-four hours prior, McClaren had asked kit man Albert Morgan to don goalkeeper gloves after the warm-up so he could realise a dream of scoring at Wembley.
United had been preparing for these 11 days for some time. Many put the extra-time FA Cup semi-final replay win over Arsenal - sealed by Ryan Giggs's miracle goal after Roy Keane's red card and Schmeichel's last-minute penalty save – as the moment the Treble became real. Yet Yorke had been talking that prospect up a good while longer.
Physio Dave Fevre, who resigned for family reasons immediately after the season, said: 'Yorkey came in after one game: "Come on, 22 more wins and we can win the Treble." Everyone started laughing. We'd start counting it down; 21, 20… then it suddenly dawned on everyone that this might happen.'
It did, of course, and etched each name into the club's pantheon of greats. Gary Neville felt the victory parade was when 'Manchester became my heaven'.
'Turning into Deansgate and seeing a few hundred thousand people in the city centre,' Neville wrote. 'I can still see the face of one United fan among the many thousands who lined the road. This guy was screaming so hard that the veins were popping out of his neck.'
Hairs, rather than veins, popped when Ferguson delivered his final few team talks in front of the entire squad. McClaren fetched those not involved from the player lounge so all could listen.
'He always knew which buttons to press,' the former assistant said. 'His team talks were based on emotion rather than tactical details. In Barcelona, why it was the greatest game of their lives.
'He said it was like flying to moon, not many people get the chance, not many people even want to do it, but tonight they could fly to the moon. Were the players ready after that? Damn right, they were ready.
'At half-time he said to think how bad you'd feel walking past that trophy which Bayern were about the lift. That was my abiding memory.
'Once Teddy Sheringham had equalised I was talking about extra-time but the gaffer said: "Sit down, Steve. This game ain't over yet".' Coincidentally, the evening would see United's players singing 'Sit Down' by James. McClaren soaked it in, stopping during the lap of honour to gaze at stands decorated in red.
United might have been without Keane and Paul Scholes through suspension in Barcelona – Keane was also embroiled in a bar scrap after lifting the Premiership title - but fitness was not a major issue. Fevre credited Ferguson's decision to undertake a 'mini pre-season' in January as key to a lack of injuries in the final weeks of the campaign.
The extra work had paid dividends. Only Jaap Stam was struggling with an Achilles problem, dropping out of the FA Cup team to manage his condition.
'Jaap's the sort of guy who'd play through anything but we painted the sake of the European final to him. He rationalised and understood,' Fevre said.
'We'd do pool work at Castlefield or go out on mountain bikes around Salford, which wasn't the most glamorous. You'd stop in for a bacon sandwich on the way back – that's the target. We had the right caff, don't worry. It was just around the corner from the Cliff.'
The medical room was the hub, a place for the chat and ribbing, and that actually remained the case when United checked in at the Melia Gran Hotel in Sitges, 20 miles south of Barcelona two days prior to the final. The Cliff's atmosphere had been transported straight there, although Ferguson was irked that so many supporters were also staying in the same hotel. Ferguson later regretted his brusqueness towards those fans after colourfully pleading for privacy.
The camaraderie continued regardless. Before every European away fixture, they would stage a players versus staff quiz. Sitges was no different. 'John, our cameraman, was the quizmaster and had the toughest job of all,' McClaren laughed.
'Those got very heated. I remember one question about the artist of a famous painting. The gaffer said: "The players have no chance here." Nicky Butt answered it correctly, at which point the gaffer threw a knife or fork at Butty! And then accused John of cheating! "There is no way that Nicky Butt from Manchester can know who the artist is." Nicky said: "Yeah, I do know it, gaffer. I've got the painting in my dining room!"'
United were buoyant, even without their suspended central midfield. Newcastle had been dispatched at Wembley and McClaren talked up the courage of a final-day comeback win over Tottenham, pipping Arsenal to the title by a single point. They had also reacted positively to the 0-0 draw away at Blackburn in the penultimate game.
'There was a lot of cards being played,' Fevre said. 'I sat opposite Schmiechel on the coach and we'd end up playing aces to kings; the gaffer and the other lads would join in.'
McClaren had only been at United for five months, replacing the revered Brian Kidd as Ferguson's No 2. The players had no clue who he was on arrival. He did not taste defeat until the following campaign.
'In subsequent seasons losing meant the place was like a morgue the next day,' he said. 'Everyone grumpy, quiet. Even draws, like the Blackburn game, I thought: 'Wow, are they going to recover from this?'
'But what impressed me was the way they refocused. 'We win the next one,' and we did. In training and the mini-games, if one team was losing it was always: 'No, Steve. Another minute to play, you can't stop it now.' They were never beaten.'
Neville hailed McClaren's training sessions as 'sharp, intense and fun'. He had brought in ProZone from Derby County, begun introducing yoga and basketball.
'Every day, for me, had to be a perfect 10/10,' McClaren added. 'If I was 9/10 the players would kill me for lack of preparation, a session not being good, whatever. There was that constant pressure. My first day, make sure the first handshake is positive.'
In Barcelona, Ferguson had selection headaches without Keane and Scholes. Yet those were nothing new, given the Scot had to keep Yorke, Sheringham, Andy Cole and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer motivated.
Yorke missed out at Wembley, told in his hotel room on the morning. 'The Knock was the nickname for the gaffer's visit,' Yorke wrote. 'It usually meant he wanted to explain why you would not be playing. I looked at him aghast. 'You must be joking,' I said. 'This is why I'm here. I want to play.'
'It was a waste of time. He explained that he didn't want me to get injured for the Champions League final. It did nothing to ease my disappointment. But how can you argue with this man?'
The goalscorers did not argue with him. 'Keeping them motivated was the gaffer's greatest achievement,' McClaren said. 'Teddy hated being on the bench. Ole was the only one who accepted his role, really.
'Teddy would never warm up in the corner. Always in front of the bench, pointing at me to get him on and that was the same at the Nou Camp. Then look what happened.
'Coley and Yorkey had taken all the plaudits all season. Sheringham and Solskjaer were never the two throughout but ended up the heroes. I always tell players to stay with it, stay in the game, and you get your rewards. The best example of that is those two and Manchester United in 1999.'