17. Russell Beardsmore

Signed from: Youth team

Debut: 2-0 win vs West Ham United (as sub), September 24th 1988
League Record: 30 games (+26 as sub), 4 goals
Sold to: AFC Bournemouth (free transfer), June 1993

One of the many things I love about football is that sometimes, even the obscure players rise to the top and have their moment of glory. Russell Beardsmore was one, and his moment was January 1st 1989.

We were playing Liverpool - reigning League champions and top dogs. We were struggling. It was live on TV and I remember watching it clearly. I recall my cousin, an ardent Liverpool fan, stating they would drub us and I had no reason to disbelieve him, and sure enough, in the second half John Barnes put them ahead.

But then an odd thing happened. Our waif-like young right-winger suddenly turned into George Best, jinxing through their defence before crossing for McClair to equalise. After Mark Hughes put us ahead, Beardsmore completed an amazing ten minutes or so by vollying Lee Sharpe's centre to make it 3-1. I was dancing round the living room, shouting the scoreline to the next door neighbours (also Liverpool fans). It was something of a false start to the year, but Beardsmore's reputation rose - Bob Paisley selected him as Young Player of the Month - and the departure of Gordon Strachan left a space for him to fill. For a spell, he was a regular face in the first XI or on the subs bench, but it wasn't a great time: the last 11 games of that season saw us only win twice and only score eight goals.

Perhaps with that in mind, we signed four new midfield players in the summer of 1989, pushing him out of contention once all were fit and settled, meaning he didn't make the cut for the 1990 FA Cup final or the European Cup Winners Cup the next season and barely featured at all throughout 1991/92, though his status as an English player got him on the bench of the  European Super Cup that season. Though at that time played over two legs (home and away), we were up against Red Star Belgrade, and the situation in what used to be Yugoslavia wasn't too welcoming, so UEFA decided to just have a one-off game at Old Trafford. We got completely battered for most of the game, but somehow sneaked a 1-0 victory with a Brian McClair goal: a result which may well still baffle some reds. In any case, though he didn't get on the pitch, the result got Russell his own medal from his time at United.

Shortly after we won our first championship in 26 years in 1993, I read somewhere that Beardsmore had been given a free transfer. I was a bit surprised as he'd not played at all that season (he may have been an unused sub in some cup games?), so I'd assumed he'd either quit or left the year below.

He signed up with AFC Bournemouth and enjoyed five years of regular first team football, before serious injury forced him to retire at the age of 28. He's still on the South coast, working for his old club in some worthwhile Community projects, and is seemingly still a United fan, as he was nicked, fined and banned from driving after overdosing on the refreshments while celebrating our 2008 Champions League victory and then trying to drive home.

16. Lee Sharpe

Signed from: Torquay United (£175,000), June 1988
Debut: 2-0 win vs West Ham United, September 24th 1988
League Record: 160 games (+33 as sub), 21 goals
Sold to: Leeds United (£4,500,000), summer of 1996

The first time we get to see Fergie's eye for a bargain: for whatever potential Lee Sharpe failed to realise, the fee we paid was peanuts for what he did manage to achieve for us - which turned out to be quite a lot.

Young Sharpe, born with a great name for a winger, was a Brummie lad who had failed to impress Aston Vila (who he supported) and ended up down the English Rivera (ahem) with Torquay United. However, it didn't take long for their manager, the late Cyril Knowles, to put the 16-year-old in the first team. United were soon tipped off and the youngster was on his way back North. Though the plan was for him to spend some time in the reserves, he - still only 17 - was thrown into the first team early into his first season.

Initially, he played most his games at left back - weirdly, a number of matches at the end of 1988/89 have him wearing #3 and Lee Martin (nominally a full back) at #11. He wasn't able to get fully established to earn a medal in our 1990 FA Cup victory, but the next season would see his world change.

He'd not started the season in the team, but a goal in a 3-1 League Cup victory against Liverpool served as notice for what was to come when the tie for the next round came on November 28th 1990. Playing a strong Arsenal side on their own turf, Sharpe run riot, scoring a hat-trick in a 6-2 rout. I remember the night well mainly for the disbelief my nine-year-old felt when my mother told me the score. I was up at a very early hour the next day to watch the highlights from Granada Sport Night and was top dog at school, being the only United fan.

A few days later, he scored the winner in a league game at Everton. Life changed almost overnight for Sharpe, who became a pin-up more likely to be in magazines for teenage girls than the football press. He won a call up to the England team and was awarded the 1991 PFA Young Player of the Year award. Sharpe's game was built around his lightning quick pace and good crossing ability - it was telling how far he had come that Barcelona felt the need to mark him out of the game in the Cup Winners Cup Final. Unfortunately for them, that gave Bryan Robson the room to operate in that he needed to set up our second goal.

That season I can remember him running riot over several unfortunate right-backs, including Mel Sterland of Leeds United, who got such a chasing in both legs of the League Cup semi-final that I don't remember him being the same player again. We'd won the first leg 2-1 at Old Trafford, and the return match saw us fighting a rearguard action in the last minutes as Leeds threw everything at us. I was hiding behind the sofa in nerves, only emerging when Brian Moore screamed "They say he's onside!" as Sharpe legged it on their goal in a killer counterattack, rounding John Lukic, finishing brilliantly and doing the "Sharpe Shuffle" in front of the ecstatic travelling reds.

From such a peak, there was only one way to go: the following season saw a series of injuries and illness set in, allowing some punk kid from Salford to take the #11 shirt. More of him later. Sharpe, meanwhile, had to face ugly rumours that his absence was due to some kind of drug habit, when in reality he'd had to fight a nasty dose of meningitis. The only highlight for him of the season was coming off the bench in the League Cup final victory over Forest.

He still wasn't fit for the start of the first season of the Premier League, in which United hardly started on fire.  Making a comeback around Christmas time, he appeared reborn and his tricks on the wing (along with the guile of a certain European gentleman) kick started the season. His great form carried over to the start of the next season (93/94), where he also found his scoring touch. Sadly, an injury in January saw him lose his place in the tea, though he earned an FA Cup winner's medal by coming off the bench in the hammering of Chelsea.

Sadly, he joined Leeds at a bad time. The manager who signed him, Howard Wilkinson, was sacked soon after his signing (not helped by a home 4-0 drubbing at the hands of United) and was replaced by the dour George Graham, who was never going to have time for Sharpe's brand of wingplay. His career wound down with spells at Bradford City, Portsmouth and Exeter City, he finished his professional career after a few games for a team in Iceland - retired at 32.

In recent years, he's been spotted arsing about on reality television shows, all of which adds to the sense of unfulfilled potential. He was only 28 when we won the treble in 1999 and you feel he could have played left-wing in that game and contributed to United into the new century if things had been different. There's also the matter that he could have solved the long-standing left-sided problem the England team had through the 90s.

A great shame, then, but also some great memories.

15. Billy Garton

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 4-0 win vs Burnley (League Cup tie), September 29th 1984
League Record: 39 games (+2 as sub)
Sold to: Retired due to illness, May 1990

Raised in Ordsall, in sunny Salford, Billy Garton may be the player brought up closest to Old Trafford that we'll come across. As a youth, he was a member of the iconic Salford Lad's Club as seen on many a picture of the Smiths.

Billy was a ball-playing defender who played alongside Mark Hughes and Clayton Blackmore at youth level, but had plenty of competition ahead of him in the first team. Struggling to get games, he was sent out on loan to Birmingham City in the Spring of 1986. He played well enough for the Brummies so that on his return to United, he went into the first team for the rest of the season.

Sadly, injury problems plagued one of Salford's finest, and he struggled to stay fit enough to establish a lengthy run in the first team. Alex Ferguson clearly rated him enough to make him first choice right back at the start of the 1988/89 season, but after a good spell at 13 games, fitness problems struck again. To make matters worse, Garton was then diagnosed with ME, forcing an early retirement from professional football.

I don't have that many memories of the man playing, but his chapter in Andy Mitten's excellent We're The Famous Man United book is my favourite: his love of United and playing for us shines through and he's honest enough to talk about the severe depression he suffered on being forced to quit due to his condition.

Eventually, he recovered to the degree that he was able to play non-league for Salford City, Witton Albion and Hyde United. To his credit, he also turned to studies and eventually qualified as a teacher, working in local schools and rising up to the position of Deputy Head.

In another career turn, he was then invited to move out to California to start a football school, where I believe he's still to this day, ensuring the kids out West are learning to play the game the United way.

14. Mike Duxbury

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 0-0 draw vs Birmingham City (as sub), August 23rd 1980
League Record: 274 games (+25 as sub), 6 goals
Sold to: Blackburn Rovers (free transfer), August 1990

The player on this list who made his debut first, due to Kevin Moran being given a free transfer in the summer of 1988 meaning the Irishman doesn't make it here. This makes Duxbury the only player I’ll be writing about who played under the unfortunate managerial reign of Dave Sexton, which ended in the summer of 1981.

Like Clayton Blackmore, Duxbury never really nailed down a particular position on the pitch - he could do a decent job anywhere across the back four as well as centre midfield. His one real lengthy spell as a regular choice was from 1982-1985, when right back John Gidman went through numerous injury problems and Duxbury made the #2 shirt his own, playing in the 1983 FA Cup final victory. He also had a 12 month spell as England’s right back after Phil Neal got too old and rubbish: sadly, it wasn’t the best time for Bobby Robson (defeats to Wales, France and the USSR) and Gary Stevens eventually took over the role. Duxbury also lost his place in the United team at the start of 1985, Gidman coming back to form to play in that year’s cup final victory over Everton.

The second game of the ten-game winning run at the start of 85/86 saw Gidman break his leg and allowed Duxbury back in the team, though by the end of the season he had returned to his utility role, with the Dane John Sivebaek signed to replace Gidman.

Under Ferguson, Duxbury initially got plenty of games across both defence and midfield – only Brian McClair played more games in 1987/88.  By 1990, however, he was very much on the fringes as Clayton Blackmore took over the Jack-of-all-Trades role. With a new team being built, there wasn’t too much call for the 30-year-old veteran, especially after the then-recent expensive influx of new talent. His last significant action was to captain the side in a FA Cup fifth round tie at Hereford United. Mike set up Blackmore’s winner, and thus we dodged a potential Ronnie Radford-evoked banana skin.

I was surprised when he rocked up in a Hong Kong XI when England did a mini-tour over there in the summer of 1996: a trip remembered for the scenes of players getting a bit merry on “The Dentist’s Chair” causing tedious tabloid outrage. More recently, I read an article in the Manchester Evening News saying he was working for some school in Bolton, teaching PE.

13. Viv Anderson

Signed from: Arsenal (£250,000), July 1987
Debut: 2-2 draw vs Southampton, August 15th 1987
League Record: 50 games (+4 as sub), 2 goals
Sold to: Sheffield Wednesday (free transfer), January 1991

Once the topic of two Trivial Pursuit questions: namely being the first black guy to win a full England cap, and also being the only player to go to two World Cups with them and not get a single second on the pitch. The last one was true in the late 1980s, at least. He also got to spend all of Euro '88 twiddling his thumbs on the bench.

Born in Nottingham, he was a key part of Brian Clough’s all-conquering Forest team of the late 70s: by all accounts he was a class act of a player, nicknamed ‘Spider’ for his gangly limbs, which were always handy for reaching those last-ditch tackles. He certainly looked an unlikely footballer when you saw him running around, but like Peter Crouch or Paulo Wanchope, he was actually a lot smoother on the ball than he looked.

A League Championship, two League Cups and two European Cups over the course of three years was a fantastic haul and you can easily understand why Clough and the members of that team approach deity status in the red half of Nottingham. Along with Peter Davenport, he was part of the Forest team robbed of a place in the 1984 UEFA Cup final when semi-final opponents Anderlecht bribed the ref in the second leg: 2-0 up from the first game, Forest were denied at least one stonewall penalty and suffered from a number of dodgy decisions.

That summer, perhaps feeling he needed a new start to push his international prospects – he moved to Arsenal, at the time managed by part-time England coach Don Howe. For the main part, he had played back-up to Phil Neal: however, the Liverpool man was well into this 30s at that point and his mistake against Denmark in conceding a penalty (converted by our previous-but-one entry) had seen England fail to the reach the ’84 European Championships. But it never really happened for Viv, not helped by playing in a very average Arsenal team that only improved in his last season, when George Graham was in charge and saw them lift the League Cup in 1987, a game notable in being the first time Ian Rush scored in a game for Liverpool that they then went on to lose.

Along with McClair, he was one of the first fresh faces Ferguson brought in as he looked to put his own stamp on things. Looking back in 2012, it seems an odd signing as Viv was already 31 at the time – clearly the boss didn’t rate the right-back options he had (John Sivebaek and our next entry) and perhaps the one-time Nottingham Forest legend was the best option around at the time.

Despite a fair first season, big Viv never really enjoyed too much success with us. He wasn’t helped by injuries – especially in 1990 when after playing in the first four games of our FA Cup run, he was injured before the semi-final and wasn’t able to win his place back for the final. That summer, we finally signed one half of the solution to the full back question and Anderson’s days were numbered.

After barely playing in the first five months of 1990/91 season, Ron Atkinson took him over to Sheffield Wednesday. Unfortunately for him, he missed out on their defeat of us in that year’s League Cup final, as he’d played (and scored) for us against Halifax Town in the second round of that competition, so was thus cup-tied.  Despite the advancing years, he still captained Wednesday in their most successful period in recent history and was unlucky in 1993 to end up with losers medals in both the FA and League Cup finals – both times to Arsenal. Shortly after, he went to manage Barnsley for a year but subsequently took up a job as Bryan Robson’s assistant at Middlesbrough. He was sacked along with Robbo and I don’t believe has worked in a full-time coaching capacity since.

These days, whenever I’m at a game and am checking the teams on the screens under the stands, he always seems to be on MUTVs pre-match coverage. Doubtless he was a quality player, but the level of that may be best explained by Nottingham Forest fans. Still, I liked him as he always seemed dead chuffed when we scored, and a bit of enthusiasm goes a long way in this game.

12. Liam O'Brien

Signed from: Shamrock Rovers (£50,000), October 1986

Debut: 2-0 win vs Leicester City, December 20th 1986

League Record: 16 games (+15 as sub), 2 goals

Sold to: Newcastle United (£275,000), November 1988

Ron Atkinson’s final signing, as it turned out, having been impressed by the Irishman during a pre-season game against Shamrock Rovers. 

He never got a chance to play for the man who signed him, getting his first opportunity in the first team when Remi Moses got crocked. Not long after his debut, he made some history by getting sent off after 85 seconds in a game at Southampton. By all accounts, he was hard done to by the referee, who may well have wanted to lay down his authority with the TV cameras watching.  

With Bryan Robson actually staying fit for a decent spell, O’Brien’s opportunities for first team action were obviously limited and with United hesitating to offer a new contract, he was allowed to move up North to Newcastle United at a good return on the initial investment. This may have seemed a duff move at first, as they were relegated a matter of months later, but he became a regular face for Barcodes in the early 90s and played his part in their 1993 promotion campaign, masterminded by returning hero Kevin Keegan only a year or so after further relegation seemed likely. O’Brien made a name for himself in his time on the Tyne by scoring the winning goal in a match against rivals Sunderland. 

However, the step back up to the top flight appears to have been too much, as after a few games, he was packed off to Tranmere Rovers, where (along with John Aldridge and Pat Nevin) he became part of a team that always seemed on the verge of making the top flight.

Curiously, while O'Brien made the Ireland squad for the 1988 European Championships despite only having started six games the preceding season, he failed to make the cut for the 1990 and 1994 World Cups when he was a first team regular at his teams at the time.

11. Jesper Olsen

Signed from: Ajax (£700,000), July 1984
Debut: 1-1 draw vs Watford, August 28th 1984
League Record: 119 games (+20 as sub), 21 goals
Sold to: Bordeaux (£400,000), November 1988

Flying Danish winger in the old-school mould (for better and worse), Olsen was brought to United, along with Gordon Strachan and Alan Brazil, with the proceeds from the sale of Ray Wilkins to AC Milan. Also the first overseas player we'll come across.

He was signed from Ajax Amsterdam, where he'd played alongside Johann Cruyff and alongside the old master, pulled off one of the most clever/controversial penalties of all time. Readers may recall Arsenal trying the same thing without the same outcome.

Olsen was also part of a very good Danish national team that had made a name for themselves in the 1984 European Championships - and it had been our man that played a big part in the qualifying rounds of ensuring England weren't there at all.

At United, he was recommended by our own Dutch maestro, Arnold Muhren, who had played for Ajax in the 70s before moving to England with Ipswich Town. His signing to us on a free transfer in 1982 would prove to be one of Ron Atkinson's most astute moves: despite being the wrong side of 30, Muhren had one of the best left foots in the game and scored the final goal from the penalty spot in the 1983 FA Cup final replay.

In hindsight, Atkinson may have been too keen to play Olsen ahead of the veteran, as the Dane's form would be erratic throughout his United career. Muhren would claim United never used Olsen in the right way, while also stating his frustration that when he played well in the games he did get, he'd always be dropped when his 'replacement' was match fit again. At the end of the 1984/85 season, he was granted a free transfer back to Ajax, where he continued to maintain his high standards to the degree he regained his place in the Netherlands team, starring in the 1988 European Championships at the age of 37.

Olsen was also at that tournament, but didn't play any games, his career having lost momentum. Despite a good first season, he never really found the consistency or regular rhythm to his game, unlike Gordon Strachan on the other wing.

The 1986 World Cup initially provided a good distraction: the Danes got through the group stage in some style, hammering Uruguay 6-1 and beating a strong West German side 2-0. Olsen was playing well and in the first knockout game against Spain, opened the scoring from the penalty spot. Unfortunately, he dropped a major clanger by directing a pass back to his keeper straight into the path of Emilio Butragueno, the best striker on the pitch. "The Vulture" slotted it away and went on to score four as the Spanish won 5-1. 

Perhaps he was taking out this frustration in a training incident that started with him making a somewhat late tackle on a teammate. Sadly for Olsen, he did it son Remi Moses, a tough-as-bricks midfield warrior brought up in the less-than-salubrious North Manchester area of Miles Platting. Moses got up and pounded his apparent team-mate senseless.

By 1988, it seemed clear new manager Alex Ferguson had also seen enough. With only two goals in 30 games throughout 1987/88 season, the writing was on the wall and when his form failed to reignite the next season, he was sold off. Despite only being 27, he looked like he had nothing left in the tank - and after a few seasons playing in French football, he retired in 1992.

Nowadays, he's living in Australia and after surviving a brain haemorrhage in 2006, is working with Aussie league club Melbourne Heart. Looking at pictures of him, it seems illness hasn't affected him too badly, as he doesn't look that different from when he was in a red shirt.

10. Mark Hughes

Signed from: Youth team initially, then Barcelona (£1,800,000) June 1988.
Debut: 2-0 win vs Port Vale (League Cup tie, as sub), October 26th 1983
League Record: 336 games (+9 as sub), 120 goals
Sold to: Chelsea (£1,500,000), June 1995

The first, but not last, player we'll come across who had two spells at United, Mark Hughes was nicknamed 'Sparky' by Ron Atkinson for his style of play - he wasn't the kind of player to go missing on the big occasion, as six goals in various cup finals for us tells you.

Coming to us as a schoolboy in the late 1970s, Hughes initially started as a midfield player and if he'd stayed there, he might not have developed into much. However, someone had the idea to push him up front where he made so much progress, that Atkinson decided to go with him rather than another young striker in the reserves - some Geordie lad called Peter Beardsley.

Getting his début in 1983/84, he played a few more games, scoring a few goals. He did well enough so that by the start of the 1984/85 season, Hughes finally established himself as a first team regular, helped by new signing Alan Brazil failing to settle at United. At the end of that season, he had won the PFA Young Player of the Year award to go alongside his FA Cup winners medal. He played a big part in the final, his defence-splitting pass setting up the winning goal.

He carried over his form to the next season, which turned out to work against us. Barcelona were sniffing around and offering him big, big money. Their English manager, Terry Venables, was looking to replace Steve Archibald and Hughes looked like the man to do so: the lure of European football may have been a factor too, given English clubs had just then been banned.

United had never been known as big payers on the wage front and couldn't match the offer - his sale was concluded quickly and kept secret from the public for some time. The only clue was Hughes' rapid drop in form and any hopes for silverware went with it. It was a transfer with no positives for United: we lost our best striker and the money we got for him was invested in players who just didn't work out. Atkinson later claimed he wanted Cyrille Regis instead of Terry Gibson, but the former failed a medical. A shame, as I was a huge fan of Regis and his kind of aggressive front-running (he was built like a Sherman tank) may have been just what was needed at the time.

It wasn't to work for Hughes either. His physical style didn't meet with the approval of the officials in Spain and he failed to settle into the kind of form that Gary Lineker, snapped up after his Golden Boot-winning World Cup campaign, found easier to come by. Following a disastrous début season, he was shipped out on loan to Bayern Munich, where he had a better time of it, but Barca was still happy to sell him back to us when Fergie came knocking.

His return was one of the very few highlights in a season of mediocrity. He scored some stunning goals, a couple at Spurs and Everton showcasing his extraordinary skill of volleying the ball - developed, according to the man himself because he wasn't so great at heading. Such was his talent at this, it's hard to believe there's been many before or since who could equal him at it.

At the end of a season in which we finished 11th, Hughes at least had some personal glory when he was voted the 1989 PFA Player of the Year, an accolade he'd repeat in 1991.

Though never likely to top the scoring charts (counting all competitions, he only hit more than 20 goals a season three times), Sparky maintained a more than decent return and had a good habit of scoring when it matters - often in spectacular fashion. His crucial second goal in the 1991 European Cup Winners Cup final was absurd in the narrowness of the angle from which he hit his shot: even commentator Brian Moore believed he had gone far too wide before he drove it into the net. A poster of this goal took pride of place on my wall.

Three years later, in the FA Cup semi final against Oldham, things were looking bad. One nil down with a minute to play, it was looking desperate as we threw everything forward. Suddenly, a bad clearance came down on the edge of the box. Sparky stretched his leg and volleyed the ball past the keeper. I think their manager, Joe Royle, lamented that it was his team's misfortune that the ball fell to the one player in the world capable of putting the chance away. It was a crucial goal beyond the game, giving us a burst of confidence at a vital time.

In this last season (94/95), he was starting to look like he was showing his age (31) and with younger strikers signed and breaking through from the youth team, he was allowed to move down to That London and sign to Chelsea. It turned out to be a smart move for him, as he picked up winner's medals in the FA Cup, European Cup Winners Cup and League Cup in his three years there.

While he was there, I remember well a FA Cup tie against Liverpool, in which his team were two down at half time. Chelsea brought on Sparky, who proceeded to run riot, scoring the first goal in a 4-2 comeback.

After Chelsea, his playing career wound down with spells at Southampton, Everton and Blackburn, though with the last of those he was still good enough to be part of their 2001 promotion back to the Premiership and play in their 2-1 victory over Spurs in the next year's League Cup final, shortly after which he put away his boots to concentrate on his new job coaching the Welsh national team.

He later moved on to manage Blackburn Rovers, where he seemed to be doing a good job before he went off and took charge at, of all teams, Manchester City. It was a move never likely to endear him to Reds, and few tears were shed when he failed to get the results demanded by their (then new) oil-rich owners. Indeed, it's a prejudice I can't shake myself - it really shouldn't have, but I couldn't help but feel he grew a tad bitter in his time there. Since then, he's had mixed results back in the capital with Fulham and Queen's Park Rangers.

9. Peter Davenport

Signed from: Nottingham Forest (£570,000), March 1986
Debut: 1-0 defeat to Queen's Park Rangers, March 15th 1986
League record: 73 games (+19 as sub), 22 goals
Sold to: Middlesbrough (can't find evidence of the fee), November 1988

Signed by Big Ron in the Spring of 1986, at the point where the wheels hadn’t just come off the title challenge wagon but had overtaken us and were lying at a heap at the bottom of the hill. He was brought in to try and score the goals after we’d arranged for Mark Hughes to be packed off to Barca, leaving the latter's mind somewhat off the ball.

Wirral lad Davenport wasn't the first attempt at this. Months before, Terry Gibson had been signed from Coventry City, where he had scored plenty of goals in a struggling side. However, Gibson had even less luck, only scoring one goal before Fergie packed him off back to that London, where he played for Wimbledon in their amusing 1-0 defeat of Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final.

Davenport, meanwhile, was seen as the latest in a succession of players who were brilliant for Nottingham Forest but failed at United: Ian Storey-Moore and Garry Birtles were the original sinners, although Moore was desperately unlucky both with his injuries and that he was playing in a dire team bound for relegation. The curse would only be lifted, of course, with the signing of a young lad from Cork many years down the line.

As noted above, Davenport was a very good striker at Forest, good enough to win an England cap as sub against Ireland, where he had enough time to tee up Gary Lineker for his first international goal. In a series of events that rarely (if ever?) happens these days, he'd arrived at Forest as a 20-year-old from non-league Cammell Laird, having failed a trial at Everton.Within a matter of months, he was playing top flight football and banging in a hat-trick against Ipswich.

With 118 games and 54 goals in the bag, he was sold off to us, apparently to pay off repayments on a stand. £570,000 must have seemed a reasonable fee at the time, but Handsome Pete, like Birtles, failed to get out of the blocks, with only one goal in 12 prior to the end of the 85/86 season. And even that was a penalty.

1986 may well have been United’s worst calendar year since relegation – mercifully Big Fat Ron was sacked in November and Govan’s finest brought in to stop the rot, with the team picking up to achieve mid-table safety in 1986/87. Davenport was actually top scorer that campaign, but Fergie had obviously seen enough and Brian McClair was snapped up to lead the line.

My own actual memories of Davenport at United are very limited. The stats show he had a short run of form, scoring in three consecutive games against Luton, West Ham and Rotherham (the last one in the League Cup) before losing his place. He put in a transfer request and we binned him off to Middlesbrough, only for him to come back to haunt us by scoring the winner a few months later at Ayresome Park – a game amazingly played 24 hours after our 3-1 victory over champions Liverpool on January 1st. For that goal alone, he gets the tag below.

Despite that moment, he never really cut it as a top striker again, either on Teeside or up the road at Sunderland - he also had the misfortune of relegation with both teams. He later rocked up playing for the Mackems in the 1992 FA Cup final and I seem to recall him playing for Airdrie in Scotland. The last few years have seen him undertake several non-league coaching/management roles.

8. Gordon Strachan

Signed from: Aberdeen (£600,000), August 1984
Debut: 1-1 draw vs Watford (scored once), August 28th 1984
League Record: 155 games (+5 as sub), 33 goals
Sold to: Leeds United (£300,000), March 1989


After his first year in charge, when he made some great signings like Bryan Robson, Frank Stapleton and Arnold Muhren, Ron Atkinson soon lost the plot when it came to the transfer market. A succession of signings in the mid 80s never came close to working out - Peter Barnes, Terry Gibson and Alan Brazil – spring to mind. Gordon Strachan, however, was a quality bit of recruitment. 

Strachan made a name for himself with Dundee and, more prominently, Aberdeen, where he was key part of a team that broke the Old Firm dominance. A team managed by some young(ish) chap called Alex Ferguson. By 1984, though, Fergie’s tricky right winger was looked for pastures new and arranged a move to Cologne, signing a pre-contract before United made a cheeky last minute bid which he found preferable. Aberdeen were not impressed, and we had to pay some compo to the German team.


As a much needed replacement for Steve Coppell, who had been forced to retire from injury the previous year, aged only 28, Strachan was an immediate success. He scored 16 league goals in his first season and was our penalty taker until a couple of misses saw him loss his bottle. The previous season (83/84) had seen us use short-term cover Arthur Graham, a real old-fashioned hit-and-run winger and effective enough with it. Strachan, however, was armed with quick footwork, a eye for a killer pass and no shortage of guile: for a good example, watch his fine work setting up Mark Hughes for the winning goal in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool in 1985.


There were several factors contributing to our sharp decline of form through the autumn of 1985, meaning a decent lead gathered from winning the first ten games of the season was all but eroded by Christmas. One was Gordon Strachan shagging his shoulder when he collided with the post after scoring at West Brom. The momentum began to stall and by the time he returned, the first defeat of the season at Sheffield Wednesday was followed by a kicking down at Leicester. The second half of the season saw our title-winning form translate into a run more suited to relegation candidates and when Atkinson failed to address the problems in the opening months of the next season, he found himself picking up his P45.


Bearing in mind the animosity of his leaving Aberdeen, you have to wonder, then, how the smaller Scotsman felt when Ferguson rocked up as the new United boss. Initially, it seemed hatchets were buried as Strachan was a regular for a couple of years. His best moment came in the 3-3 draw at Liverpool in the Spring in 1988 when our man strolled through on goal and slotted home a (at the time) unlikely equaliser after which he coolly feigned smoking a cigar in front of an enraged Kop.


The next season saw a real lack of form in the team, and Strachan struggled for goals. In Fergie’s autobiography, he pinpoints the 1989 FA cup quarter-final vs Nottingham Forest as a crucial moment. Looking to big up his right winger, he tells the press Strachan is a key man if we were to win. As it turned out, he was dominated by left back Stuart Pearce and we lost 1-0, albeit not helped by the referee not noticing a Brian McClair shot clearly crossing the line. That caused the eight-year-old me not shortage of anguish, I can tell you.


Around this time, according to the boss, he tried to arrange a move to a  French club that fell through. Somewhat unimpressed, especially after he’d pulled the same trick to get a move from Aberdeen, the Boss binned him off, probably hoping to see the back of him for good. Ron Atkinson had just taken over at Sheffield Wednesday and was very keen to take Strachan off our hands, but Fergie instead sent him to Leeds, perhaps feeling it best given they had been hanging around the second division for most of the 80s.


Alas, like Johnny Giles to Matt Busby, wee Gordon had the best revenge of all. His new manager, Howard Wilkinson, made him captain and creative fulcrum of the side, which he led to promotion in 1989/90. The next year, he was Footballer of the Year and the one after that, he led them to the championship at our expense: not something that endeared him to a lot of Reds, myself included.


It was telling that with his advancing years (he was 35 in 1992, though he was still playing in the top flight for Coventry past his 40^th birthday) naturally lessening his impact on the pitch, Leeds then faded as a force as they struggled to replace him, much the same as we did.


Since his legs finally packed in, he’s had a hot/cold career in management with stints at Southampton, Celtic and Middlesbrough, perhaps overshadowing that work with a neat line in witticisms.

7. Bryan Robson

Signed from: West Bromwich Albion (£1,500,000), October 1981
Debut: 1-0 loss vs Tottenham Hotspur (League Cup tie), October 7th 1981
League Record: 326 games (+19 as sub), 74 goals
Sold to: Middlesbrough (free transfer), May 1994

What to say? The man was my hero for the first decade and a bit of my life: a giant in a number seven shirt, often needed to carry average United teams to unlikely victories and also determined to throw his body in all manner of danger to the detriment of his own health.

His influence on my childhood cannot be overstated: I wore New Balance boots because he did; I always wanted to wear the number seven shirt because he did and I always, always pretended to be him in the playground kickabouts. You could keep your Marco van Basten, Diego Maradona and John Barnes: Bryan was better then them all.

At the time we signed him, he was the most expensive player in British football – and would remain so until Liverpool paid £1.9 million for Peter Beardsley in 1987. Sir Matt Busby resigned from the board as he was so appalled by the sum, but that other legendary Scots manager Bill Shankly knew better, advising Ron Atkinson to spend whatever it took to bring him to Manchester. At the press conference to unveil Robbo, he was described by his new boss as “pure gold”. Never a truer word spoken. Within a year of signing, he had become club captain and main driving force.

In an era where success was scarce, Robson was the source of many our best moments: two goals in the replay of the 1983 FA Cup final against Brighton, which we won 4-0. Dominating Barcelona in the quarter-final of the next year’s European Cup Winners Cup, scoring twice in a 3-0 win that trumped their 2-0 first leg win and being carried off the pitch by joyous fans. His scousebusting piledriver in the 1985 FA Cup semi-final against a Liverpool team that were winning just about everything in sight at the time.

But then there were the injuries. When I was around nine or ten, I wrote about my hero for a school project and found a list of all the setbacks he’d been through due to his combative style, including breaking his leg three times in one year during the early part of his career at West Brom. These hit United hard: it’s a pretty safe bet that our title challenges in both 1983/84 and 1985/86 were derailed in large part to him being missing with injury.

The amount of times he could single-handedly drive us to victory when the rest of the team were struggling are innumerable. Alex Ferguson knew this too well: while he got rid of some of the big drinkers playing for us when he took over, he knew he had to tolerate Robson’s fondness for a few beers (showing his North-East roots there…) due to his being absolutely vital to us having any chance of winning anything.

I'm not sure if there had been anyone quite like him before, at least in English football: a midfielder capable of breaking up an opposition attack at one end of the field before charging forward to nod in a goal at the other. Players such as Paul Ince, Steven Gerrard and, of course, a certain Cork lad have all excelled at the role since, but Robson was the master: his goalscoring records for club and country were excellent, especially in his peak years.

In the days before Sky Soccer Saturday and the like, I would listen to the radio on a Saturday afternoon waiting for the teams to be read out, holding my breath for when they announced who was the United number seven. If it was Bryan Robson, then you felt we had a chance of winning. If it was anyone else, I’d feel my heart sink in anticipation of defeat as we’d be bullied and outfought by the likes of Wimbledon.

This wasn't just the case for United, either. The national team suffered too. Consider the 1986 World Cup, where his shoulder gave way in the second game. England, after a crap first two games, rallied and made the quarter-finals, where Argentina waited. As is well known, Diego Maradona used a helping hand to put his team one up before, minutes later, having a casual stroll through the England midfield and defence to give them a crucial two goal lead.

But go back and watch that goal from the start and see the complete ease with which Maradona gets past Peter Reid – there is no way on Earth a fit Bryan Robson would have allowed that. He’d have chased him down and booted the short-arsed genius twenty foot in the air if necessary, not fannied out from being scared of a booking.

In the 1990 World Cup in Italy, he was injured again, though it’s fair to say this allowed the young, emerging talents of David Platt and Paul Gascoigne to shine. All the same, you’d have preferred Robson as an option on the bench ahead of the more one-dimensional Steve McMahon. Plus he’d have taken a better penalty than Chris Waddle.

That was also the year he became the first player to lift the FA Cup three times, also scoring in the first game against Crystal Palace. Aged 33, the pressure on him was finally lifting as quality players like Paul Ince were brought in to drive the team from midfield. He was still a first choice when fit, though, and still had enough in the tank to set up both our goals in the Cup Winners Cup final in ’91.

But by the time of the Premiership years, his contribution was pretty limited and he was often kept back as an impact option on the bench. Happily, he played enough games to earn a well-deserved Premiership medal in 1993, lifting the trophy alongside Steve Bruce on a memorable night. He earned another the next season, being fit enough to play a bigger role in our success, including scoring a goal with his genitals in the FA Cup semi-final replay against Oldham. This give him an impressive record of scoring in that stage of the tournament all four times he played in it.

He was denied a fourth FA Cup winners’ medal by virtue of there only being allowed two outfield subs back then and not making the cut for the final. Fergie would later regret not picking him, especially as his long-time captain was set to leave that month to take charge of Middlesbrough, whom he would lead to promotion the following season, also featuring in plenty of games as a player too.

Despite that early success, his career in management has seen more downs than ups. In 2005, he somehow managed to keep his old club West Brom in the Premiership against all the odds, but was sacked the next season when the team failed to build on that high. More recently, following a stint in charge of the Thai national team and a (hopefully successful) fight against throat cancer, he’s been working in an ambassadorial role for United.

A giant of a player – if we’d had a fit young Bryan Robson in our midfield in either of the two Champions League final defeats to Barcelona, I reckon we’d have had a chance. He simply was that good.

6. Brian McClair

Signed from: Celtic (£850,000), July 1987
Debut: 2-2 draw vs Southampton, August 15th 1987.
League Record: 296 games (+59 as sub), 88 goals
Sold to: Motherwell (free transfer) summer of 1998

I think I’m right in saying that of the 11 players who started the first game of the 1988/89 season (a 0-0 draw against QPR), and indeed every player across the campaign, McClair was the last to leave United. By that point he was a good four years over the hill and some believed he was only being kept on because his diary in the official club magazine was always good for a chuckle.

Initially, though, Brian McClair was a very effective striker snapped up by Fergie in his first summer in charge. Though he’d scored goals for fun North of the Border, there may have been some worries about the last freescoring Celtic striker to ply his trade in England: Charlie Nicholas, who would go the opposite direction to McClair after several frustrating years at Arsenal enlivened only by scoring both their goals in their 2-1 victory against Liverpool in the 1987 League Cup final.

"Choccy", however, hit the ground running and played a big part in us being runners-up in the 87/88 League Championship, including being the first United player to score 20 league goals in a season since George Best. Despite that, most fans’ abiding memory of McClair from that season is a penalty he booted into orbit in a FA Cup game at Arsenal, ensuring defeat, after which he was chased around by a gloating Nigel Winterburn.

It was around this time he began his perculiar post-goalscoring habit, if the game was still in the balance, of rushing to pick the ball up from the net and running back to the place the ball for the restart. He would do this even if there was plenty of time left. Quite endearing, in a way, though Mark Bright gave him a sly kick when he did this at Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day 1992. Ever since then, I've thought of Bright as nothing but a total fuckwit.

Come the autumn of 1990 and the visit of Arsenal to Old Trafford, Winterburn made a bad tackle on Dennis Irwin. With his nemesis still on the ground, McClair decided to was a good time to show actions speak louder than words, wading in and booting the Arse left back several times with no little vigour. In turn, this sparked a series of pushing and shoving in which every player bar their keeper got involved to some level. We were deducted a point and Arsenal two for bringing the game into disrepute, not that it meant much to them as they coasted to the Championship.

The incident seems a bit odd, in hindsight, as McClair always comes across a fairly mild-mannered type – certainly more intelligent than the majority of his peers and more likely to read the NME than the Sun. Certainly he is a man with no shortage of wit and smarts. Perhaps the clichéd berserk Scotsman hidden beneath finally had to be unleashed.

Going back to his first season, it would prove to be a false dawn of sorts. With the arrival of Mark Hughes, McClair never really hit the same kind of goal scoring form again, with the exception of the 1991/92 season. Through 1989/90 season, his record in front of goal got particularly bad, with only five goals in 37 league games, only one of which between November and the end of the season. The crowd, perhaps understandably, were on his back and it’s a sign of how much faith Ferguson had in his man that he wasn’t dropped: he was repaid with vital winning goals in FA Cup ties at Newcastle and Sheffield United and another in the Semi Final replay against Oldham.

Perhaps with the lift of his first winners medal at the end of that cup run, he picked up his form again the next year, scoring in every round bar the final of our victorious European Cup Winners Cup run. The year after, he scored the only goal of the 1-0 League Cup final victory against Nottingham Forest.

By the time we were Premier League champions for the first time in 1993, Choccy had been moved back into a midfield role, though his ability to act as cover up front as well saw him become a regular on the subs bench when he was pushed from being a regular starter in the first eleven. It was from this role that he tapped in the final goal of our 4-0 drubbing of Chelsea in the 1994 FA Cup final.

After that, he was kept on presumably as a kind of mentor/role model to some of the younger lads he may have played alongside in the Reserve team: an idea that makes sense given his current job as Director of the Youth Academy at United.

5. Paul McGrath

Signed from: St Patrick's Athletic of Dublin (£30,000), April 1982
Debut: 0-0 draw vs Bradford City (League Cup tie), November 10th 1982
League Record: 159 games (+4 as sub), 12 goals
Sold to: Aston Villa (£450,000), August 1989

A player of whom the vast majority of my memories of his playing career are of him in an Aston Villa shirt. Fans slightly older than me have eulogised his genius in a red shirt many times but by 1988, the game was almost up as Fergie looked to sort out the drinking culture that had led to years of relative underachievement.

McGrath was already well into his 20s when he arrived at Old Trafford. The son of a Nigerian father and Irish mother, he had a troubled upbringing: his mother came to London so as to hide her pregnancy from her family, the baby being adopted and later tracked down again by his mother and taken back to Ireland. It wasn't until his early 20s when he began playing football professionally, and after just one season in Irish football, Ron Atkinson brought him to United.

He was a fringe player for his first two seasons, though was considered for a place on the left wing for the 1983 FA Cup final after injuries put paid to Steve Coppell's career. Played in that position in a game against Luton Town, he scored twice in the first half but, according to Atkinson, was otherwise useless out wide. Instead, youngster Alan Davies got the nod.

In 1984/85, with injuries putting Gordon McQueen increasingly out of action, he finally secured a regular first team place. In the FA Cup final that season, he won Man of the Match and a long career at United seemed assured. At that point, he was blessed with a deceptively quick pace but problems lurked beneath the surface. Niggling knee injuries began to get progressively worse and he developed what would become a serious drink problem not helped by having plenty of other players at the club who were always partial to a pint or ten.

When Alex Ferguson arrived in November 1986, he quickly assessed the situation and decided (correctly) the drinking culture at United was a huge factor in our lack of success. Within two years, McGrath was moved on to Aston Villa, causing him to slump in to deep depression. He would go on to attack Fergie in the tabloids but would later admit that if he had been manager, he would never have been so patient as Ferguson had been.

At Villa, he found a sympathetic manager in Graham Taylor, who limited his training to avoid wear on his knackered knees. The policy worked, and McGrath was a key part of the Villa teams that were League Championship runners-up in 1990 and 1993, the latter to United, of course. In 1994, he was part of the squad that beat United 3-1 in the League Cup final, after which his old nemesis Ferguson came up and congratulated him.

A key moment that showcased his world-class quality would come in the 1994 World Cup when Ireland beat Italy 1-0 and McGrath had Roberto Baggio - at that point regarded as one of, if not the, best players in the world - in his back pocket, using his sublime footballing brain to snuff out any problems despite having a set of knees that seemingly never allowed him to move beyond walking pace.

By all accounts, his autobiography is well worth reading, going through his problems with alcoholism and depression in shocking detail as opposed to the usual tedious affair such tomes can be. In a somewhat surreal change of direction, he also recorded an album recently, showing he has a fair enough voice too. You can understand why Villa fans called him "God" - the ambivalent tag below is simply because, as I said at the top, barely any of my memories of him are in a red shirt. I'm fully aware Reds a few years older than me are also happy to infer legendary status on him.

4. Steve Bruce

Signed from: Norwich City (£825,000), December 1987
Debut: 2-1 win vs Portsmouth, December 19th 1987
League Record: 309 games, 36 goals
Sold to: Birmingham City (free transfer), summer of 1996

Signed in part, I suspect, to replace Kevin Moran as the resident mental case at the back, Steve Bruce was, like the Irishman, not scared of throwing his body on the line. Tellingly, he broke his nose on his debut for United.

One of several Geordies who managed to avoid his local club’s scouts (see also: Bryan Robson and, at first, Peter Beardsley), Bruce learned his trade at Gillingham before a move to the top flight with Norwich. A League Cup medal was swiftly followed by relegation but by 1987, he was back in Division One and it needed the best part of a million quid to bring him to United. He’d prove to be one of Fergie's best signings.

Perhaps lacking the technical qualities of the very best centre-backs, Bruce made it up with more bravery, aggression and leadership qualities than just about anyone. He was essentially the team captain for most of the first half of the 90s as injuries and age caught up with Bryan Robson.

What he also brought to the table was goals. Though Gordon McQueen was a handful and indeed scored nine goals in one season, Brucie topped that with 19 in season 1990/91: surely a record in one season for a centre-half in top flight English football. A fair few were penalties, but plenty of others were testament to his skill at timing runs from corners/free kicks, including in the final of the European Cup Winners Cup, though his glory was stolen by Mark Hughes running in to smash it over the line.

His record seen above shows an average of around one in ten, which we've not had since from any of his successors at the back, though his record slowed down when he stopped taking penalties. The last of these, I believe, was a miss in a cup tie at Sheffield United that saw the score remain 2-1 to the Blades. From then on, responsibilities were handed to some French guy.

This was seen most memorably against Sheffield Wednesday towards the end of the 1992/93 season. With the team 1-0 down and time running out, he put away two headers (the first amazing in it's range) that sent the crowd, Alex Ferguson and Brian Kidd into ecstasies. My cousin happened to be in the crowd that day - a fact of which I remain jealous.

Towards the end, yes, he looked slow and the 4-0 drubbing in Barcelona showed he was struggling to hold his own against the more tricky opponents. Left on the bench in the 1996 FA Cup final, he probably knew it was time to move on. Eventually, he set on a career in management that's so far proven only mildly successful, his failure to help Sunderland step up in class seeing him earn the old Tin Tack. Shame, as whenever we beat Sunderland we always used to go on about our "Brucie Bonus".

Brucie is often held up as “The Best Uncapped England Player”, which is fair shout, but it’s worth remembering that his peak years weren't until his late 20s/early 30s, in which period England had Terry Butcher and Tony Adams to cover the “blood and guts” type defender to play alongside the cultured Des Walker. All the same, not getting a call-up when you've put away double figures as a defender may explain why Graham Taylor was not a successful England manager.

We may see more technically accomplished defenders on this blog, but few will have the affection from the fans that Brucie had.

3. Lee Martin

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 2-1 win vs Wimbledon (as sub), May 9th 1988
League Record: 56 games (+17 as sub), 1 goal
Sold to: Celtic (£350,000), January 1994

The first local player to crop up, if we count Hyde as being “local” to Manchester. Which it probably isn't really – I didn't think that one through very well, did I?

It’s hard to talk about Lee Martin without instantly connecting him to his winning goal in the replay of 1990 FA Cup final – our first trophy under Ferguson, which doubtless won over many of the doubters the manager had gathered over the previous two mediocre league seasons.

But here's the kicker from this fan's perspective: I didn't see the goal at the time. Of course, I'd watched the first game and pretty much burst into tears when Ian Wright scored in extra time to make it 3-2. Mercifully, we scraped through to a replay a few days later. But this meant it was mid-week. On a school night. Bearing in mind I was a mere slip of a nine-year-old, my dear old mam insisted I had to go to bed at my normal time - unluckily for me, my dad was working night shifts at the time, so wasn't around to offer support. So I missed most of the game.

Of course, it was a daft idea from her, as I was unable to sleep and stood at the top of the stairs hoping to hear the commentary. Around ten, mam spotted me and gave me a very stern look. I asked the score. 1-0, she replied. Who scored? When she said "Lee Martin", I was disbelieving. After all, he'd only scored once before, and that was because West Ham's Alvin Martin had hit a clearance against him. But when I got up at something like 6am the next day to watch the whole video-taped game before school, there he was: chesting down a long cross-field pass and slamming it past Nigel Martyn and forever having a source of free drinks from United fans of a certain age.

The man himself had made his debut nearly two years prior to this, in an end-of-season dead rubber against Wimbledon, then in the pomp of their "Crazy Gang" years. I heard a story that Vinnie Jones was acting the Big Man and throwing his weight around, buoyed by the fact he was playing the FA Cup final the next week. Eventually, it has been said, Bryan Robson tired of this, stood next to him and suggested it would be a terrible shame if he missed the final through a broken leg or suchlike. Jones was suitably worried that Robbo would carry through with this as to keep a low-profile through the rest of the game. No idea if that's true, but I'd love it to be so.

Lee Martin would be a fairly regular presence over the next two seasons or so, sharing the left-back slot with the likes of Clayton Blackmore and fellow youngster Lee Sharpe. I also seem to remember him filling in at left wing on a couple of occasions. Never flash or dynamic, he was a fair enough player whose days were numbered once we signed Dennis Irwin in the summer of 1990. The Irishman initially took the right-back slot with Blackmore settling in on the opposite flank for most of 1990/91.

The last time around then I remember Martin starting a game was the European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final against Montpellier, in which he managed to put one into his own net. Records show he played a few more games that season, but didn't make the bench for ECWC final and was never a serious contender again, playing in the odd League Cup game or European tie when we needed some English players.

Subsequently, I was shocked watching Match of the Day in the autumn of 1993 when I saw him in our team playing Everton. He played a small part in the build up to Lee Sharpe’s winning goal and maybe getting seen on TV again helped him win a move to Celtic (managed by former red Lou Macari) soon after. However, it never worked out for him, as injury woes saw him retire from pro football at the age of 30.

The first of many in this story, then, of early promise not leading to a successful top flight career, though perhaps the only one we'll see where a single goal ensures they live forever in club history.

2. Clayton Blackmore

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, May 16th 1984
League Record: 150 games (+36 as sub), 19 goals
Sold to: Middlesbrough (free transfer), May 1994

Clayton may well appreciate that I didn't use of a pic of him with the classic 1980s look of curly hair and dodgy 'tasch... but "Sunbed" was one of my favourite players of the early 1990s for reasons I can’t clearly recall. I think I just thought he had a cool name.

A keen sportsman as a youth, Blackmore was in the same Wales Schoolboys squad as Mark Hughes, who had already signed forms with United and urged young Clayton to do the same. We had a decent batch of young players in the early 80s, making the 1982 FA Youth Cup final with a team including the two Welsh lads alongside Norman Whiteside, Graeme Hogg and Billy Garton. All of them would graduate to the first team.

Blackmore would make his debut the following year, at an end of season game, but it wasn't until 1987 and the arrival of Alex Ferguson that he began to get a real chance in the first team. Famously, he was (I think) the first United player to wear every outfield shirt number (in those pre-squad number days) from 2-11, his versatility, as the cliché goes, also being part of his problem as it never allowed him to pin down one position.

1990/91 season, however, saw him mainly play at left back, where he managed to have several memorable moments for himself. The European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final vs Montpellier saw him score a long-distance free kick that, in my memory, was hit from the half way line and shot into the top corner. However, a few years ago I finally saw it again and it was a fairly well hit shot that the keeper spilled into his own goal. Funny how that happens with how you remember things. All the same, Clayton had a hefty shot on him and scored a fair few screamers – a free kick in a cup game at Leeds springs to mind.

His finest moment was to come in the final of the Cup Winners Cup when he cleared a goal bound shot off the line in the final minutes to secure the trophy. He's got my eternal thanks for that one.

After that high, he returned to being a back-up player. In 1992/93, with Paul Parker injured, Blackmore played enough games at the start of the season to earn a championship medal, though he barely got a sniff for the next year and a half. Bryan Robson took him to Teeside in 1994 and he was until a couple of years ago still playing, despite being well into his 40s, in the League of Wales.

Fun fact: on scoring what turned out to be the winning goal in a FA Cup tie against Hereford United in 1990, Clayton give their fans (who had been barracking him on account of being Welsh) a two fingered salute. However, the TV camera managed to only get his arm in shot, probably saving him a hefty fine and ban.

1. Jim Leighton

Signed from: Aberdeen (£500,000), June 1988
Debut: 0-0 draw vs Queens Park Rangers, August 27th 1988
League Record: 73 games
Sold to: Dundee (£200,000), February 1992

We start with a #1 making his first appearance for United on the opening day of 1988/89 and who may well wish he’d never signed for us.

On the face of it, Jim Leighton must have seemed a sound signing: experienced at the highest level at both club and country, he’d won European honours with Aberdeen (then managed by Alex Ferguson) and been Scotland’s man between the sticks for the 1986 World Cup, having also gone to the ’82 finals as their third choice. Indeed, so well regarded was Leighton that even Jimmy Greaves dropped his usual “Scottish goalie = butterfingered clown” routine when talking about him.

He came straight in as first choice, with his predecessor Chris Turner being packed off to Sheffield Wednesday (subsequently to have some revenge in the 1991 League Cup final) and young Gary Walsh struggling with fitness. Initially, he must have thought he’d made a smart move: the previous season (87/88), United had come second behind a dominant Liverpool side but had made what seemed astute signings in him and Mark Hughes.

But it never happened. The side struggled to catch any consistent form, even at one point going six games without scoring – though it’s fair to say the problems weren't with the goalkeeper. Things took a downward turn the following season, though, and Leighton became a target of ridicule from the fans, which won’t have helped his confidence.

One positive was a decent run in the FA Cup. I can remember the semi-final against Oldham Athletic clearly, and Jim didn't look at all assured – though my main memory was the unfortunate sight of him having to change his shorts. We made the final, after a replay, to face Crystal Palace, managed by former United winger Steve Coppell. Famously, Leighton had a nightmare as we were lucky to sneak a 3-3 draw.

Action was needed and we saw the first instance of Ferguson’s necessary brutalism. Leighton, the man he’d brought through the youth ranks at Aberdeen, playing in the World Cup for Scotland and signed for big money, was dropped. The gambit worked, but Leighton cut a sorry figure in his suit before the game and was nowhere to be seen in the pictures of the post-match celebrations. The next season, he was essentially third choice keeper and only got a run out in a League Cup tie against lowly Halifax Town.

In 1992, he drifted back to Scotland with Dundee before a move to Hibs saw him return to the kind of form that made his name. Despite being in his mid-30s, he re-established himself as Scotland’s first choice goalie throughout the late 90s, playing in the 1998 World Cup. These days, he’s back up in Aberdeen (where he returned for a short spell at the end of his playing career) as a coach.

Jim Leighton was a more than capable goalkeeper, not helped by playing for United in the period before it all clicked for Ferguson. He’ll not be the first big name we’ll see to fail at Old Trafford.

Introduction

What?
This blog is a record of everyone to play for Manchester United FC since the beginning of the 1988/89 season up to the current day, whenever that may be. At the moment, up to the end of 2011/12 seems a reasonable target, which means (unless someone else makes their debut in the next few weeks) Will Keane will be the last entry. Quite how long it'll take is unknown at the moment, but I'm aiming to put up a new entry at least every couple of days.

Why?
One of my favourite books is The United A-Z by Garth Dykes. A complete record, up to the summer of 1994, of everyone who played for Manchester United, even in their previous guise as Newton Heath. As a young neer-do-well, I read the book compulsively and always wanted to write an updated version when I was older. This, then, is my attempt at doing so.

I must also swipe a whole load of inspiration from the magnificent Clarke Chroniclers Footballers project, in which the blogger goes through every Rochdale player from his first game in 1982 to their long awaited promotion from the bottom rung of pro football in 2010. This, then, is kind of my own version of that. Mike MCSG, I salute thou.

Who?
I'm a frustrated football journalist at heart, and the history of my club is often more fascinating then the present. This is my take on what's happened to the team in my living memory. Comments are welcome, especially correcting factual errors, as is the odd jibe from fans of other clubs, though I'd hope for a bit of respect beyond the cliched taunting of "scum" and "Munichs".

How?
Put simply, the first entry will be whoever was wearing the #1 shirt on the first day of 1988/89 season. I'll work through that team and further entries will be players who appeared in subsequent games. Therefore, a certain player who may have been with the club since 1980 but missed all most of the season I start at will not appear until they showed up that footballing year.

Naturally, the history of individual players will cross over, but I'll try to avoid repeating the same facts as much as possible. I'll list where we signed each player from and who we sold them off to, if anyone, with the details of their debut and their final league total. I'll just include the league games record, as it saves a lot of bother, to be honest. However, I'll also include, for the sake of completion, players who made appearances in other competitive games but never in the Football League/Premiership.

Basic facts and figures are taken from the wonderful Stretford End website, on which I have spent far more time than is probably healthy. The aforementioned United A-Z is also vital for finding out details on when players signed/departed that may not be on Wikipedia or suchlike.

I'll also tag each entry with a very basic rating system: "Players I liked", "Players I didn't like", "Ambivalent" and "Not a clue". The latter is for players who I simply don't remember so can barely comment on, mainly those that made a brief cameo as sub in a League Cup tie.