Signed from: On trial basis, December 1995
Debut: 2-1 win vs Queen’s Park Rangers, December 30th 1995
League Record: Two games
Sold to: Released, January 1996
A player for whom a lot of mythology has sprung up around, especially in coming in those "Fergie's Worst XI" polls you see, often very unfairly.
Here's the facts: in December 1995, there was an injury crisis in our backline. Pallister, May and Bruce were all out and in them days, the squads weren't quite as deep as they are now. Short-term reinforcements were needed and luckily, King Eric knew an old friend from his days back in the homeland who was without a club. Thus, William Prunier arrived on a trial basis.
His first game, he didn't look too bad. Gary Neville was alongside him at central defence and he even helped set up a goal: a corner was swung in and Will threw himself at it. He made contact and the opposition keeper needed to make the save, only for Andy Cole to nod in the rebound.
A couple of days later, at White Hart Lane, the holes at the back were exposed. Dennis Irwin had joined the injury list and when Peter Schmeichel went off injured, it was no surprise we took a 4-1 drubbing with Prunier taking a lot of the flak.
As it was, Fergie offered to extend his trial, but the player elected to move on and spent several years playing in Denmark, Italy and Belgium before returning to his native France for a lengthy spell at Toulouse.
He remains a figure of fun at United amongst certain sections of the support, but the truth was he barely stuck around to make a real impression and had one good game, one bad.
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