24. Deiniol Graham

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 1-0 win vs Hull City (as sub, League Cup tie), October 7th 1987
League Record: 1 game (+1 as sub)
Sold to: Barnsley (£50,000), August 1991

Named, apparently, after a Welsh village his mother was fond of. I suppose he should count himself lucky she’d never had a pleasant time in (obvious pun alert) Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

A promising striker in the youth and reserve teams, he was always going to struggle for first team games with experienced international forwards such as Mark Hughes and Brian McClair around, especially in those pre-squad rotation days. He also had to contend with his youth-team colleague Mark Robins being ahead of him in the queue. A few weeks after his competitive debut, his only league start came in a 2-1 loss at Wimbledon. We never seemed to play well at Plough Lane and it can't have been easy for a youngster thrown in against the self-styled Crazy Gang.

Despite that, when his next chance came, he took it. The QPR game as mentioned in the last entries had gone to extra time and Graham was thrown on. Fellow sub David Wilson put the ball across and he calmly slotted it away. Alas, that was as good as it would get. Shortly afterwards, a broken arm put him out of action for the rest of the season and that was just about that, bar coming off the bench against Derby early in 1989/90.

Nearly two years after his showing in the first team, he scored a few goals in some pre-season kickarounds, which was enough to convince Barnsley to take a punt. However, he never found his scoring form and his league career wound down with short spells at Carlisle and Stockport.

In 1998, hearing his name on Football Focus made me look up to see he was playing for non-league side Emley when they took on West Ham in the FA Cup. If I remember right, he’d played a starring role in their best ever cup run, which is nice. Currently back in his native Wales managing Llandudno.

23. David Wilson

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 1-1 draw vs Sheffield Wednesday (as sub), November 23rd 1988
League Record: 4 games, all as sub
Sold to: Bristol Rovers (free transfer), July 1991

And into the realms of obscurity. David Wilson never started a game for United and he's the first player I've been unable to find a picture of in a United shirt. I doubt many fans even of the time would remember him now, but he went on to have a decent career in the game.

Like Tony Gill and Lee Martin, Wilson was a member of the team that made the final of the FA Youth Cup in 1986, only to be beaten by Manchester City. Playing as a midfielder, he was always going to struggle with the likes of Robson, Moses and Whiteside ahead of him and it wasn't until options were short that he got a chance.

All the same, he made an impact in the game against QPR as mentioned in the Tony Gill entry. With United 2-1 down in extra time, Wilson picked the ball up around the half way line, running past a couple of defenders before smashing the ball across the area to be slotted home by our next entrant.

It didn't lead to further glory, however, and the next season saw even more players brought in to leave him way down the pecking order. Loan spells at Lincoln and Charlton didn't lead to permanent moves and he moved on to Bristol Rovers in the summer of 1991.

After being released by Rovers having played only 11 games, Wilson moved about as far North as you can go to play football, signing for Finnish team RoPS, the start of what would be a long career in Scandinavia. His most consistent spell was at Swedish club Ljungskile, where he played over 100 league games and went back to manage them over two spells in the first decade this century - it's from this part of his career where I found the above picture. I even found one article that has him down as the tenth most influential Englishman in Swedish football. Fair play! It seems he's still living in that part of the world, scouting for Aston Villa.

22. Tony Gill

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 1-1 draw vs Southampton, January 3rd 1987
League Record: 5 games (+5 as sub), 1 goal
Sold to: Retired due to injury, December 1990

We've already covered Lee Martin, Lee Sharpe, Russell Beardsmore and Mark Robins, but Tony Gill was the first of the initial "Fergie's Fledglings" to make the first team. That was in the first few weeks of the new era under Govan's finest, but injury then put Gill out of contention for a couple of years.

When he came back into the first team, an injury crisis had seen Gill and other youngsters thrown into action. On finally being given a start, he took his chance with no little aplomb, scoring a great goal in the FA Cup third round replay at QPR and following that up by kneeing one in against Millwall. Things were looking good for Gill, who was highly rated and could play in either central midfield or in defence. Lee Martin, a team-mate from youth to first team, was convinced he was good enough to play for England someday.

However, it all came crashing down in a game against Nottingham Forest that Spring. A tackle saw horrific damage to his leg, and he never recovered. Wiki sez he was coaching at Bath City in the mid 90s, and even played a couple of games before being let go due to lack of finance, but since then I can find nothing about him. United do have a doctor at the club called Tony Gill, but I believe he's another person.

Youthful talent cruelly wasted, then. From hearing all that's been said about him, I would loved to have seen him in the shirt more.

21. Ralph Milne

Signed from: Bristol City (£175,000), November 1988
Debut: 2-2 draw vs Southampton, November 19th 1988
League Record: 19 games (+4 as sub), 3 goals
Sold to: Sing Tao of Hong Kong (free transfer), summer of 1991

Often brought up in "Worst United Player" polls, Ralph Milne was a gamble by Fergie to fill the left-wing space until Lee Sharpe was ready. It didn't work, but the small fee perhaps warranted the risk.

After all, at his peak, Milne was part of a Dundee United team that won the Scottish championship and were becoming a force in European football. In his best years, he was scoring for fun in domestic and continental competitions and to this day is highly rated by fans in that part of Scotland.

It all went downhill fast though, for whatever reasons and his powers were well on the wane by 1988. Indeed, we signed him from Bristol City, who were then in the third tier of English football. He'd come to England to sign for Charlton but his form for them had caused the drop down. Fergie obviously remembered Ralphie from his glory days and after flogging Jesper Olsen, needed a replacement.

United fans, understandably, were underwhelmed. Used to erratic but talented wingers like the Dane and Gordon Hill, the slower style of Milne was never going to go down well. He had the odd moment, but wasn't able to inspire a struggling team and after the end of the 1988/89 season, he made only one appearance off the bench the next year, spending the best part of two campaigns dossing round the reserves, with the exception of a short spell on loan down at West Ham.

Fergie reckons Milne couldn't handle the sheer pressure of playing for United, which may be true, but he perhaps should have judged that Milne wasn't a big club man. After he left, according to Lee Sharpe, he sold a story to the tabloids about players getting off their kites in Amsterdam during our trip over to Holland for the European Cup Winners Cup final in 1991 - thanks for that Ralphie!

20. Colin Gibson

Signed from: Aston Villa (£275,000), November 1985
Debut: 1-1 draw vs Watford, November 30th 1985
League Record: 74 games (+5 as sub), 9 goals
Sold to: Leicester City (£100,000), December 1990

At the start of his career, Colin Gibson played at left back in the Aston Villa team that won the 1981 League Championship using only 14 players. Sadly for him, injuries meant he missed the greatest night in the club’s history when they beat Bayern Munich 1-0 to win the 1982 European Cup.

By 1985, however, Villa were a team in serious decline (they would be relegated in 1987) and a move to United must have seemed a good one. At the time, we were showing signs of struggle after the ten game winning streak at the start of the season and Gibson, initially, added some impetus – scoring the winning goal against Birmingham to keep United top of the league at the turn of the year.

From reading Andy Mitten’s We’re the Famous Man United, the other players revelled in Gibson’s somewhat gullible nature. On a post-season trip in 1987, the players enjoyed Coventry’s surprise 3-2 win over Spurs in the FA Cup final. All except Gibson, that is, who slagged off their left-back Greg Downes for no apparent reason. The other players convinced the receptionist to run a fake “newswire” story that Downes had been called up to the England squad, leaving Gibson (who would hector Bryan Robson to convince national team boss Bobby Robson to call him up too) distraught to the point he was unable to eat his dinner.

Ferguson initially seemed to be a fan of Gibson, generally preferring him to the aging Arthur Albiston at left back or giving him the nod ahead of Jesper Olsen further up the wing, but serious injury struck in the summer of 1989 and he never got a decent run in the team again. He made a comeback of sorts in the Spring of 1990, scoring a cracking goal at Southampton and playing in the first semi-final game against Oldham, where he set up a goal. However, Ferguson reverted Lee Martin to left back for the replay and Gibson never played for us again. A short loan spell at Port Vale the next season preceded a move back to the Midlands with Leicester City.

Going on what I've heard from older fans, he was never a big favourite amongst the crowd either. Perhaps he signed at the wrong time and was associated with the failures of the last months of the Atkinson era. Personally, I only vaguely remember him in a red shirt, hence I have little or none of the malice towards him that I've heard - the term "the Gibson twins" (referring to him and non-relation Terry) being often followed by rolling of eyes.

I remember watching the 1993 play-off final between Swindon Town and Leicester and raising an eyebrow when his name cropped up amongst the subs. He was on the losing side, but featured again in the same event the next year, this time starting and being on the winning side.

Apparently, the day after this he was released on a free transfer. That’s gratitude for you!

19. Mal Donaghy

Signed from: Luton Town (£650,000), October 1988

Debut: 1-1 draw vs Everton, October 30th 1988
League Record: 76 games (+13 as sub)
Sold to: Chelsea (£100,000), August 1992

One of those players you forget played for us until you're reminded, Mal Donaghy is perhaps better regarded by fans of Luton Town, with whom he was a consistent performer throughout most of the 1980s.

Perhaps it was seeing him play his part in their 3-2 victory over Arsenal in the 1988 League Cup final that inspired Fergie to cough up a then not-inconsiderable sum to bring him to Old Trafford. Curiously, he'd allowed Kevin Moran to leave on a free only a few months before, which makes me wonder why we went and spent so much on a defender only a year younger at 31.

Moran, of course, was a crowd favourite due in no small part to his at-time insane bravery: he famously smashed his head in the 1983 FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal, and was carried off on a stretcher, blood pouring out from the wound while pumping his fist in the air towards the fans.

What Donaghy (who made over 90 appearances for Northern Ireland, including in the 1982 and 1986 World Cup finals) had going for him was that he was rarely injured and could play anywhere across the back four. In his first season, he played most games alongside Steve Bruce in the middle but from then on took on a utility role, filling in where needed without being a first choice again.

Thing is, I have two clear memories of Mal. The first is in the semi-final of the Cup Winners Cup against Legia Warsaw - the first leg in Poland being a game I seem to recall being on around 3/4pm our time, as I was watching it after getting home from school. They scored first before McClair quickly equalised. With Warsaw on the attack, Mal made a crunching tackle on their right winger, and fed the ball to Mark Hughes, who drove through their defence before smashing in a low drive from the edge of the box. Steve Bruce scored a third to create plenty of breathing room for the second leg, a 1-1 draw. For that challenge, Donaghy earned his winner's medal for sitting on the bench in the final in Rotterdam.

However, the next year he made a serious arse of himself in a game against Chelsea, at a time when we were chasing the title. Under no pressure whatsoever, he played pass back without (I assume) checking where his teammate was. The result was a somewhat horrific own goal, and a 1-1 draw at a point where we were struggling for points. It's that memory that taints my feelings for the guy, though his solid, unspectacular style doubtless didn't endear him to my young mind.

That summer, Mal was binned off to Chelsea, where he played regularly for a couple of years before retiring. He's currently coaching the Northern Ireland under-19 team.

18. Mark Robins

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 5-0 win vs Rotherham United (as sub, League Cup tie), October 12th 1988
League Record: 19 games (+29 as sub), 11 goals
Sold to: Norwich City (£800,000), August 1992

Yet another youngster given a chance by Fergie, Mark Robins, like Russell Beardsmore and Lee Martin, was a local-ish lad (from Ashton-under-Lyne) given a chance in a first team that looked increasingly bare in the late 80s: in two years, Fergie had sold Frank Stapleton, Kevin Moran, Graeme Hogg, Peter Barnes, Peter Davenport, Jesper Olsen, Liam O’Brien, Arthur Albiston, John Sievbaek, Chris Turner, Mark Higgins and Terry Gibson, as well as losing Remi Moses and Gary Bailey to injury. Three more experienced internationals would also exit in the Spring/Summer of 1989 – Gordon Strachan, Paul McGrath and the man who’ll be entry #26.

In fairness, most of those needed to be sold due to them being too old or not good enough. In return, we’d brought in Leighton, McClair, Hughes Anderson, Bruce and entries #19 and #21.

Robins, in terms of his first team chances, also benefited from the premature retirement of Nicky Wood, who had been given his first starts by Fergie in 1987 but was finished by back problems. When Davenport was sold, Robins became third choice striker behind Hughes and McClair. Not that it meant much in the season of his debut – the international duo started every single game and Robins was mainly restricted to appearances from the subs bench.

The next season, however, saw a serious injury crisis that necessitated Robins was thrown into the first team. A vital goal in a 2-2 draw at Wimbledon was enough to convince Fergie to keep him there for a vital FA Cup game at Nottingham Forest.

Enough has been written about that game for me to just stick to the basic facts, namely that Forest were a top cup team of the time (they won the League Cup in 1989 and 1990, and had reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1988 and 1989) and United were on a bad run of form, lying just above the relegation zone.

Depending on who you believe, it we had lost, Fergie would have been sacked. Thankfully for all concerned, Robins headed home a Mark Hughes cross following good work by Lee Martin and we held on for the win, though Forest had a goal dubiously disallowed. In the fifth round, he scored again up at Newcastle and followed that up with the winner in the semi-final replay, after which he was carried off the pitch by celebrating fans.

That goal came in the middle of a run where Robins scored six goals in six games, of which he only started one: in the same period, Hughes and McClair (who started all those matches) only mustered three goals between them and the youngster may have fancied his chances for a place in the first XI in the cup final. However, Ferguson opted for experience in the end, leaving Robins on the bench. Though he got some game time, it was Mark Hughes who scored twice, including a late equaliser.

Despite that disappointment, Robins had a winner’s medal and finished the 1989/90 as the club’s second top scorer. However, his career at United had already peaked. Despite starting the next season with some games and getting some goals (including a superb finish against QPR), McClair had rediscovered his scoring form and Mark Hughes was having another impressive season. Some consolation came when Robins won another winners medal by being on the bench against Barcelona,

The next season he saw even less action, featuring in only two league games, and he understandably put in a transfer request. In the summer of 1992, Norwich City stumped up the cash and he was on his way.

Finally given the chance to show what he could do, he scored twice on his debut at Arsenal and played a big part in Norwich’s title push that year. They finished third and Robins’ may have been confident on building towards a prolific future. Instead, he was badly injured at the start of the following season and subsequently struggled to rediscover his form, embarking on a nomadic career that included a short spell at Manchester City. A three year spell at Rotherham United saw him back amongst the goals, and he went onto manage them before he moved onto taking charge at Barnsley.