The other thing is that Eric and Keane, earned the respect of the team mates on the pitch and got the right to say what ever to the others, to become the captain/boss on the park. Ibra is coming in with a big reputation and with some respect, but if he doesn't cut the mustard as you say no one will listen to his moaning and he could become a rather caustic figure in the dressing room.

Pressure on him to hit the ground running then, and I think that he is best when under pressure to prove his worth, and that hopefully will be to our benefit.

Fergie and Jose still on good terms. Met for dinner to discuss Pogba.

The two most successful managers in the game working together, I like the sound of that.

They don't really work together, they just work together.

It's like when you go for a pint with Jan from accounts. You're not really colleagues, you just work for the same company and occasionally see each other in the lift or during a fag break.

They've always been close, met regularly and had nothing but praise for each other. It was only when MUST and Red Issue had their annual 'make up a story to make Fergie look like a ****' that anyone doubted that.

For Ferguson's part I'm sure he'd appreciate a close relationship with members of the footballing staff and I think Mourinho likes the idea of being part of a dynasty and see's Ferguson as part of that. They're not going to have any real working relationship besides two people that work for the same company who have a good relationship with each other.

Well yes of course, I only meant that it is nice that they are working together, unlike it seemed with Moyes and LvG, who it seemed distanced themselves from Sir Alex.

On a separate topic, a question for those more knowledge then myself, was Mark Hughes the last person that we re-signed??

So, if or when this Pogba deal goes through, he would be the first since Sparky, would that be correct?

Well technically Paul Scholes was the last player you re-signed.

Getting into technicalities there, as he was still employed by the club on a part-time basis to work with the under 21's, so it was just a case of changing his status from coach to player, he never left us for another club as Pogba and Sparky did.

I did say technically. And you did re-sign him, as a player. He retired as a player as his playing contract ended, then a year later signed a new one. That's a signing.

he had to be re-registered as a player and sign a new playing contract so yes, technically scholes was the last person we re-signed

Fair enough, that wasn't really what I was getting at, but if you wish to use that as an example like that, then that would be correct.

I guess I should have said, or asked, who was the last player we signed back after moving to another club, that would have been more accurate, so I guess it was my fault for not wording the question as best as I could, sorry about that.

Yes, it was. Nevermind. Next time im sure youll be more accurate

Yes, I have accepted that I didn't word the question as exactly as I should have done, anyway, is Sparky the answer to my now (hopefully) more in-depth question?

Fairly certain you knew the answer before you asked the inaccurate question to be honest.

I was not 100% certain, hence why I wanted to ask here, amongst the more knowledgeable people, I am not in the habit of asking questions that I already for certain know the answer to.

To answer Batty's question in terms of signings, Hughes wasn't the last player we sold and resigned. Les Sealey resigned for us, though he never made a appearance during his second spell with the club, both his spells were whilst Hughes was in his second spell with the club.


I'm struggling to think of anyone else in that respect.

Just to add, I felt that Batty's original question was quite clear in terms of what he was asking. Scholes technically was the last player to come back to play for us, but the question was clearly alluding to players who left us during the playing career and moved back. Scholes came out of retirement which is slightly different.

I know others have said that Paul Scholes was the last player we re-signed and they are right but didn't we also re-sign Les Sealy in the 90's after we sold him after Hughes.

If the question was opened out a bit, say to players we let go too early or players that we should have re-signed, I think the head-scratching and googling that would follow would show United generally get rid of the right players at the right time. Given that he still has his peak years ahead of him, Pogba is a complete anomoly in the SAF era. In fact, going even further back (I think it was before SAF) I can only think of Peter Beardsley that we should have kept hold of/tried to re-sign.

Anybody got any others? Even letting go of Kanchy, Ince and Stam doesn't quite match up to the loss of potential from saying sayonara to Pogba/Beardsley IMHO....

I thank you both for your replies, and for correcting me on thinking it was Sparky, when in fact it was not, so it is nice to have the answer that I was looking for originally.

Robbie Savage??

Only kidding, yeah it is a shame that it didn't work (was it work permit problems for Beardsley, I honestly don't know why I am thinking along those lines in relation to him, but something is telling me it was ) out with Beardsley, he went on to be someone that I really liked and admired, especially at Newcastle.

I would say that the departure of Stam was a bit of an oddity, though referring back to my post with regards Ibra, if you have someone in the changing room who's going to cause problems with the others, and disrupt the team spirit it's dangerous to have them around, and I think that's why he left. Playing wise he'd have been the rock that United built the defence around for a further 4 or 5 years at least.

At the time Atkinson brought Beardsley over, he just wasn't ready. At the time I spent most Saturday's at Old Trafford be it the first team or reserves, and to be fair he was fine and showed some glimpses, but he didn't fit into the way we played nor showed any signs of adapting. He may well be one of those that got away, but it was the right thing to do to let him go when we did. Also taking into account that Whiteside had broken into the team months prior to Beardsley's arrival and that he was playing with Hughes in the reserves. Hughes and Beardsley played in similar area's on the pitch, and I dare say Sparky did OK for us.

In fact, the work permit problems wasn't Beardsley, that was Bosnich.... Who we all forgot about in terms of re-signing. He was after Sealey. Forgot totally about that one.

Think that you're getting a little mixed up, there. Beardsley's English. Why would he need a work permit to play for an English club?

He went to play in Canada, so he probably needed a permit for that, but it would have never stopped him playing for us.

Anyway, to answer the original question, it was Bosnich, apparently.

Ah thanks for all of the answers, good to get a final, definitive answer!

As for players that we perhaps should not have let go, one has just popped into my mined, how about Shawcross?

He has done well for himself, since leaving us, and another one in the making could be Michael Keane.
Not the most high profile ones, but I think that they have done pretty well for themselves since they left us.