When Jaap Stam and the other senior players met with the Manchester United board in the summer of 2001 little did he know it was the beginning of the end of his career at the club.

A player had to be sold, they were bluntly told, to balance the books. Stam had just signed a new five-year contract and was on his way back after an operation to repair damage to his Achilles tendon. He did not realise they were talking about him.

“Every club has like three or four players who are, how you call it? Like the spokesmen, the committee, and I was in there as well and occasionally you speak with a couple of people from the board and about the situation of the club,” Stam explains.

“That’s when they told us that budget-wise they needed to do something. They didn’t mention names but… It wasn’t about the book. We spoke about it with the board as well about having a problem with the budget at the time.

“They needed to sell somebody eventually and, of course, if there had been an offer placed for a player. I had been there three seasons, a bit more, and won everything with the club. They paid, what was it, £10-11million for me? And they could sell me three years later for £15-16million.”