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Luke Shaw had been stuck in M3 traffic when he belatedly arrived at St Mary's for Manchester United's December Monday night fixture at former club Southampton.

Shaw was injured but relished the trek back to his former club and was clad in his Paul Smith club suit. He belatedly took his seat for the match next to friend and one-time teammate Morgan Schneiderlin, also sidelined.

The 25-year-old France international was adamant about leaving Southampton last summer after watching Shaw and four more teammates up sticks for north London and Merseyside.

Arsenal were keen on signing Schneiderlin and former Saints manager Mauricio Pochettino was inevitably interested in bringing Schneiderlin to Tottenham.

Shaw, despite enduring a checkered first season at United, is understood to have assured Schneiderlin in the summer United was 'the best club'.

United players occasionally did Sir Alex Ferguson's bidding as he homed in on targets. Wes Brown holidayed with Rio Ferdinand in Las Vegas in 2002 and a month later the Leeds defender joined United for a British record £29.1m, while Gary Neville admitted in his autobiography he tapped up Steven Gerrard.

"'Come play for United,'" Neville wrote in his autobiography. "'The fans will take to you in no time.' He just laughed, and said: 'I’ll do it if you go to Anfield.'"

Little did United's players know it, but their advice on a flight home from Lisbon in August 2003 was unnecessary. Ferguson had already agreed a transfer from Cristiano Ronaldo. Nemanja Vidic, too, was 'godfather' to uninspiring duo Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic.

Shaw's advice to Schneiderlin is his most valuable contribution yet at United. Louis van Gaal now has the 'right-sided' midfielder he was devoid of (well, two of them) and United's lightweight squad has some more beef around the bones.

Like Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian and Bastian Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin is a team-focused signing whose age and Premier League experience convinced Van Gaal he would improve United's midfield.

Schneiderlin has benefited from Southampton's stubbornness and was particularly excellent at United in their January win. Shaw missed as many games as he played for United, Calum Chambers drowned in the deep end at Arsenal, Dejan Lovren is Liverpool's most expensive mistake since Andy Carroll, Rickie Lambert scored fewer Premier League goals than Chris Smalling and Adam Lallana's progress has stalled at Anfield.

Van Gaal's regard for Michael Carrick is so strong he has Schweinsteiger, as well as Schneiderlin. United's three-game losing run without Carrick in the spring was not entirely owed to his absence but Van Gaal played Wayne Rooney and then Robin van Persie in midfield, while Ander Herrera was wasted in the holding role and Marouane Fellaini prospered further forward.

Carrick's discipline and prudence is valuable yet he is a tentative tackler and immobile. His failure to track David Silva enabled City to open the scoring in the April derby and the phlegmatic Daley Blind lacks aggression, as well as speed.

Like the M3, United's midfield could be congested.

See United fans' top transfer targets below