Zoran Tosic made his way back to the Lowry Hotel, bewildered by his day’s work at the Carrington training ground and not a little shocked. It was January 2009 and the 21-year-old Serb had moved from Partizan Belgrade to Manchester United for a £7 million fee. Tosic was one of the hottest prospects in the football factory of the Balkans, United were the English, European and world champions. And didn’t he know it.



“I was put straight into the first-team squad and the levels were so high that it felt like another sport,” Tosic, now 32, explains to The Athletic. “It was very heavy for me in those first weeks in Manchester. The ball moved so quickly in training, the quality was top, top, level. Nobody lost the ball. Except me. I was trying my best but it wasn’t enough. This wasn’t the football I knew.



“I thought I could play for United but there was a reason I was not at their level. These players lived the...