When John O’Shea came off the bench for his Premiership debut at Anfield in November 2001, the Kop greeted him with the warm chant of: “Who the ****** hell are you?” They, and the rest of the country, soon knew.

In his first full season, 2002/03, O’Shea was an absolute revelation at left-back: galumphing up and down the wing, effortlessly picking the pockets of opponents who ran at him, cheekily nutmegging those who tried to stop him – most notably Luis Figo – he was one of the star men as United regained the Premiership.

Sadly, as so often happens with young stars in their second season,
O’Shea’s gradient levelled off throughout 2003/04. And when United bought Gaby Heinze in the summer of 2004, he had to look to other positions than left-back for regular action.

Thankfully, O’Shea has the tools to play pretty much anywhere. He was always a footballing defender, blessed with beautiful balance, crisp passing and formidable upper-body strength, and that enabled him to slip into midfield as well as anywhere across the back four.

In 2004/05 he played in all those positions, and in the following season he began to establish himself in the holding role in midfield – forming an
unlikely but extremely effective partnership with Ryan Giggs that was the basis of United’s late-season surge.