Cole: Eric had extra

was still learning. “I enjoyed playing alongside Eric and I tried to learn from him too, as I did with all the good players I played alongside.

"I was a young boy when I came to Manchester United but I never felt it was difficult to fit in, you just integrated into the system and became part of it. You just get on with. The senior professionals have that status for a reason, but what I realised at United was that everyone was respectful, mostly because those senior players had been successful before. That’s what I really enjoyed about the club was that everyone got on so well. The teams I played in, we were like a family off the football pitch. The crazy thing is, nobody was allowed to take liberties on the football pitch. If you ever felt that there was an injustice on the pitch, it was a vendetta, and your team-mates would sort it out for you. That’s just how close that team was. The camaraderie was incredible. When you’ve got a team bond like that it’s special. And that’s made up of all the characters involved."

“I remember having a conversation about Eric with Bryan Robson and he summed it up perfectly: when Eric first arrived he was that little bit of magic that the team needed. The catalyst. There was already an extremely hard-working team with some real quality players – the players in that team had almost everything in the locker, but that something extra pushed the team over the line. So when Eric came in he brought flair and helped take it to the next level - and that team was very, very good by the way. It wasn’t like United became a one-man team. It’s just that Eric complemented the other players and added something extra. He achieved a lot at Man United and he will always go down as one of the club’s legends.”