Obertan showed he had bags of pace in his time at United but seemed a long way off being the finished product. His first touch of the ball at Old Trafford saw him speed down the left wing… before running the ball out of play. That pretty much summarises his time with the club.

Ahead of returning to Old Trafford for the first time since leaving for Newcastle, Gabriel Obertan has claimed his friend and former team mate, Patrice Evra, is going to be in for a difficult afternoon.

“You always want to go back to your old club and prove to the gaffer that you are a better player,” Obertan said. “I feel like I’ve improved since arriving here, and I hope the manager is quite pleased with what I’ve done so far. I will try to play my best game, but the most important thing is the points, obviously, and what the team does. We are just trying to focus on this one and we know it is going to be a tough one. I’ve still got some really good friends there – I call Patrice Evra regularly – so I think it is going to be great to go back there, feel the atmosphere and play against him too. I’ve already told him that it’s going to be hard against me – he is in for a difficult game!”