Former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre joined our lads at Carrington for training this morning.

Silvestre joined United in the summer of 1999 for £4m and left nine years later for Arsenal. Silvestre had wanted to see out his final year of his contract and leave on a free following a testimonial the following summer but the club encouraged him to leave. He was in the midst of a medical with Manchester City before getting a call from the North London club. The last time a player moved from United to Arsenal was Brian Kidd in 1974.

After two seasons at Arsenal, Silvestre moved to Werder Bremen on a free transfer. He two seasons in Germany before being released on a free this summer. Two weeks ago he had a trial with West Ham and now he’s back at United.

Ferguson couldn’t be considering bringing back the 35-year-old to help us through our defensive crisis, could he?