First time I'd seen Sir Alex, was at a Salford Boys game.
I was at Man City and he'd heard that
I was a United fan and I was playing
next door to the Cliff, playing for Salford Boys
on Lower Broughton Road,
and he came along with Brian Kidd to watch me.
So during the game I spotted him.
You'd never think now, under-14s it was,
Manchester United manager watching Salford Boys.
Afterwards he was speaking to my mum,
later I'd know that he was asking
me to come down to train for United.
So that was my first experience
of actually seeing him in real life.
And then of course I went down to train
with United and he was always there.
He was always watching the young players play.
It was amazing how he knew your name,
he knew your mum's name.
And not only me but
all the players' and all the parents' names.
He was unbelievable.
I'd trained with the first team quite a lot.
I think my first training session was at like 15
with the first team.
And then more and more as I got older, 16, 17.
So I knew the lads and obviously I knew Sir Alex.
So my first full-debut against City,
I remember him naming the team
and he'd start with the goalkeeper,
right-back and go along the team and
left-wing was the last position he'd say.
And he'd always give the team an hour and a half before
and I'll always remember: "Ryan, you'll play on the left.''
Now I thought, I was in the squad,
so I thought I'd be sub.
I never thought that I was starting.
So as soon as he said...
I was listening but I wasn't: "Did he say my name then?"
And I wasn't the nervous type,
and that was the most nervous I've ever been.
I remember getting sweaty palms
and sort of thinking and homing in
on what I've got to do in the game.
But yeah, those were my thoughts when he
named me for my debut for the first time.
Like I said, I'd trained with the first team
quite a bit so I was familiar with the lads as well.
And I was lucky, you know:
Steve Bruce, Bryan Robson, Brian McClair.
So many experienced players
who helped me along the way.
Obviously as a United fan I knew the pressure
on the club to win that league title.
Obviously we had a good team.
And more or less the whole season it was in our hands.
It was a difficult end to the season.
A lot of games in a short space of time.
We started picking up injuries
and Leeds had the momentum.
From my experience now playing for so long,
momentum is huge going into the title run-in.
And we just ran out of steam,
and Leeds deserved the title.
But I remember the lads who had been there
the last four or five years thinking:
"That was our chance, we won't get chance like that again."
And I think that was a lesson for me
and for the rest of the players that,
we won't let that happen again.
So there was a real determination coming back
[for] pre-season that we're not
going to let it happen again.
We actually didn't get off to a great start.
But then obviously everyone knows:
Eric Cantona's come to the club
and it's given everyone a lift and
from then on it felt like
we were going to win every game.
I think he just fitted into the team straight away.
To the team's strengths,
his partnership with Mark Hughes:
they just bounced off each other.
And of course with the wingers that we had:
myself, [Andrei] Kanchelskis, Lee Sharpe.
He was the one who released us.
And he was the one when you had the ball,
he was always that option
as well as going a little bit further up
the pitch to Mark Hughes.
He was either in that little pocket
or you could go up to Sparky
who would always hold it up
and then bring Eric into play
and then he was playing them little passes
to me, to Andre and to Sharpey as well.
He really complemented the team.
He was the last piece of the jigsaw.
He was that bit of magic that we were missing.
And not only that, he scored big goals.
He scored important goals.
So, he was just the icing on the cake really.
We were already a good team
but with him we were a brilliant team.
We were devastating in transition
because that was when we were at our most dangerous.
When the other team had the ball [and] they lost it,
as soon as I’d get the ball
I knew Eric was clever enough
to find those little spaces
and you would play to Eric and you'd just run.
And obviously even if you were back on your own box,
the speed that myself, Kanchelskis, Lee Sharpe had,
we would play it up to Eric
and then just penetrate, run in behind.
And teams were afraid to give the ball away.
When you have the ball you want to be confident,
but you knew that if you gave the ball away
you'd be sprinting back to your own box.
And I think that not only
when we had the ball we were dangerous,
but especially when we didn't have the ball,
we were a brilliant counter-attacking team.
Recruitment is everything in any job.
Getting the right people for the right job
and I think at first when you take over as manager
like [Jürgen] Klopp did, it's a big overhaul.
I think you have to be, not lucky,
but fortunate that maybe you have
a couple of young players coming through as well.
And it's just those little tweaks,
because you're not upsetting the team too much.
At one point we bought the best centre-half, Gary Pallister,
and then the emergence of Paul Ince.
Then the likes of Roy Keane, Eric Cantona coming in.
And then we had the young players coming in in '96 as well.
You don't want to be buying five or six players
and five or six players going every transfer window.
You want that just one or two that you recognise
where you need to strengthen
and that's what the boss did.
Roy and Incey never argued on the pitch.
They complemented each other even though
they were both really fiery characters.
They were both box-to-box midfielders.
You see now a holding midfielder [and an] attacking midfielder;
they could do both, Roy and Incey.
Late in their career, [they] dropped back and become that pivot.
But early on, they wanted to get beyond the centre-forwards,
especially Keaney when he came.
I think he scored two goals in his first game at Old Trafford.
He could get up and down for 90 minutes,
and the energy that we had in that team was scary.
When you see the four in midfield and Eric.
Eric was quick, Eric could get from box to box quick as well.
We had real power and energy
and like any team that midfield is important,
and we had two of the best midfielders
in Britain and perhaps Europe.
We would stick together,
we would sit next to each other on the coach
and I think it was more:
"If Ryan can do it, then we can do it.
"He's gotten in the team, he's stayed in the team."
They've seen a young player
who they've played with in the youth team,
go through, get into the first team
and stay in the first team.
So, I think it was more that really.
Regarding the role,
they were all their own individual personalities
and strong personalities.
I think that's key
because Nicky Butt replaced Paul Ince,
Scholesy more or less replaced Sparky
and David Beckham replaced Andrej Kanchelskis,
a fan's favourite.
So for them to step into their shoes was huge.
We all know they had the ability
but actually to have that mentality:
"Who are these kids replacing three fans' favourites?"
That mentality to be able to do that
and not be bothered about it
was important in their development.
You were wary of them because they had
that experience and that base of [an] English back-four.
David Seaman as well as well as the Vieiras,
the Petits, the Anelkas, the Bergkamps,
that little bit of continental flair.
And I always say it, they were a mirror image of ourselves.
They could out-football anyone,
and also if it was ever going to get a bit nasty,
they could look after themselves,
which was the same as us.
We had men in our team,
right through the spine:
Bruce, Ince, Cantona, Hughes, Schmeichel.
They're the same: Adams, Seaman, they were proper men.
When you stood in the tunnel next to them
in that tight tunnel at Highbury,
you knew you had to earn the right to play,
and then you had to go for 90 minutes
because they had a bit of everything:
they had pace, they had power,
they had the imagination of Bergkamp.
So they were very much like ourselves where it was like:
"Whoa, ok, we've got a team on our hands here."
It was like later when we faced Juventus
and the big European teams;
you should always go into the game
mentally in the right frame of mind but
when you go to Highbury you're zoned in
a few percent more because you realise
that you're in for a game,
and if you didn't turn up then you were finished.
Both as individuals and as a team.
You were just constantly tested,
your concentration had to be there for 90 minutes,
you couldn't make mistakes,
you had to be on it physically,
you had to be able to run more than them.
They were great battles.
It didn't really matter if we were at Old Trafford or at Highbury,
we were equally comfortable going to Highbury,
just like Arsenal were equally comfortable coming here.
They were huge battles.
Together with the sideshow of the managers
who looked like they didn't get on.
As soon as it was Arsenal-United at the weekend,
that coverage would start on the Monday.
As soon as the games had finished that week
then it seemed like the momentum was building
and building and building towards that game.
I think the manager sort of approached it
sometimes aggressively to get the best out of us as well.
And if he could get anything up
on the opposition's manager and the team,
then he would do.
Whether it be killing them with kindness or
being aggressive towards the manager.
"He said this; he said that about you;
"what are you going to do about that?"
He was constantly finding ways to get that edge,
because he respected Arsenal, he respected Wenger
and he knew that it was the fine details
that could perhaps get us that result.