Who knows what could've happened. But in hindsight, it was probably a good thing. Rio could slowly develop his game well-established in the first XI at West Ham and Leeds, which enabled him to become first-choice centre-back for England by the 2002 World Cup Finals.

If he came to United in 1997, he would've been vying with Ronny Johnsen and a fast emerging Wes Brown (who was the standout youth product of the day) and I'm sure we would've still bought Jaap Stam as our centre-back lynchpin. I doubt he would have had enough of a run-out to be first choice for England as his development would've been slower. Consider also how Rio still had quite a few kinks in his game after he joined us.

Having said that, the shock exit of Stam and sustained injury problems for Johnsen left us pretty soft at the back with an error-prone Silvestre, still-raw Brown and the panic-buy of a past-it Blanc.