Man United back where they belong.

The 2015/16 UEFA Champions League draw.

At last Manchester United were back where they belong in the draw for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League after an absence that in reality was only one season but which seemed like an eternity.

As soon as United Captain Rooney scored his first of three goals last night in Belgium everyone's thoughts were turning to the group stage draw and choosing who they would prefer to play and probably more importantly the sides they didn't want to come up against until the knockout stages.

Since United last played in the competition many changes have taken place at the club from management, Moyes was replaced by Giggs who in turn made way for Louis van Gaal, to the players, with Carrick, Rooney and Smalling being the only players that started in last night's qualifier against Club Brugge who were also in the starting XI in the second leg defeat by Bayern Munich at the quarter-final stage in 2013/14. Interestingly Hernandez was also on the bench that night in Germany.

However, there has remained one constant, a status quo that can never be altered and that is the fans, fans that had to endure ridicule from rivals, which hurt, but never knocked them down as the faithful knew that it was only a matter of time before United took their place at the table reserved for Europe's elite.

The excitement of the draw had returned along with the dread of whose name would be picked alongside United. People always say that there is no easy draw which could be correct, but this year there were some really difficult but tasty possibilities. For example, United could have shared a group with one of these giants Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG or Juventus.

In the end they managed to avoid the so-called big teams and were pitted against PSV Eindhoven, CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg. No disrespect to our opponents, but even United legend Peter Schmeichel, who was hosting the draw, found it difficult to hide his pleasure of the outcome.

Once the draw had been made and the dust had settled it turned out to be quite favourable for the Red Devils and the fans alike who would travel to places such as Moscow, the city of United's 2008 final victory over Chelsea, Eindhoven, a return home for our newest star Memphis, and Schweinsteiger's home country Germany to play Wolfsburg.

The hardest tie will probably be against German outfit Wolfsburg but the long trip to the Russian capital is always a draining one and PSV are well known to United's Dutch backroom staff and Memphis will have some pointers.

United will open the group away at PSV 15 Sept then Wolfsburg (h) 30 Sept, Moscow (a) 21 Oct, Moscow (h) 3 Nov, PSV (h) 25 Nov and lastly Wolfsburg (a) 8 Dec.

As Sir Alex Ferguson always said the target is to get to ten points and as long as United win their home games, then I can foresee no problem in them progressing to the knockout stages and if they can add a striker to strengthen the forward line then who knows how far we can go.

One thing is for sure it is great to be back involved with the pinnacle of club football.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the European adventure.

Miles Dunton.

Man United Nations.

Enter the United dressing room on any match day and you will be greeted by a chorus of accents from all over the world as the room is filled by players from Spain, Argentina, Holland, Ecuador, Belgium, Brazil and of course the Home Countries but clearly the foreigners outnumber the natives and it will only increase.

Since the season ended transfer rumours have flooded social media and newspapers with what seems like every player on the planet having been linked to Manchester United. Players from all over the globe have had their profiles and transfer fees raised by even the most tenuous of links to Old Trafford.

This is not a new experience for the Old Trafford club as they have always been linked with the best talent around, but in the past the record transfer fees were paid out for the best of British talent Robson, Keane, Ferdinand and Rooney to name but a few. Nowadays, the big money in the Premier League is being paid to the likes of Angel Di Maria, Costa, Sanchez, Aguero and Hazard. Foreigners who are paid fortunes to show their class and unquestionable talents.

Nikola Jovanovic was the first foreigner to be signed by United when Dave Sexton brought the Yugoslav to Old Trafford from Red Star Belgrade in 1980 for £300,000.

However, I suppose the start of United's foray into purchasing talent from abroad really started in the nineties with the likes of Schmeichel, Kanchelskis, Solskjær and Cantona under Alex Ferguson. The price he paid for their services was minimal, bargains to say the least. What would the value of those players be in today's over priced market.

The early nineties saw Uefa enforcing the three foreigner rule on teams which meant all European clubs had to field a minimum of eight players from their own country in European competitions.

This new law inexplicably included players who even though were British and had been through United's youth system were also adjudged to be foreign. One player who suffered the most at the time was Welshman Mark Hughes.

United's chances of European glory were greatly hampered from that rule, especially in the 1993/94 and 1994/95 seasons when Fergie was unable to field his strongest side. If the '94 double winning side hadn't been restricted who knows how far they would have gone in the European Cup.

After the abolishment of the law Alex Ferguson commented "It's come two years late for us," he said, "because we'd have had a chance of winning the European Cup in 1994 otherwise."

The only benefit from that ridiculous rule was that United, under Fergie's guidance, put a stronger emphasis on finding English youth, which famously gave us the likes of Scholes, Butt, the Neville brothers and Beckham, who along with Giggs, Bruce, Keane, Irwin, McClair, Pallister and Cole would all go on to form the British and Irish spine of the team in the greatest decade of glory the club enjoyed.

Just as important to the club during that period were, of course, the plethora of foreign talented players, including the aforementioned Schmeichel, Cantona and Kanchelskis along with Solskjær, Johnsen, Stam and Yorke.

In the new millennium what a joy it was to go to Old Trafford and watch players like van Nistelrooy, Vidic, Evra, van der Sar, Park and a certain young Ronaldo strut their stuff on the pitch alongside British players such as Ferdinand, Neville, Keane, Sheringham and the ever present Giggs.

The only major disappointment was the record signing Argentine Juan Veron, who endured a torrid time in Manchester, he had the quality, but seemed overawed by Old Trafford and the price tag of £28.1m that came with his move.

Over time the scales have slowly been tipped in favour of the foreigners. Take last summer when only one of the six new players Louis van Gaal bought was English, Luke Shaw. To his credit Louis van Gaal did give chances to British players during his debut season but this was due mainly out of necessity. However, how many of those players will have another chance in the coming season if the transfer gossip is to be believed.

Van Gaal obviously values British players and even made Rooney captain when most people thought he would choose his compatriot Robin van Persie.

Of course the ability to attract the best players in the world has only been made possible with the amount of money that has been thrown at Premier League sides in the last couple of decades by the sharing of TV rights at home and in Europe, along with lucrative sponsorship deals and foreign owners ploughing millions into the clubs.

There are many pro's to all the foreigners plying their trade on our shores the most obvious being the level of talent that fans can watch week in week out is tremendous. The quality is clearly there for all to see and some players are worth the price of a ticket on their own.

The influx of players from around the world has made the Premier League the most watched league globally and of course it widens a club's worldwide fan base to the player's home country, which is particularly true in Asia. The sale of merchandise abroad produces more revenue for a club than Matchday ticket sales.

The scouting net is forever expanding and in recent years it has included African and Arab nations along with South America and Asia. No corner of the globe is untouched in the search for the next big talent and United benefitted from this system with youngsters such as Januzaj, Pereira and Milinkovic.

As with everything, there are also con's and my main gripe is the lack of loyalty shown to the club. The kissing of badges after a wonder goal means nothing when your agent tells you that he can get you an extra couple of zero's on your salary.

Gone are the days of one player one club. We will never see the likes of a Ryan Giggs type situation again, especially from a non-British player. In the near future, there will be fewer testimonial games for players as ten months at the same club will be unheard of let alone ten years.

It has to be remembered that the beautiful game is now controlled by agents. A situation that Sir Alex Ferguson always warned us against. I for one do not blame the players for wanting the best deal they can get to secure their future, but there has to be a more stringent set of guidelines to players' contracts and less power to their agents along with more restrictions on other clubs from approaching players still under contract.

I suppose the biggest negative is the lack of youth players coming through from home as they have less chance to make it at the bigger clubs. This therefore has a knock-on effect with the National teams or maybe it's as simple as the young talent abroad is much better than ours. Add to that the fact that when there is a quality British player who becomes available his price is astronomical think of Bale, Sterling and Kane.

At the end of the day, every fan wants to see the best players sign for their side and the excitement that is generated when your club is linked to a certain player, especially a world class talent is exactly what makes the transfer windows interesting to say the least.

Many people become bored of the constant speculation, but it does provide very interesting, sometimes heated discussions on the internet which is in contrast to the past when literally any transfer news did come via a friend of a friend.

In the end, it looks like Ryan Giggs will have to brush up on his language skills as the situation doesn't look like changing anytime soon.

Thanks for reading.

Miles Dunton.

Players that have been Devils & Villans.

With Manchester United playing Aston Villa at Villa Park this Saturday, I thought I would take a look at some of the players who have turned out for both teams ahead of this weekend's clash.

Jimmy Rimmer.

Manchester United: 1965–1974 App: 45 (1 sub)

A Lancashire lad, Rimmer joined Manchester United as a schoolboy in 1963, turning professional two years later. He spent eleven years at Old Trafford, chiefly as Alex Stepney's understudy. He was a substitute in the 1968 European Cup final and received a winners medal despite not getting on the pitch. 

With Stepney ruling between the sticks. Rimmer only managed to play 46 times for United in total. In 1973 he went to Swansea City on loan and impressed as first-team goalkeeper, enough that Arsenal signed him from United in February 1974, eyeing him as a long-term replacement for Bob Wilson. He stayed until 1977 when he enjoyed a spell of six years at Aston Villa.

In 1982 Villa reached the European Cup final, but Rimmer was injured after only nine minutes and had to be replaced by the young Nigel Spink. However, Villa beat Bayern Munich 1-0, meaning Rimmer became the second player in history to get a European Cup winners' medal at two different clubs, despite the fact that he only played in one match.

Paul McGrath.

Manchester United: 1982–1989 App: 192 (7 sub)

McGrath moved to Manchester United in 1982 when Ron Atkinson was the manager of United. In his formative years he was used in midfield but as time progressed he became a standout center half. He won the FA Cup in 1985 when United defeated Everton at Wembley and was even named man of the match, a match that was remembered for the first red card in an FA Cup final with the sending off of his defensive partner Kevin Moran.

When Alex Ferguson took over from Atkinson in 1986 the drinking culture began to rear it's head, at the center was McGrath, and that's when things began to take a turn for the worse. McGrath, due to chronic knee problems and alcohol addiction, was offered retirement along with a testimonial, and a substantial financial package by a frustrated Ferguson, as the manager believed that McGrath's best days were past. In the end Aston Villa bought him for £400,000 in 1989.

McGrath went on to play for the Villans until 1996, making over 250 appearances, and The Republic of Ireland, in which time he cemented his place as one of the finest center half's in the country.

Dion Dublin.

Manchester United: 1992–1994 App: 6 (11 Sub)

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson bought Dublin for £1 million on 7 August 1992, fighting off competition from Chelsea and Everton. Dublin was something of a surprise purchase for United, after Ferguson had tried to sign Alan Shearer from Southampton but lost out to Blackburn Rovers.

He must be one of the unluckiest players because after hitting the highs of scoring a last minute winner in United's first Premier league victory against Southampton at The Dell, his world came tumbling back to earth, as he suffered a broken leg against Crystal Palace in a 1–0 win at Old Trafford, which meant he missed the next six months. 

In his injury absence Fergie bought Eric Cantona and the rest as they say is history. And it was history for Dublin as United won the league that season for the first time since 1967. He failed to make the 10 Premier League appearances required to automatically gain a title winner's medal. However, he was given a medal as a result of special dispensation from the Premier League, meaning the late goalkeeper Les Sealey was the only major first team player not to get a medal.

The following season after only making a handful of appearances he was sold to Coventry City for £2 million pounds doubling the amount United had paid for him. He later joined Villa in 1998 and stayed there for six years.

Peter Schmeichel.

Manchester United: 1991–1999 App: 398

Bought by Ferguson for an absolute bargain at only £500,000 the great Dane won everything possible at United including five FA Premier League titles, three FA Cups, one League Cup, and the UEFA Champions League. No wonder Alex Ferguson described his purchase of Schmeichel as the "bargain of the century."

Named the World's Best Goalkeeper in 1992 and 1993. The season United won the first Premier League in 1993, he kept 22 clean sheets. He rapidly built a solid defensive unit with Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister as his two center backs. His huge frame intimidated strikers as they would try and shoot past him only to see the way blocked by him making himself as large as possible, looking like a huge starfish, to block their attempts.

Schmeichel ended his Manchester United career on the highest note possible, when he and United won the Treble, the FA Premier League title, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League, in the same season. He captained the side in the absence of suspended Roy Keane in the Champions League final, which happened to be his last match as a United player. So important was he to United that they struggled to find a worthy successor until the signing of David de Gea more than a decade later. Schmeichel left United to ply his trade in Portugal with Sporting but returned to the Premier League with Aston Villa in 2001 for a season.

Eric Djemba-Djemba.

Manchester United: 2003-2005 App: 27 (sub 12)

The player who was so good they had to name him twice. Djemba-Djemba rose to prominence with Nantes in France. His impressive performances as a feisty and uncompromising tackler for the French club earned him a dream move to Manchester United for £3.5 million in the summer of 2003, signed by Alex Ferguson as a possible eventual successor to the 31-year-old Roy Keane. But in his 18 months at Old Trafford, Djemba-Djemba found it difficult to maintain a period of form, and he was eventually unable to establish himself as a player capable of cleaning, let alone filling, captain Roy Keane's boots.

Out of all Fergie's signings this is one that really fell flat on it's face, and he and the fans were put out of their misery in 2005 when he was sold to Aston Villa for half of what United had paid. He stayed at Villa until 2007.

Dwight Yorke.

Manchester United: 1998-2002 App: 120 (sub 32)

With a smile as wide as the ship canal, and a personality to match, Yorke arrived at Old Trafford in August 1998 from Aston Villa for £12.6 million. At Villa he was a firm fans favourite for his goal exploits. So you can imagine their displeasure when Alex Ferguson came a knocking. The Villa manager at the time was John Gregory, who was famously attributed to saying that he would shoot Yorke if he had had a gun in his office when Yorke asked for the move to go ahead.

He immediately became a huge hit at Old Trafford, and quickly built up a lethal partnership with Andy Cole. A partnership that helped United to the incredible treble in 1999. Altogether he scored 64 goals for Manchester United in 188 appearances. But it will be his telepathy with Cole that put the fear of god into defenders at home and abroad.

Rumoured to have had a fall out with Fergie, about his public private life, he was sold to Blackburn in 2002 after only four seasons. In that time his goals had helped United to win the Premier League title three times, and made sure the team regained the Champions League trophy for the first time since 1968.

Ashley Young.

Manchester United: 2011 - present. App: 95 (to date)

In the Summer of 2011, Manchester United bought Young from Villa for an undisclosed fee, thought to be around £18 million. Young had been at Villa since 2007. Ferguson beat Liverpool to the signing and he agreed a five-year deal with the winger. His first season started brightly with assists and goals, which included a brace in an 8–2 victory against Arsenal at Old Trafford. 

Young made his debut in the UEFA Champions League against Basel, scoring a headed goal in the 90th minute to help Manchester United to a 3–3. Then a long term injury kept Young out and he struggled to find his form upon his return. In the last couple of seasons he has been accused of diving to try and gain an unfair advantage for the team, and was ridiculed on the internet by his critics.

Under the new management and playing system of Louis van Gaal, Young is at present enjoying a mini revival of his fortunes, and is displaying his defensive qualities as well as his ability to create chances, which has helped the team to six successive wins in the league.

Tom Cleverley.

Manchester United: 2005- present (on loan at Aston Villa 2014-15) App: 63 (sub 16)

Cleverley rose through Manchester United's youth system to become the Reserves captain, and was nominated for the prestigious Denzil Haroun Reserve Player of the Year award in 2007-08. Following successful loan spells at Leicester, Watford and Wigan Athletic, Cleverley made his United debut in August 2011 and was soon a feature of the Reds' exciting start to the season. But a serious foot injury sustained at Bolton kept him out until October and a further setback sidelined him until February. He was then used only a few times in the at the end of the season and ended the campaign having made 15 first-team appearances.

Paul Scholes' retirement before the 2011–12 season left an opening in Manchester United's central midfield. Cleverley had been identified by manager Sir Alex Ferguson as a potential homegrown replacement for Scholes. However that never quite materialised for the player, even when David Moyes took over from Ferguson.

During the Summer with the signings at United of Ander Herrera, Angel Di María, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw & Radamel Falcao, Cleverley found himself on the outside of the Manchester United squad under Louis van Gaal. He attracted interest from many clubs, but chose Aston Villa. Villa made an initial bid of £8 million for Cleverley, but baulked at his wage demands. Everton then came in with an offer of £5 million but that was rejected. Villa revived their interest with a loan bid on transfer deadline day. Following his loan move with just a year left on his United contract, Cleverley admitted that his career at Old Trafford was over.

Other players not featured but played for both clubs include: John Gidman, Stan Crowther. Willie Anderson, Frank Barson and Les Sealey.

Miles Dunton.