9 Roy Keane

480 appearances, 51 goals

7 league titles, 4 FA Cups, 1 Champions League*, 1 Intercontinental Cup, 4 Charity Shields

Occasionally dismissed — mostly by those who didn’t see him at his peak — as a limited footballer who just had drive and motivation, Roy Keane was a simply magnificent footballer who, for 7 years between 1996 and 2003 (apart from that period out injured), owned the middle of the Old Trafford pitch and just about every other pitch in the country too.

A great passer, a fantastic reader of the game, an aggressive presence and a force of nature, Keane’s relentlessly high standards also inspired those around him. Rarely do you have a midfielder who you could say bossed almost every single battle he had in the middle of the park. United have been lucky to have had almost a handful, and Keane was one.

His performance in the 1996 FA Cup Final was a statement of maturity as a genuine world class talent and he was the obvious choice to succeed Eric Cantona as captain despite there being longer-serving and older players around him. In 1999 his performance in Turin ranked among the best individual performances the club has ever had.

To this writer’s mind Keane is the best midfielder from the UK and Ireland since Bryan Robson.