Sir Alex Ferguson will go down in history as one of football’s greatest-ever managers.

Sir Alex Ferguson "worst ever signing" was recommended to him by the legendary Eric Cantona but ended up playing just two times.

Back in December 1995, Manchester United were in the middle of a injury crisis in central defence. Key senior defenders Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce and David May were all unavailable for selection.

United needed a new centre-back and quickly. Cantona suggested a mate who he had played with at the Auxerre academy.

William Prunier, 28, jumped at the chance to move to the Red Devils and bought himself out of his contract at Bordeaux to secure a dream transfer.

It was initially on a trial basis, the idea being that United could look at Prunier during training sessions and see if he was up to scratch.

But then that plan never worked out and due to another injury blow, this time to the uber reliable Denis Irwin, Prunier was thrown into deep-end.

He performed well in his debut, even getting an assist for Andy Cole in a 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers on 30 December.

He also smashed a long-range effort against the bar and looked like he could do a job for United.

But the second Premier League outing did not got anywhere near as smoothly after Ferguson had said it would be the real test for Prunier.

United, with their makeshift backline, travelled to White Hart Lane to play Spurs just days later and their preparations were affected by Paul Scholes falling ill before kick-off, and Peter Schmeichel pulling his calf but soldiering on as best he could for the first 45 minutes.

What followed was a crushing 4-1 defeat on New Year's Day, a result that put an end to Prunier's United experience.

He was said to have been offered an "extended trial" despite the player himself claiming a three-year deal was on the table but couldn't be thrashed out.

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In his 2015 autobiography, 'Leading', Ferguson labelled Prunier as “a disaster” and he was voted as United's sixth worst-ever player in a poll.

Prunier amassed nearly 500 appearances and, in addition to winning the Intertoto Cup alongside Zinedine Zidane at Bordeaux, played for Auxerre, Copenhagen, Marseille, Napoli and Toulouse.

He did also sign a deal with Hearts but never played a single game after not feeling wanted.

Prunier was capped once by France and named in the 2002/03 Ligue One Team of the Year.

Asked if being described as a flop annoys him, Prunier told The Telegraph: "No, everyone thinks what they want. It was a very enriching experience, a dream and an honour, and I don’t regret it."

It was a transfer like no other at the time.

Manchester United once signed a nine-year-old footballer off the back of seeing his compilation video - but what has happened to the player now?

Nowadays, the Internet is flooded with stories of young academy prospects who are tipped to become the next Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, while any spectacular moment at amateur levels will quickly go viral.

Back in 2007, though, things were slightly different. YouTube had only been founded two years earlier in the United States, while you might struggle to find many people who knew what Twitter was. The closest you got to TikTok was waiting another two years for Kesha to release her hit song.

The best way to get a top club to notice you was either by chance - an encounter at a local game, for instance - or by sending a DVD directly to the club in the hope that they would see it.

While some managers might not always get back to young players, there are plenty of stories of Sir Alex Ferguson doing exactly the opposite.

An 18-year-old, newly released by Macclesfield, once delivered his own compilation DVD directly to Ferguson's home address in Wilmslow - with the United boss promising to watch it.

The Scot did just that, and subsequently invited the player for a trial.

In the case of Davis, his grandad sent over a DVD of the nine-year-old playing football in Brisbane, Australia, where his family was living at the time.

United scouts watched the videos, invited him to participate in several training sessions and then offered him a contract.

Davis would play in the same age group as Marcus Rashford, telling The Athletic in 2023 that the future United and England star was 'the standout and always has been'.

The midfielder continued to work his way up through the youth ranks, but then suffered a broken leg when he was 14 years old.

Davis described the injury as a 'turning point' as far as United's subsequent decision not to give him a scholarship contract at 15, but also added: "It was all up in the air, and what is to say I would get one? I probably wasn't going to. But it didn't help the process and it didn't help me going on to look elsewhere."

After working his way back to full fitness, Davis decided to focus on his education and went to university, where he studied business and economics in Sheffield.

Although he now works full-time in finance, the midfielder - who is now 26 - has remained in football, and is still based in Lancashire.

After a spell with Altrincham, Davis has most recently been playing his club football for Manchester-based West Didsbury & Chorlton, who play in the North West Counties League Premier Division.

The club has been home to a number of high-profile players over recent years, including current Bolton winger Carlos Mendes Gomes and Gibraltar international Jack Sargeant.

Last week, he signed for divisional rivals Cheadle Town, who finished a position above the midfielder's former club last season.

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On his current life, Davis told The Athletic: "Things didn't turn out how I wished for at United, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

"People still make tongue-in-cheek comments [about the YouTube video] in passing, but nothing like they used to!

"One kid used to call me wonderkid... it is all fun and games."