Considering the player Wilfried Zaha has become in recent years, it can be easy to forget how much of a failure he was at Manchester United. Zaha was famously Alex Ferguson's last signing at the club, but of course he would never get to play under the Scot.
Instead his manager would be David Moyes. Unlike his predecessor, Moyes didn't really rate the young winger. The situation between the two would get so toxic that Zaha felt his then manager was trying to derail his career.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the Ivorian International said he felt Moyes and his staff were trying to 'break me in every way possible' and 'destroy my career for no reason'. Hardly what you want when trying to adapt to life at a big club.
Zaha described various ways in which he had been let down by the club, including being 'belittled' by coaches in training and sending him mixed messages. There were rumours circulating at the time that the player was sleeping with Moyes' daughter, something the club also failed to put to bed. All of this contributed to what was an unhealthy atmosphere for Zaha.
When he was ultimately removed from the Champions League squad in favour of emerging youth prospect Adnan Januzaj, he felt it was time to move on.
But when he took me out of the Champions League squad and put in Adnan Januzaj, who had never played for the first team, I knew then that this is way bigger than I ever thought and had gone way beyond footballing reasons.
When it was not about football or ability, what could I do?
When Moyes was dismissed, he was given ONE training session to prove himself under new boss Louis van Gaal. Despite feeling that he did well, it wasn't enough.
Wayne Rooney said to me "you've trained the best". Then I go inside, have the meeting with them and they just said: "We just don't think you're good enough". So I said "OK then, I just want to go on loan".
He feels his failure was ultimately down to a lack of opportunity:
Not being given a fair opportunity to play at all and being called a flop is what hurt me even more. How can I be if I wasn't given a fair chance?
I see Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, these types of players, and dribbling wise I'm up there with them but they have been given the platform to perform.
Every day I wanted to go on Twitter or Instagram and say something but I couldn't. That would be unprofessional...
The experience has given me even more and proved that I can do anything if I believe in myself. As long as I continue to work hard and remain dedicated nothing will get in the way of me reaching my goals.
There are few doubting his talent now. Zaha is possibly the best player in the Premier League outside the top six, and it would not be surprising to see him give it another go at a big club this summer.
