It was said he was a striker in the Jurgen Klinsmann mould, strong, quick, two-footed and a scorer of spectacular goals. True, but he missed a lot of seemingly easy goal-scoring opportunities that made him utterly unreliable. On arrival in January 2001 for £7 million from Independiente, Diego impressed the United fans with his never say die attitude, speed and skill.

But it took him 8 months to score his first goal, 27 appearances after his debut - a late penalty against Maccabi Haifa ended the drought. Things picked up with more goals and his goal celebration involved taking off his shirt. It became a famous incident when he scored his next goal at home to Southampton, his late 25 yard effort won the game 2-1 but he couldn't get his shirt back on. Forlan rejoined the action bare-chested, racing to make one timely tackle inside his own box to the delight of the home fans before being ordered to the touchline to replace the missing top.

There was better to come when Forlan bagged two goals at Anfield to claim a famous 2-1 win for United. The first was the result of a crazy blunder by Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek who let the ball slip through his arms to leave Diego with a tap-in. Diego was now a cult hero and had his own song "He comes from Uruguay, he made the Scousers cry!!!" There was even better to come when he scored a cracking last gasp winner at home to Chelsea in January.

However it was downhill from then on. His appearances became more limited and eight goals in 2003-2004 season did little to allay fears that he was not Manchester United quality. In the end it was his inablity to score simple tap-in's that damaged the Uruguan's prospects. Forlan left in a £1.5 million transfer to Villarreal in August 2004. He learnt his lesson though, this time he scored on his debut!!!!!