‘This can’t be true’ - The failed Manchester United wonderkid Sir Alex Ferguson signed but never used once

When Manchester United players return for pre-season training next week, they will hope it goes a lot better than it did for Sir Alex Ferguson's final signing.

It has been 12 years since David Moyes began his ill-fated solitary season with the club, and it also marks the first summer Wilfried Zaha spent in Manchester. United agreed a five-and-a-half-year deal with the winger in the January transfer window of 2013, but allowed him to return to Crystal Palace on loan to finish the job of getting them promoted to the Premier League.

It seemed the ideal situation for all parties, and while both United and Palace enjoyed a successful end to the season, Ferguson's shock retirement would upset the plans for his £10m signing. The man he had agreed to play for would no longer be the one who would oversee his development.

"I just saw it in the news and I was thinking, ‘this can’t be true, he wanted to sign me, he must want to see me play at least,' Zaha told The Greatest Game podcast. "Obviously it’s football, you’ve just got to get on with it. When I signed with United I asked to go back on loan to Palace to finish off the season but when the season finished he retired. Even up to now, I think what if I didn’t go back, maybe I would’ve have been able to play with the team."

Ferguson had been strongly advised by his son, Darren, to pursue a deal for Zaha, after the Palace star had torn his Peterborough United side to shreds in the Championship. A few weeks after their chat, Zaha was on his way to a central London hotel where he met with Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton. It didn't take much to convince him of a move.

"Sir Alex Ferguson, who I’ve watched for years, tells me he wants me to be part of his team. It was all just surreal," the forward recalled. “He only really said he wants me to play for Man United, I’d play out on the wing, there’s other young players there like [Danny] Welbeck and [Tom] Cleverley that I’d get on with, and obviously when you come at first don’t expect to play straight away, you have to earn that position. That’s all he said really, I was fine with it. I was thinking, ‘I’m good with anything, the opportunity is all I need’."

Zaha will argue he never got that opportunity. While some say he lacked the maturity to adapt to the culture shock of life in Manchester, there is also a strong argument he was let down by key figures at the club who did not do enough to help him.

Rio Ferdinand later admitted the youngster was 'mishandled' by the club and confessed he should have done more to help him in his new surroundings. It might seem ludicrous now, but there was a genuine belief Zaha had the same raw ability that Ferguson had seen in Cristiano Ronaldo a decade earlier, but Moyes was a very different manager, who played a more direct system and needed immediate success to justify his appointment.

It was never going to be a suitable environment for such a mercurial talent to finesse their game and fulfil such enormous potential. Zaha struggled in the Community Shield win over Wigan and did not feature again until a League Cup clash with Norwich in late October. At a time when Zaha felt he needed support, he was left on his own. He barely spoke to the United manager and would only play 28 minutes of Premier League across two cameo appearances.

"To be honest, when I usually speak about Man United I wouldn’t say I regret anything but that is one thing I do regret because I didn’t push my personality," Zaha added. "I’d never moved from Croydon, I’d never went anywhere, all of the sudden I’m in Manchester, I’m feeling homesick at times, I did not put how I play and my personality across at all. I was literally a shadow of myself.

"I think about it in so many different ways because different managers handle younger players in different ways because nowadays we see players who rock up to the first team at 18 or 19, and the way they are handled, they flourish.

"I can say maybe it came at the wrong time, I was not mature enough. But at the same time, the way the manager wanted me to play, I wanted him to trust me, so then I kind of lost my identity as well because I stopped doing skills, and then it’s like, ‘who am I if I don’t do skills’."

Zaha was sent on loan to join Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Cardiff City, but 13 appearances for a side that would be relegated from the Premier League was not what he needed either. By the time he returned to Manchester, Moyes had been sacked. It could have represented a second chance for the winger, but the appointment of Louis van Gaal would only further accelerate his exit.

Van Gaal favoured a system that did not use traditional wingers, so Zaha would either have to sacrifice the best parts of his game to become a wing-back or a false nine. Neither of them suited him. The Ivorian featured in the pre-season schedule, before the Dutchman informed him he was no longer part of the club's plans. It was blunt, honest advice that he respected.

“I was so relieved,” Zaha told the OnTheJudy podcast. “I was thinking, ‘Thank you for telling me straight and letting me restart my career’. People ask me if I regret it (the transfer). No, it was a learning curve. It’s made me stronger mentally. I met some amazing players, some amazing people, and I’m glad I went there. I haven’t got time to feel sorry for myself. I just have to stamp my authority on anything I do now.”

To this day, it is extraordinary to think Zaha made only four senior appearances for United, and his subsequent success back in south London was evidence that he had plenty more to offer the club than he ever showed. He might not have been ready for the culture shock that awaited him in Manchester, but there is no denying the club could have done more to make him feel welcome as well, and it would have been fascinating to see how he would have developed under Ferguson instead. It is also an important reminder that no matter how talented a youngster might be, potential is only relevant if you manage to fulfil it.

Ahead of his last Old Trafford appearance for Galatasaray two years ago, he had a simple reply to those recurring questions about regret. "I'll be honest, when you look at my face do you think I am bothered at all? No," Zaha said. "I went through a phase in my career, you either build from it or die. It built my character. I was determined not to let my career die out."

It is that defiant self-belief that shows why Ferguson signed him in the first place.