Roy Keane's acrimonious exit from Old Trafford allowed the younger generation at the club to 'flourish' as leaders according to Mick Clegg.
The power development coach saw how the United dressing room as well as the team on the pitch evolved throughout his spell there from 2000-2011.
And one particularly impactful time of transition occurred in 2005 when Keane was shown the door by Alex Ferguson.
Clegg spoke to Off the Ball about how for all that they lost their linchpin, there was a long-term benefit from such a power vacuum being created.
He said: “There were new characters coming in and sometimes they need to express themselves.
“Roy was the one who was controlling that. It wasn’t Alex Ferguson. Roy had a lot of control.”
“But then things start to move, more staff in, more players in, you know the size of the squad starts to increase. It makes it more difficult to hold all the bits.”
“The mixture in the pot goes a different colour.”
“I think Roy would still have done really well if he had stayed on there, just as Ryan Giggs did.”
“But then what happened was, people who wouldn’t normally have done - because of Roy being there - started to [express themselves.]
“Watching Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano train together, it was incredible. When people started to see the possibilities, it was incredible.”
Other takeaways from the interview included Clegg noting that Keane had never done any weights prior to his arrival at the club.
It's hard to believe nowadays that a world-leading club like Man United wouldn't have a strict gym regime in place but that shows how much football has advanced in the intervening two decades.
Indeed Clegg being brought into the European champions came about on a bizarrely informal basis as he was self-taught regarding weight training rather than having completed any kind of university course.
And he simply became well-known in the Manchester area through word of mouth from clients as well as his son Michael being on the books at United.
He boasted above-average power for players at the time due to his dad's training so that ultimately led to Brian McClair giving Clegg Sr a call and asking him if he'd fancy taking a role with them.
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