When Manchester United signed Andrei Kanchelskis in March 1991 for £650,000, not much was known about the Russian, although the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson had watched a video of him playing for Russia's U21s and the transfer was deemed a calculated risk.
The transfer talks between Shakhtar Donetsk and United were secret, though, so much so that when Kanchelskis arrived in Manchester he didn't know which North West club he was joining, but he would eventually become a cult hero at Old Trafford.
After four years spent at United between 1991 and 1995, Kanchelskis made his exit having won two Premier League titles, the League Cup, the FA Cup and the European Super Cup, but he certainly didn't leave for pastures new quietly.
His time at the club was marred by unsavoury incidents, from Kanchelskis refusing to play to his agent attempting to gift Ferguson a box with £40,000 in cash as his thanks for offering his client a new contract, a deal that had been made with a 'secret' clause.
This is the story of the Flying Russian's years at Manchester United.
--
Kanchelskis was born in Kirovohrad, Ukraine in the Soviet Union to a Lithuanian father and a Russian mother, starting his career at Dynamo Kyiv in 1988 before moving to Shakhtar Donetsk in 1990, where he would play for one season before United came calling.
Interestingly, though, upon his arrival from Shakhtar, Kanchelskis explained he didn't know which Manchester club he was joining.
"There wasn’t a lot of information about English football when I was younger," Kanchelskis recalled to FourFourTwo.
"Of course I knew about Manchester United – Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, Matt Busby and George Best – but in ’91 most people spoke only about Liverpool because they had been dominating. That changed in the ’90s – soon everyone spoke about United.
"When I flew to England in 1991, no one told me which club I was going to. I asked my agent and he just said, “To Manchester”. I asked, “Which club?” and he replied, “I don’t know”. When we landed, we were driven to Old Trafford. It was only then that I realised it was United.
But what was it like to first meet Ferguson, who had already built a fierce reputation?
"When I first met Alex Ferguson he told me, 'Tomorrow, you’re training'. Nobody told me that I’d be training. I hadn’t brought my boots," Kanchelskis said.
"I went to buy some, but they were terrible. They didn’t really fit properly. I played really badly in a friendly, but fortunately, they still gave me a contract."
Although it was quickly clarified which club Kanchelskis was signing for, he would have to wait two months to be handed his debut against Crystal Palace as the season reached its conclusion, with United's stars rested ahead of the European Cup Winners’ Cup final.
United would win that final 2-1 against Barcelona in Rotterdam thanks to two Mark Hughes goals. Ronald Koeman scored for the Spanish giants, and Kanchelskis had collected a winner's medal in his first few weeks at the club - a taste of what was to come.
"England was like school. There was so much to learn: the mentality, the food, the language, having to drive on the other side of the road – it was a very big change. The football was similar, though," Kanchelskis reflected.
"I’d played for Dynamo Kiev under Valeri Lobanovsky – one of the best coaches around – and he liked playing 4-4-2 with two wingers, just like Ferguson."
There wasn't a language barrier between Kanchelskis and his former coach Lobanovsky in Ukraine, but there was between Ferguson and his latest recruit, who had just arrived on British shores and was trying to learn English - something his teammates exploited.
"I once called Fergie a Scottish b******, although not on purpose. My new teammates taught me to say that to Ferguson at training, but I didn’t realise what it meant. That sort of thing happens if any player goes to a different country," Kanchelskis said.
"When I played in Russia, everyone taught a Brazilian player to say, 'F*** off' to the coach in Russian. When I called Ferguson a Scottish b****** everybody laughed! Thankfully, he did too!"
The late George Scanlan played an important role in helping Ferguson convey his message to Kanchelskis and the great Eric Cantona - the skilled interpreter was even permitted to sit on the Reds' bench on matchday.
The 1991/92 season was Kanchelskis' first full campaign with United and the Russian forward made over 30 First Division appearances, scoring five goals, with Ferguson clearly impressed by his first year at the club, giving the then-youngster a glowing report on TV.
"In his first season, you'd have to say he's been an outstanding success, all things equally. He's only a young lad, he just got married in the summer, he's settling in England and learning the language, understanding the English game," Ferguson said at the time.
"You have to say he's had outstanding success, a marvellous first season he's had."
But it wasn't just Kanchelskis who had an excellent season - United secured their highest league finish for four years when finishing second to champions Leeds and they clinched the League Cup at Wembley, beating Nottingham Forest 1-0.
There was excitement building, it felt like Ferguson's side was on the cusp of something special.
"We should have won the league in 1991/92. We were top all season, but towards the end we had too many matches and dropped points against Luton, West Ham and Liverpool. We won our last game, against Spurs at Old Trafford," Kanchelskis said.
"Ferguson came into the dressing room and said: 'Great season. Don’t worry, next season we will win it."
As it happened, Ferguson's confidence wasn't misplaced and United ended their 26-year wait for the league title in the 1992/1993 season, although Kanchelskis wasn't used as frequently, facing competition from Ryan Giggs and Lee Sharpe in the wide areas.
With Giggs on the left, it was between Kanchelskis and Sharpe to fight for the right-wing role, but with the latter sidelined through viral meningitis in the autumn of 1992, the Russian was used, only to lose his place to Sharpe in the second half of the campaign.
Of course, Kanchelskis couldn't argue against his lack of involvement when United sauntered to the Premier League title, finishing 10 points clear of second-place Aston Villa, and he made just 13 league starts that season, scoring three goals while providing one assist.
Despite United's eventual success that year, Kanchelskis had expressed his discontent at sliding down the pecking order earlier in the season, and relations with Ferguson were close to boiling point when Kanchelskis refused to play in the reserves.
"I just couldn't understand why I wasn't in the team," Kanchelskis told the Independent.
To make his frustration at his lack of game time worse, Kanchelskis was still enduring a degree of homesickness in an era in which he was one of the only foreign exports in England's topflight, but seniors Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce did their best to help.
"I didn’t know his [Robson] dad was a lorry driver as mine had been. He had taken me to his house and to Chester races and to a Paul Simon concert," Kanchelskis said to the The42.
"I wouldn’t say I had close friends at Manchester United but I used to hang out with Lee Sharpe and (my wife at the time) Inna was with me in Altrincham."
With Scanlan's assistance, Kanchelskis persevered and he was rewarded for his patience, gradually regaining Ferguson's trust, which led to him playing a key role in the 1993/94 season when United completed a league and cup double.
United could have won an unprecedented English treble that campaign, but they slumped to a 3-1 defeat by Aston Villa in the League Cup final, the Reds' fate sealed in that clash in the latter stages when Kanchelskis was sent off for handling the ball on the line.
Although it was a blatant handball, Kevin Keegan on commentary duties was appalled at the decision to send Kanchelskis off.
“It’s handball by Kanchelskis. I hope not [not a red card], he doesn’t have to do this, just a yellow one please," Keegan said, showing just how much the game has evolved since then, but United were only at the beginning of their trophy-laden transformation.
Kanchelskis was United's first choice right-winger heading into the 1994/95 season, but he developed a prolific habit of scoring goals and would finish that campaign as the club's top scorer, having scored 15 times, with 14 of his haul coming in the Premier League.
Ferguson had viewed his debut season as an 'outstanding success' but Kanchelskis, now fully settled in Britain, took his game to yet another level and he delivered some memorable performances, the pick of his displays his hat-trick against City in November 1994.
The Reds dominated their rivals at Old Trafford on that occasion, recording an emphatic 5-0 win and Kanchelskis stole the show.
"Against Man City, he made [Ferguson] us understand: it didn’t matter what position City were in the table. This was a derby. A big game. They would have a lot of determination to win the game and the big boss understood that, so he made sure we were prepared," Kanchelskis recalled to ManUtdcom.
"We kept enjoying ourselves and kept going forward because we always wanted more goals. In the last minute, I got another one for my hat-trick; a very special moment in my career.
"I am a coach these days, so I should show videos of this goal to the players I work with! I would show them the things I showed in that goal: determination to score, running hard even in the last minute of the game. It was a very good night for me, a very special night for the fans as well – they were very, very happy!"
Over 25 years from that special night and Kanchelskis is still the only player to score a hat-trick in the Manchester derby.
Away from the pitch, though, the noise surrounding Kanchelskis was becoming increasingly concerning and matters had come to a head two months before that history-making win against City, as Kanchelskis' agent had visited Ferguson in August 1994.
Kanchelskis had been rewarded with a lucrative new contract at United, something the Old Trafford faithful had begged for with their chants on the terraces, but his representative, Grigori Yesaulenko, was an agent from the dark side of the game.
Yesaulenko insisted on presenting Ferguson with a gift as thanks for his client's new contract as the season started, but it wasn't a bottle of wine, some chocolates or a card that the United boss received, instead it was something illegal and troubling.
“He said, ‘This is for you and your wife, thanks for all your help. I got home, my wife opened it – £40,000. I thought it contained a samovar or some other typical Russian gift. What the box contained was money, bundles of the stuff," Ferguson wrote in his autobiography, Managing My Life.
One of Arsenal's most successful managers, George Graham was embroiled in a bung scandal prior to that incident, and with that episode fresh in the memory, Ferguson took extreme measures to ensure he also wasn't caught up in something illegal.
Ferguson described in his book how he took the £40,000 to the club's safe under the supervision of club solicitor Maurice Watkins the following morning, but the money was there for a year and Ferguson began to worry, as he wasn't directly involved in negotiating Kanchelskis' new contract.
The Premier League's bung inquiry found "absolutely no question of any wrong-doing by anyone involved at Manchester United or English football" relating to the transfer.
To make matters worse, that contract had a clause inserted which Ferguson was unaware of, stating that Kanchelskis was entitled to 30 per cent of any transfer fee United would receive should he be sold, while his former club Shakhtar would also receive 30 per cent.
But, was the money intended as a sweetener to look favourably on any future deals regarding Kanchelskis, or as thanks for a deal which would never have been agreed, if Ferguson was involved and knew about the clause? The answer was soon revealed.
That wasn't explained until Kanchelskis lost form in the second half of the season after the festive period, with the winger only completing 90 minutes on a handful of appearances, complaining about stomach pain which United's medical staff couldn't diagnose.
"We can't find anything wrong. We've had him for scans, we've taken him to the top specialists and they've found nothing. But he feels there's a pain there," Ferguson said to the Independent.
Football players didn't ask to leave United, why would anyone want to leave the biggest club in England? Well, Kanchelskis did, and he made a public admission of his desire to leave Old Trafford, which prompted Ferguson to be visibly furious.
"You wonder if someone has got to the boy. He's been told he's valued here but he seems confused," Ferguson said.
"Fergie tried to persuade me to stay at United. Deciding to leave was a mistake, but when I left David Beckham started to play. If I’d stayed, maybe nobody would have heard the name David Beckham," Kanchelskis has later joked to FourFourTwo.
Although it wasn't a straightforward deal, Ferguson eventually lost his Matt Busby Player of the Year to Everton, with the Toffees signing Kanchelskis, but once again the Russian's representatives were up to no good, with Ferguson alleging in his book that they threatened the Reds' chairman Martin Edwards.
"He came over to try to force the situation about Andrei moving from Manchester United," Ferguson recalled to the BBC.
"I don't think Andrei knew what was going on, to be honest with you at the meeting - [the agent] made it quite clear that Andrei would have to go [to Everton] or the chairman would pay the consequences.
"The angry exchanges came to a climax when he screamed at the chairman, 'If you don't transfer him now, you will not be around much longer," Ferguson added in his autobiography.
With United set to lose 60 per cent of the fee for Kanchelskis, they understandably wanted more than the £5m Everton had offered, but the Russian's agent had insisted he could waiver Shakhtar's 30 per cent and he seemingly followed through on his promise.
The deal was completed and Kanchelskis moved to Everton, although the story doesn't stop there. On the pitch, Kanchelskis would enjoy more success across his career, playing for an array of different sides after his time spent in Liverpool.
Not long after the dust had settled on the transfer episode, Shakhtar contacted United to demand their contractual share of the fee for Kanchelskis, claiming both clubs had been conned by the player's agent.
As a gesture of goodwill, United paid the money into a Swiss bank account in an attempt to finally close the book on the Kanchelskis saga, but it was not received by the Ukrainian club, something that Shakhtar's president Aleksandr Bragin came under suspicion for.
Bragin and five bodyguards were later blown up by a remote-controlled bomb during a match in October 1995 and Watkins, United's solicitor, declined to comment on the deaths in Ukraine, starting that United had fulfilled all their obligations with the deal.
While Kanchelskis' time at United ended in unprecedented, unsettling scenes, there was no denying his service and success at the club, having won two Premier League titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup and European Super Cup across his time in Manchester.
He's still the only player to score in each of the Manchester, Merseyside and Glasgow derbies, and wherever he went, he endeared himself to fans - the Flying Russian came and excelled in Britain, setting the blueprint for foreign players alongside Cantona.
Did Kanchelskis and Ferguson ever set aside their differences in the future, though? Kanchelskis revealed a brilliant encounter between the pair at Old Trafford in 2016, which was the first time they had crossed paths in person since he left United.
“He was holding court, drinking wine, when he spotted me. Someone said, ‘Now there was a great player," Kanchelskis told The42.
"I knew he was a great player. I paid £650,000 for him," Ferguson responded.
