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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Tyrone Marshall

'They were visionaries' - Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United partnership was 20 years ahead of its time

It's August 1998 and the Royal Antwerp team bus is rolling back into the club's Bosuilstadion home, but Danny Higginbotham can't believe what he's seeing.

The 19-year-old is the first Manchester United player to be packed off to Antwerp as part of a new link-up between the two clubs, but the Belgian giants are somehow marooned in the second tier and their season has started disastrously with three straight defeats. This is the latest, a 5-0 thrashing away from home.

But hundreds of Antwerp fans are still waiting for the coach to return and Higginbotham is amazed by the level of support until his new teammates put him right.

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