Despite how it might have looked at the time, Dong Fangzhuo's transfer to Manchester United back in 2004 made sense both on and off the pitch.
United acquired the talented youngster for a fee of £500,000, potentially rising to £2.5million, from Dalian Shide. It was seen by many as the club's attempts to corner the market in China - one that United's former group commercial director Peter Draper strongly denied.
He told The Athletic in 2019: "It wasn’t a commercial decision. Not at all. I’ve been asked that question many times over the years. Clearly there would have been an intention to take full advantage from a commercial standpoint but it was also clear that we could only do that if the player was successful on the pitch. And he was a talent.”
