A milkman scouted me for Man City but now I'm a Man United legend after eating biscuits with Sir Alex

Ryan Giggs donning the blue colours of Manchester City may evoke a distasteful image in the mind for Manchester United supporters but this was almost a reality.

Dennis Schofield was the first to spot his talent at eight years old, shortly after his move from Wales to Swinton. Schofield doubled as a milkman and scout for City. “How he ever got his round done is a mystery. He couldn't pass any sort of game without stopping to watch,” Giggs later said in his autobiography.

In his own words, Schofield was "not missing out on this one” and recruited Giggs for his team at Deans Youth Club. “Ryan joined our nine-year-olds and he was brilliant,” he told the Daily Mail in 2013. “His control, his pace… that's what he had.”

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He made copious attempts to persuade City to sign Giggs, then named Ryan Wilson, and introduced him at age nine. The club took an interest and eventually, there was a photo of him on their walls.

“I said to Ken Barnes (City's chief scout) at the time: 'On Ryan's 14th birthday make sure you are in his house because United are tapping him.'”

Sir Alex Ferguson, along with United chief scout Joe Brown, was indeed soon tapping on his door as City delayed on that very day in 1987 - and the rest is history.

“Ryan was a United fan but I was very disappointed with City. I left them as a result,” Schofield admitted. “For that calibre of boy you need to be first, there, sitting on them.”

Giggs etched his name into United folklore after becoming one of the 249 players to have graduated from the academy to