I've just made history with Real Madrid - but I wanted to do it with Manchester United

It was the day after the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley, and Manchester United's heads were still spinning from an evening on the Barcelona carousel, as Sir Alex Ferguson famously called it.

Ferguson came up with that phrase before the 2009 final in Rome, but two years later, Barcelona were even better. Their 3-1 win at Wembley was a complete performance, and their domination of the midfield was mesmerizing. "No one has given us a hiding like that," the United manager said.

Rather than trying to find a way to turn the carousel off, Ferguson was considering constructing his own. He had an idea to upgrade his own midfield, so he picked up the phone and called Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp.

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"The day after Manchester United lost to Barcelona in the Champions League final at Wembley in 2011, my dad received a call from Sir Alex Ferguson. He wanted to sign Luka Modric," Jamie Redknapp revealed in his Daily Mail column in 2018.

"Xavi and Iniesta had raised the bar for midfielders. The best had to be players who could take the ball off either foot, dribble and pass through the lines. Having seen just how impressive those two were against United, Sir Alex identified Modric as the player to take his team forward."

Modric would have made a difference to a midfield that was more workmanlike than anything in that United side, but the biggest issue was the identity of his current club. Ferguson and chief executive David Gill had just about had their fill of dealing with Daniel Levy and Spurs.

This was three years after Dimitar Berbatov's painfully