Man Utd's £275m transfer splurge as decade-long search for answer continues

Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing, especially in football, but striving to restore the perfection of the past can be an impossible challenge.

For years, Manchester United sought to identify a goalkeeper who could match the impact of Peter Schmeichel. Never mind the fact that the Dane wasn't always unstoppable - the memories of his impact at Old Trafford meant many were doomed to try and fail to succeed him until Edwin van der Sar and then David de Gea won the fans over.

Six years passed between Schmeichel's exit and Van der Sar's arrival, and you sensed United didn't want history to repeat themselves once they realised Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic wouldn't be around forever. However, more than a decade since the first potential successor signed on the dotted line, United are £275m in the hole - with Lisandro Martinez the latest addition - and no closer to finding a partnership as brilliant.

Part of the plan for a post-Ferdinand-and-Vidic world involved securing a replacement before the duo left the club. That meant adding two young and hungry centre-backs in the form of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, but neither was able to kick on after Sir Alex Ferguson retired and a succession of managers followed him into the dugout.

However, according to Vidic, the loss of both senior defenders in quick succession was also a factor. "It didn't help them [Smalling and Jones] because they didn't have a more experienced player to pick their brain when they played," the Serbian later said, via ESPN.

"It's not just about playing together with an experienced player. If Phil Jones is 24 and playing alongside someone who is 34, the player who is 34 years old is using his brain more than the 24-year-old."

While Smalling and Jones had