The transformative player Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs begged Sir Alex Ferguson to sign at Manchester United

Sir Alex Ferguson so often got his man at Manchester United and in 27 years, few were able to say no to the persistent Scot.

United were the dominant force in the greatest league in European football for large parts of his tenure, making it an obvious pull for the world's best. A move to Old Trafford during that time was as close to a guarantee of major silverware as it got.

But the success with which Ferguson landed his targets only made those rare failures stand out more. Alan Shearer was a long-term point of interest that never came to pass, while the inability to sign Paul Gascoigne was described by the manager himself as 'the most disappointing of all'.

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But another high-profile miss was Alessandro Del Piero, a forward who left a lasting impression on Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville during several Champions League clashes with Juventus in the 1990s.

Having broken into senior football as a 17-year-old at Padova in 1992, Del Piero made an impression on Juventus chiefs and joined the Italian giants the following year. He initially played with the reserves but didn't take long to earn his promotion into Giovanni Trapattoni's first-team.

Injury to the legendary Roberto Baggio handed Del Piero his chance to make a serious claim for a regular place, and he took it with both hands. In 1995 he was fourth in the Ballon D'Or and the following summer he was handed Baggio's No.10 shirt.

It was during this spell in the mid-to-late 1990s that Juventus had a habit of drawing United in the Champions League. In both the 1996/1997 and 1997/1998 campaigns, the pair were drawn into the same group