I KNEW HE WAS GUNNAR BE GREAT

I REMEMBER it like yesterday that July of 1996 when an unknown striker from Norway was whisked into Manchester United’s Cliff training ground.

Sir Alex Ferguson had desperately wanted to sign Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrived instead in a £1.5million switch from Molde.

Myself, and the assembled media crew, waited patiently for a first glimpse of Fergie’s new man.

And his appearance in the back of the club limo took us all by surprise at what at first sight appeared to be a boy looking wide-eyed out of the window.

So followed my one and only claim to fame in this life: I immediately turned to my colleagues and whispered, “He’s the Baby-Faced Assassin.” A description of him which is still used to this day.

Three years later, Solskjaer (below) would again play a major part in my life on that awesome night in the Nou Camp.

It would have been Sir Matt Busby’s 90th birthday and I was waxing lyrical in my match report about his tears rolling down from heaven with Bayern Munich ahead and just minutes away from being crowned Champions League winners.

But suddenly we witnessed the dramatic added-time reversal with first Teddy Sheringham equalising and then the Baby-Faced Assassin scoring the historic winner.

Queue a change of storyline with tears of joy rolling down...

An hour later, in the bowels of the stadium I was almost run over by Sir Alex in a buggy, hugging Old Big Ears and laughing about the near media miss. Yes, it seems like yesterday.