Schmeichel

League, Premier League and FA Cup in 1999.

He joined Sporting Lisbon claiming he could no longer handle the physicality of

English football. However, he moved toastonvilla two years later and switched to

City in 2002.

Within months he helped the Blues to win their first derby in 13 years, a 3-1 victory in which Solskjaer scored United’s consolation.

Tony Coton, now working as United’s goalkeeping scout, was the last player to move from City to United when he became Schmeichel’s understudy in January 1996.

As Solskjaer focused on Brighton’s visit to Oldtrafford today, he refused to confirm whether Jesse Lingard has a future at United.

Lingard, 28, has impressed on loan atwest Ham and returned to the England squad but Solskjaer kept his counsel when asked about the midfielder’s future.

He said: “The selfish thing would have been to keep Jesse because he would have got the chance. He knows we made the decision to let him go, and that was a personal decision he was going to benefit from andwest Ham were going to benefit from.

“He deserved to play more towards the end of the season because there is a big Euros as well in the summer and we hope he is going to be part of it.

“I have always rated Jesse very highly. For different reasons it has not worked out for him in the last year or so but he knows what I feel about him, both as a person and as a player, and the way he has handled things that people don’t really know about.”