THEY’VE GOT FORM..

LOVE them or hate them, you have to admit there must be something irresistible about Manchester United.

Romelu Lukaku is just the latest star to have his head turned by a last-minute Old Trafford approach. IAN STOREY-MOORE

(1972, £225,000 from Nottingham Forest). Derby boss Brian Clough thought he had pulled off a transfer coup – and Storey-Moore was even presented to the fans at the Baseball Ground.

But the transfer had not been completed and United manager Frank O’Farrell struck.

LOU MACARI (1973, £200,000 from Celtic). Macari was in the Liverpool directors box the night before his Kop medical, sitting next to United No.2 Pat Crerand. United matched the Liverpool offer and whisked Macari away. GORDON STRACHAN (1984, £500,000 from Aberdeen) Strachan had signed a pre-contract deal with Cologne and had to extricate himself from the agreement – helped by United paying the Germans £75,000 in compensation. ROY KEANE (1993, £3.75m from Forest) Keane shook hands on a deal with Blackburn boss Kenny Dalglish but with their offices closed for the weekend Dalglish agreed to complete the deal on Monday. Enter Alex Ferguson, who invited him for a secret meeting and his head was successfully turned. ROBIN VAN PERSIE

(2012, £24m from Arsenal) Manchester City had done all the running for months to sign the Dutch striker only for United to persuade Van Persie to move to Old Trafford.