There seems to have been a lot of footballers over the years who had a spell as a schoolboy, youth, apprentice or triallist at Manchester United, and of course, never quite made it.
For every Paul Scholes, there is many a Paul McShane or David Brown, a Mark Lynch or a Jamie Wood. If they are lucky, these also-rans manage a League Cup appearance or two, or maybe the odd Champions League substitute cameo at a stage when the group is already won.
Those four names randomly picked out were not random at all, as Hull City got them all. McShane is with us now, on loan from Sunderland, having been brought up at clubs in Scotland and Iceland in his youth days. His Manchester United times were as typical as a wannabe spell could be - looked good at 17, signed up, given a squad number, won the FA Youth Cup and then was sent out on numerous loans before leaving for free. Perhaps the oddest thing about McShane's time at Old Trafford, given his comfort in the Premier League these days, is that he didn't make even the fabled substitute appearance in a distinctly unimportant first team match.
That couldn't be said for Lynch, a predecessor of McShane's as a wannabe Manchester United right back and a first choice Hull City right back. Lynch infamously made a solitary United substitute appearance in the Champions League against Deportivo La Coruna - infamous as he scored an own goal. He was given a free transfer to Sunderland and then within a year was freed again to join Hull City.
Unlike McShane (at this stage anyway - doubters exist about aspects of McShane's game but he isn't a kamikaze right back), Lynch was an instant failure at the KC Stadium. He wasn't helped by being kneecapped 15 seconds into his debut by Paul Furlong's studs, but even upon his return he was exposed as a full back of limited positional sense, restricted tackling ability and wretched distribution. Peter Taylor's desperation at one stage forced him to switch Lynch from right to left as both Andy Dawson and Roland Edge were crocked, and Lynch responded in the way we all expected - with a car crash display. He was sent off at Coventry City (although we won that game thanks entirely to John Welsh) and was, for the third season in a row, given a free transfer by his club. It was one of Peter Taylor's final acts before he also left, and Phil Parkinson did at least find Sam Ricketts as a replacement. Lynch spent two years at Yeovil Town before he was - you're way ahead now - given a free transfer. He's now at Rotherham United, who are probably checking their limited accounts to see if they can afford an ejector seat for the season's end.
David Brown and Jamie Wood go back a decade with City, a period which is much publicised by the slavering Fleet Street slowcoaches at the moment as we were bottom of the pile. Both were kids at Old Trafford who were let go, and when you saw them partake in the lowest division, it wasn't hard to see why. Brown was, with hindsight, probably not afforded the requisite amount of credit as he could clearly score goals. He scored 11 in a dreadful team, which was a good start, but his desire seemed to dissolve thereafter, along with his strike ratio, and he was famously released into the non-league pyramid when there were still two years left on his deal.
Wood epitomised the ineptitude of Hull City more than most players. A striker of speed and awareness, he was let down by being quite appalling at hitting the target. Severe doubts about his finishing were expressed the moment he joined the club, and ultimately he didn't find the net where a keeper's gloves, an item of woodwork or some bloke in Boothferry Park's seats would suffice. His name would be even more consigned to the historic dustbin were it not for his sly elevation to the international arena, stretching the qualification rules to the absolute limit by earning a lawful call-up for the Cayman Islands. We're blessed with serving internationals these days, but in 1998 it was Wood and the two Jamaicans who were receiving their papers and adding their names to a short, concise list, never to be removed.
These four players all did the same thing - went to Old Trafford with dreams of superstardom, and ended up playing for Hull City with dreams of, erm, still being in the team the next week. McShane is the latest incumbent and reservations notwithstanding, he may just be, finally, a Manchester United reject who could one day turn round to Sir Alex Ferguson and claim he was a tad hasty. Let's see how he copes with Cristano Ronaldo first though...
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