Jaap Stam has spoken about his difficult start to his Manchester United career following his then world record move for a defender.
The Holland defender was signed from PSV Eindhoven for £10million in 1998 by Sir Alex Ferguson.
Stam had helped PSV lift the Eredivisie title and he has also been named VVCS Footballer of the Year, but he admitted it was still daunting to go into the star-studded Old Trafford dressing room.
He told talkSPORT: 'For how big I was in Holland to then how small I came into United. I mean, you join up with the likes of (Roy) Keane, (Peter) Schmeichel, (Paul) Scholes and (Ryan) Giggs and although they weren’t that old in age but they were still very experienced players.
'Everybody in England knew them as top class, world class players and as a Dutch boy from Holland and you join a big team, most of the players didn’t even know me when I joined United, so you have to start from the beginning again.'
Manchester United made a slow start to the treble-winning campaign in 1998/99 with two 3-0 defeats by Arsenal in the Charity Shield and Premier League.
He added: 'It was a big shock for myself because firstly they’ve paid a lot of money for you and you’re the world’s most expensive defender so that puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders and for myself, you read a lot of the newspapers, listen to the radio, sometimes you watch the television and you see your face coming by with all the ‘nice’ quotes.'
schedule
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He was a colossus of a defender.
Dioruno
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Great great defender!
Dianaa
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Dennis Bergkamp though.... one of my all time favourite players. Scored some magnificent goals. Ledge.
jobbes
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It must be difficult, a different country, culture, food, language etc. Never mind the psychological change from the Big fish in the small pond to the small fish in the big pond. He was the world's most expensive defender, a colossus, he left too soon. A giant of a man
blackmoon
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Not many defenders like Stam these dats, sad!
robjet07
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Yeah well that's the difference between class of players. Jaap felt he needed to justify his price by becoming the best defender he could be while now we have Sanchez who's injured 3 quarters of the season earning 25 million a year
ManUtdRed
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Best CB of his era
YMO
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We need more of those players like Keane, Scholes, Giggs. We need a proper leader in the squad. You can see when Pogba came to United as most expensive player and he never felt he was small. That’s why he think he is bigger than the club. Pogba couldn’t have done the same if he joins barca or real.
tosser
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Our legend