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.'
