Manchester United's Greatest 23-Man Squad Of The Premier League Era

Signed in 2002 for a then-record fee (for a defender) of £30 million, the pressure was immediately on Rio Ferdinand to make an impact at United, who had initially tried to sign him as a teenager in 1997 only to rebuffed by West Ham. Arriving at a time when the club's defence was severely lacking, he won the league with the side in his first season, before missing much of the second as a result of his infamous missed drug test.

After returning, Rio would remain one of the team's first choice centre backs for the next ten years, departing in 2014 after cementing his reputation as one of the best English defenders of the modern era.