Dion Dublin signed for Manchester United without knowing his wage after snubbing Chelsea and Everton

Dion Dublin signed for Manchester United in 1992 without knowing what he would earn, so overwhelmed was he by Sir Alex Ferguson’s personal pitch at Old Trafford — a story the former striker has recounted in vivid detail decades later.

Dublin had emerged from Cambridge United after starting out in Norwich City’s academy, and when Cambridge missed out on Premier League promotion in 1992 he was made available. Chelsea and Everton both made their cases. At Stamford Bridge, manager Ian Porterfield told him he would build the team around him and hand him the number nine shirt. At Everton, Howard Kendall greeted him at the training ground with a bottle of champagne at 11am.

Neither moment compared to what awaited him at Old Trafford. Ferguson met Dublin in the car park, immediately separated him from his representatives — directing them to talk contracts with the club’s financial staff — and walked him personally through the stadium, greeting every member of staff by name along the way. The tour ended at the centre circle, where Ferguson put his arm around Dublin’s shoulder and asked: “How do you fancy playing here once a fortnight?”

“I signed for United not knowing what I was going to earn,” Dublin said on the podcast In The Mixer. “I couldn’t be bothered, I didn’t care. I was on £275 a week at Cambridge. It couldn’t get any worse, could it?”

The move, worth £1 million to Cambridge, did not unfold as Dublin had hoped. A severe leg injury curtailed his progress and Eric Cantona’s arrival effectively ended his time at the club. He made just 17 appearances before joining Coventry City in 1994, where he went on to score 72 goals in 162 games and cement his reputation as one of the Premier League’s most reliable strikers of the era.

Dublin, now 57, says the brief spell at United nonetheless shaped the rest of his career, and that Ferguson’s ability to make him feel wanted — without a word about money — remains one of the most striking experiences of his professional life.