For Cristiano Ronaldo, it was the loose, chipped tiles in the players’ swimming pool at Carrington. For Zlatan Ibrahimovic, evidence that were no longer the big club he had imagined came in the form of a £1 deduction from his salary for drinking fruit juice from a hotel minibar on a club trip.
‘Everyone thinks of United as a top club, one of the most powerful in the world,’ Ibrahimovic wrote in his autobiography. ‘But once I was there, I found a small, closed mentality.’
- Read the five-part series from our expert team only on DailyMail+, revealing day by day this week the truth behind why Manchester United's dynasty fell apart
- Read Volume 1 here: The Big Beasts who floundered in Fergie's shadow
- COMING TOMORROW - Volume 3: The ruinous 'experts' and their chaotic transfer policy
Farce has not been a stranger to Old Trafford over the past 12 years.