I was told to snub Chelsea and stay at Manchester United - I should have listened

It wasn't often a player left Manchester United out of choice under Sir Alex Ferguson, and very few left to join a rival team.

Both David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo left for another country amid their transfers to European counterparts Real Madrid while Carlos Tevez, of course, is remembered for that infamous cross-city switch in 2009. Juan Sebastian Veron also makes that short list.

He left for Chelsea in 2003 in one of Roman Abramovich’s first signings as club owner. The Argentine only enjoyed two years at Old Trafford before making the decision to leave. He scored 11 times in 82 appearances and took his leave after lifting the Premier League title. Veron moved to United for a British transfer record, arriving at Old Trafford for £28.1million.

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"I think I've always searched for this," Sir Alex Ferguson declared upon Veron's unveiling. "I never thought I'd spend this much money on a footballer.

“You've seen the escalation and it's unthinkable but it is a matter between clubs nowadays and the players have no say about the values placed on them. I think he's coming into great years of his career and he will peak and we'll get the benefit of that. He is a world-class, fantastic footballer with a vision of a game we can use."

Like all United players, Veron admired Sir Alex. Speaking in 2021, the midfielder spoke glowingly of the great man and unpacked how his style of management kept standards at a peak level.

Veron said: “He was so demanding with everybody. If you couldn’t keep up, it was clear you would have to look elsewhere. He was always forthright with me, but he had my back from day one, which was very much appreciated.

“At some points, I wasn’t able to give him everything he expected from me consistently. He got it in a few matches but not in others, and if you want to be a great player, your game has to be stable. I couldn’t deliver it at Old Trafford.”

Veron found it hard to settle in at United and ended up scoring just five times in 40 matches in his debut season. Questions were starting to be raised about his price tag ahead of the run-in and a report had claimed teammates had squared up to Veron for his poor displays after a Champions League semi-final defeat to Bayer Leverkusen.

Ferguson hit back during a press conference. "It's absolute nonsense, total lies,” he insisted, before later adding: "On you go. I’m not f****** talking to you. He’s a f****** great player. You are f****** idiots. He’s a f****** great player... you are all f****** idiots.”

However, Veron knew he wasn’t at top tilt. He admitted that things away from the football pitch impacted what happened when he was on it.

"It was a big change of culture for us," he said when speaking about how his family had to adapt to life in England.

"We'd been happy living in Italy, but the people in Manchester helped us adjust. The best thing was the people, in the club, in the street. We lived in Hale.

"It was tranquil, there was a small forest nearby, and we liked it. Roy Keane – the captain and a top player in a group where standards were high - lived near me.

"There were people in the dressing room who spoke Italian and Spanish. Mikael Silvestre spoke Italian, Laurent Blanc too. Quinton Fortune spoke Spanish, while Diego Forlan would arrive and he spoke Spanish. And El Mister [Ferguson] tried to speak Spanish! People at Carrington always had a word for me in Spanish."

Veron added: “The language barrier was an issue for me, but I had very friendly relationships with my teammates. That said, it was probably an issue in my social life outside the club. That was my fault – I’ve never enjoyed studying in my life!

“Obviously United provided an English teacher for me, but I took a couple of classes and then gave it up. Maybe at that age I bet everything on the football side of things, and underestimated the value of personality off the pitch. Now, I can see that it would have been worthwhile to engage with some of my teammates socially as well.”

Football, though, only has one language and all can understand it. Veron was often played alongside Paul Scholes, a player whom he had a lot of respect for.

“It was a pleasure to train and share moments with all of them. But if I had to pick only one, it would be Scholes,” Veron once said. “He was the full package. He could recover the ball, attack and shoot extremely well, and he was clever – a terrific reader of the game. He had everything.”

Speaking in 2022, Scholes spoke about his time on the field with Veron. He said he struggled to play his best game due to both of them having the same internal desire to push up and help the attack.

“It wasn't great playing with people who - attacking people - I needed someone who played that [defensive midfield] position really well," Scholes said.

“Me and Veron were a disaster. I think me and Anderson did it once - just, no, it's not working, is it? [laughs] Just two lads who don't care about defending. It worked better with a Michael or a Roy or a Nicky, who were brilliant playing a position they knew.”

Veron perhaps knew this himself. He realised big things were expected of him after his move from Lazio where he had thrived. But it just would not click at Old Trafford.

Veron conceded: “I know that people expected a lot from me in England – and I did, let me make that clear. Perhaps it was something related to the characteristics of the players; if the club really needed me, in a position where there were decent options already.

“To make things work for me, the side – which was doing well – had to be changed. If there was one thing that played against me, I’d say it was the physical conditioning.

"I was used to the Italian way, which was key for our game, but in England during that time, the physical conditioning was to play games. I wasn’t used to playing without intense preparation, and it wasn’t ideal for me in the long term.

“As we played more matches, my performance levels dropped. I had so many ups and downs, a few really good games, but other poor ones. In Italy I managed to have a more stable spell.”

The opportunity at Chelsea soon arose. Abramovich was looking to have a statement window and put markers down. He splashed £111m in his first summer.

Veron went for £15m, with United losing out on £13m from their original purchase fee. The switch to Stamford Bridge was not an easy one, though.

Veron’s father, Juan Ramón Veron, had scored the winning goal at Old Trafford for Argentine club Estudiantes against a United side containing George Best, Denis Law and Sir Bobby Charlton in the 1968 Intercontinental Cup match-up.

It is a connection that was clearly close to Sebastian. "Football has this magical way of connecting stories, and it took me to Manchester United, where I was completely honoured to meet those legendary players,” he said.

“It was an incredible experience. The story of that match in 1968 is a fairy tale: a giant against a humble club. Those games definitely helped to shape the DNA of Estudiantes. They were much spicier than today’s matches, too.

"When United first invited me to Old Trafford, I was shown the main memorabilia of that game in their museum – an Estudiantes pennant with my dad’s image on it. I got quite moved once I saw that.”

Veron was pondering whether to give up his United colours for the blue of Chelsea. He decided to make the move against the advice of some personal acquaintances - and regrets doing so.

In 2019, he explained: “At Chelsea, the reality is that I had very little time. I had a major back injury and I was out for practically six months. I was already thinking more about going back to Italy than staying there in England.

“With United, the truth is that there are few things, very few, that I regret. But one is to have left Manchester. They never pushed me or told me 'You have to go' but they gave me the chance, the possibility.

“I had talks with my former colleagues at that time telling me that I had to stay. And at one moment I decided to leave because I wanted to play because I didn't know... I should have stayed.”

Ahead of the World Cup in 2010, he had taken a slightly different tone. He made it clear he was not a fan of his time in the Premier League.

“I wandered around Europe like a gypsy, without ever finding happiness or somebody who understood me,” he said. “That's why I went back to Estudiantes. I was tired of being a wanderer.

“England has a spectacular Premier League but that's it. They don't train very much and there were no proper warm-ups at Manchester United. Paul Scholes would turn up and fire off a shot, without warming up, from 50 metres towards the goal even when it was minus five degrees.

“I did that once and I pulled a muscle from my knee to my hip. I was never happy in England and my time there made me question my desire to continue playing.”

Post-retirement he spoke of whether his move to the Reds was a regret of his.

“No, never. I signed for United because I had a passport issue in Italy and thought a change of scenery would be good for my mind.

“Truth be told, I had a pessimistic view about playing in England, as I imagined that life there would be so different to what I was used to: the Latin lifestyle. But I found an extraordinary club. You could hardly find one as well-organised, with so many people willing to help.

“Everything that happened to me there changed my mind [about England]. I had two great years in Manchester, winning the Premier League title, and I’m still in touch with several of the guys I met: Dwight Yorke, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, Quinton Fortune, Wes Brown, John O’Shea. I met Gary and Phil Neville again at some point, too.”

Neville has been very complimentary of Veron’s career despite his difficulties at United. In 2020, he named him in his all-time overseas United XI.

He said: "Juan Sebastian Veron was an amazing player. In my opinion, it didn’t happen for him [at United] because I think we had the best midfield English football has ever produced, and I think will ever produce. [Ryan] Giggs, [Roy] Keane, Scholes, Becks. I think these four players are the best Manchester United have ever had.

"The midfield four played in what I would call a methodical way. They played a disciplined role, and it was a classic 4-4-2. The way Veron played, coming out of Italy, he moved into different positions and was fluid, trying to get the ball from the left-back.

“He was almost the first player who broke the code. The code had to break at some point. Veron came in with that interchanging mindset, but into a team that was set into its patterns."

Explaining his move to Chelsea in recent years, Veron said: “It was the start of the club’s transformation, and we reached a stage [the Champions League semi-finals in 2003/04, losing to Monaco] that many people didn’t expect us to achieve.

“I felt that going to Chelsea could have been a good chance for me to get a longer sequence of matches, but I shouldn’t have gone there. I don’t say that because of Chelsea, though.

"It’s nice to have a club wanting to sign you, excited that you can do something for them. To make an investment like that, the club has to believe in you and trust you.

“I actually found it tougher to live in London than Manchester because I’m from La Plata, which is quite a small city. I wish I could have stayed at United longer, as I believe I could have done things differently. If I’d stayed in Manchester, I think I would have had more continuity on the pitch.”

In his four years at Chelsea, Veron played just 14 matches. Injury hampered his debut season before a two-year loan spell was agreed with Inter. Eventually he returned to home comforts back at boyhood club Estudiantes, where he would retire before becoming vice-president.

Veron finished up with 72 Argentina caps, more than 570 club matches and a plethora of silverware across five clubs in three countries, although only one of those came in England. It’s clear which club he regretted leaving most.