Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson admits Henrik Larsson made a huge impact during his 13-match spell at Old Trafford.
Ferguson paid tribute to the super Swede in Larsson's new book, 'Total Larsson'.
Fergie revealed to the Scottish Sun: "The players took to him very well. That's the thing I'll always remember.
"Sometimes when players see you bring an older player in they think 'What the hell is he doing that for?'.
"They took to him really fantastically and in and in his last game at Middlesbrough we were definitely struggling.
"Henrik played centre midfield for the last 20 minutes and he was unbelievable. He was all over the place, tackling, running and sprinting forward to support the only front player we had.
"At the end of the game, when we walked into the dressing room, all of the players stood up and applauded him because it was his last game.
"It was a really touching moment."
Fergie had tried to sign Larsson from Celtic eight years previously.
He was a huge fan of the Swede's phenomenal striking prowess.
In late 2006 when his chief scout suddenly told him there was a chance of finally getting Larsson - even at 35 - he JUMPED at it.
Fergie said: "We were looking for experience for the side and we had tried in the summer and nothing happened.
"Then my chief scout said he'd been speaking to Stuart Baxter, the coach at Henrik's team in Sweden, who said Henrik was out of his class in that league. My scout said: 'Why don't we make a move for Henrik Larsson?'
"I said 'That would be a bit difficult, would it not?'. I felt he was coming to the end of his career and he'd moved to Sweden because he'd always wanted to settle back there. My chief scout, though, said that according to his coach Henrik would be desperate to go to a club like Manchester United.
"So I said 'OK, we'll see how we get on with it'. We spoke to the coach and to Henrik - who said that he would love to go to United.
"His coach said they needed him back for the start of their season in March, which was a bit difficult for us, but we took it anyway. We thought he would give us an injection of what we needed, a bit of experience and he was fantastic.
"We kept saying to him that it was a pity he couldn't stay but he'd made his promise to them and I think he'd promised his wife also that it would only be a short spell.
"His workrate was UNBELIEVABLE, his movement in the last third of the field was terrific."
