When Manchester United signed Serbian goalkeeping prospect Vanja Milinković-Savić in the summer of 2014, they initially had big plans for the youngster.
However, due to his young age and lack of international experience, he was unable to get a work permit to play in England and so they had to immediately loan him back to the club they signed him from, Serbian club FK Vojvodina, for a season.
Born in Spain to Serbian parents, Milinković-Savić spent the 2014/15 season back in his native Serbia and had to endure ups and downs as he spent the first half of the season as a starter but the second part of it on the bench as a substitute.
The 18-year-old then went back to United last summer and after some time of patiently waiting for paperwork to get sorted, he finally failed to obtain a work permit and as a result saw his contract rescinded in November, ending his English adventure before it had even started.
Not long after that, he signed a 4.5 year contract with Polish side Lechia Gdansk and will be looking to get his career firmly back on track having not gotten the opportunity to play much football over the last year.
A move to United may have seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime chance for him at first, but a decision that was too rushed without having established himself in his previous club at the very least, which he is now paying some consequences for.
Getting a work permit is difficult for any young teenager moving to England from a country outside of the EU, and it usually takes some time to build up the necessary playing experience in a major European league or at international level before it's possible to obtain one.
With Milinković-Savić unlikely to appear for Serbia any time soon due to the emergence of Maccabi Tel Aviv's Predrag Rajković, another highly touted young goalkeeper, and United unable to find a place for him to go on loan, in the end both parties decided that it was best to go their separate ways for the sake of the player's future.
He's now preparing for a new journey in Eastern Europe with Lechia, who are currently fighting to avoid playing in the relegation round in Poland this season. It remains to be seen whether or not he'll manage to break into the starting lineup with as many as three other goalkeepers to compete with for a berth in the team, but surely Milinković-Savić has his reasons for making the move there instead of going back to Serbia.
The youngster must have thought through the decision of picking his next club better than he did when he snatched at the opportunity of making the move to Premier League giants Manchester United, where non-footballing factors ended his chances of appearing at Old Trafford, and ultimately sent him back to the drawing board.
By Edin Halilovic