Lyon fullback Rafael da Silva is grateful to Sir Alex Ferguson for signing him for Manchester United.

Rafael believes he repaid Ferguson's support.

“He (Ferguson) did everything he could to help me, even when things didn't go well," Rafael recalled to the South China Morning Post.

“In 2010-11 I made some mistakes and got injured a lot, but he never gave up on me. He renewed my contract when I wasn't playing well. He saw how hard I was working and I would like to think I repaid him. At the start of 2012, he came to me and said: 'You cannot be making mistakes any more. You are mature now'."

The problems came when he didn't have the same relationship with any subsequent United managers and Louis van Gaal cut him out of his plans completely.

“A difficult time," Rafael conceded. “We didn't get on."