With Manchester United's slim title hopes having been well and truly extinguished in recent months, the Red Devils are set to see their decade-long wait for Premier League glory extended by another year, with the club's post-Sir Alex Ferguson woes having continued.
While hope has been somewhat renewed following Erik ten Hag's arrival in the dugout, the former Ajax boss will have to go a long way to getting anywhere close to emulating the success of the legendary Scotsman, with the serial-winning coach having won 13 league titles in a trophy-laden spell at Old Trafford.
A truly seismic figure in the history of United, Ferguson will forever be a name etched in club folklore due to his glittering 26-year stint in charge, with subsequent managers having unsurprisingly found it difficult to live up to such a gargantuan figure of the past.
For all the success that the 81-year-old endured during his lengthy reign at the Theatre of Dreams, however, that's not to say that the one-time Aberdeen boss didn't drop the odd clanger or two on occasion, with the man himself admitting his mistake in notably allowing Jaap Stam to depart in 2001, calling it a "bad decision."
The Dutch colossus wasn't the only centre-back whom Ferguson perhaps moved on prematurely, though, with the Govan-born icon having also endured something of a howler with the sale of Gerard Pique in 2008.
Why did Man United sell Pique?
The Red Devils had initially snapped up Pique from La Liga giants Barcelona back in 2004, with the towering centre-back going on to feature sporadically over the next few years, racking up just 23 appearances across all competitions, scoring twice.
Despite showings signs of promise, one game, in particular, appeared to serve as a real setback in the Spaniard's hopes of securing a regular first-team berth, with the player himself admitting that the defeat to Bolton Wanderers in November 2007 seemingly proved fatal for his United career.
That was also the assessment of teammate Wayne Rooney, with the former England skipper stating that the loss away to Bolton 'more or less finished' the defender's career at the club, as he was simply 'bullied' by the opposition forward line.
That seemingly sparked doubts among Ferguson and co as to the 6 foot 4 man's suitability to life in the Premier League, while Pique also outlined his own concern about dislodging the starting duo of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, stating in 2015:
"The centre-backs, Rio Ferdinand, Vidic. I was really unlucky. They never got injured. Then I left and then they started to get injuries! This is football but I’m not really worried.
"It’s true that I was happy in Manchester even though I didn’t play as much as I wanted to."
As it happened, Pique's old friends at Camp Nou came calling as he ultimately sealed a return to Catalonia after four years in England, with La Blaugrana managing to secure a deal for what proved to be a bargain price of just £5m.
United were almost immediately left to rue that sale as the exciting talent went on thwart them in the Champions League final at the end of the 2008/09 season, before again coming out on top when the two sides met in the European showpiece in 2011.
That was merely just the start of what proved to be a truly remarkable spell at Barca for Pique, with the 102-cap titan having simply "won everything" in the game prior to recently calling it quits, according to former boss Pep Guardiola, having claimed three Champions League triumphs in total with the La Liga outfit, as well as eight Spanish league titles.
On the international scene, the now-retired ace was also part of La Roja's World Cup and European Championship success in 2010 and 2012, respectively, having been hailed as the "best central defender in the world" in the recent past by compatriot, Carles Puyol.
While perhaps Pique simply needed to return home in order to truly flourish, to have allowed such a stellar individual to slip through their fingers will still sting as far as both Ferguson and United are concerned, with such talents rather unique, indeed.
