1 week Ago By Robin Mumford
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has named Brian McClair, Ronny Johnsen and Ji-sung Park as the three most underrated players during his tenure at Old Trafford. The Premier League's most successful helmsman - having won 13 league titles across his 27-year career - revealed that it was the first three names that instantly popped into his head. The discussion cropped up in a 2021 fan Q&A with club legend and former pupil Gary Neville.
But while the iconic Scot, who was recently dismissed from his ambassadorial position with the Red Devils , was pushed to rank them in order or just pick one name, he insisted that he "couldn't split them." He told LadBible at the time: “There’s three players. I can’t split them.
Brian McClair, Ji-sung Park and Ronny Johnsen." But in the conversation that followed, it was clear just how highly the 82-year-old valued Park, who became the first Asian footballer to win the UEFA Champions League, play in a UEFA Champions League final, and win the FIFA Club World Cup during his seven-year stint in the northwest. As Takehiro Tomiyasu signs a new contract with Arsenal, this article ranks the greatest Asian players in Premier League history.
Ferguson Names Three Most Underrated Players He Managed Ferguson was a big admirer of Park and brought the former South Korea midfielder to Old Trafford in 2005, in a reported £4m deal with Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. Park was frequently rotated in and out of the starting lineup by Ferguson, who often called on him for important matches, including in the Champions League . One of Ferguson's most memorable tactics was using Park to man-mark and neutralise Andrea Pirlo, the legendary midfielder of AC Milan and Juventus, during United’s 2010 Champions League round-of-16 tie.
However, Park remained an unused substitute in United’s 3-1 defeat to Barcelona in the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley, a decision Ferguson later expressed regret over to Neville, who had previously mentioned that Ferguson loved using Johnsen and Park as ultimate system players. "That’s where I lost the final against Barcelona at Wembley," he told Neville. "I should’ve changed at half-time and put Ji-Sung Park on [Lionel] Messi.
That was a mistake. I realised that after 10 minutes. I was gonna do it at half-time, but then I said we’d just equalised before half-time [and] they may see the game differently.
We may grow into the game better." "But if I’d have played Ji-Sung Park against Messi, I think we’d have beaten them, I really do. Messi [had] two highlights, a fantastic goal that he scored and then made the other one.
He was a great player, but if there was a player to do it [to stop him], it was Ji-Sung Park." See the full conversation below (skip to 4:07 for the relevant section): McClair may not have been provided an explanation for his mention, but his 14 trophies in nearly 11 years at the club speak for themselves. In his first season at Manchester United, he scored 24 league goals, becoming the first player since George Best in the 1967–68 season to exceed 20 league goals in a single campaign.
Johnsen, meanwhile, also enjoyed a highly successful spell in Manchester, despite only being at the club from 1996 to 2002. His time at United coincided with the club’s greatest achievements, as the midfield dynamo played a key role in the treble-winning season of 1999. He also secured two more Premier League titles, solidifying his status as a cult hero.
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