Wayne "Scouser" Rooney
Birthplace: Liverpool, England 24/10/85 - Position: Forward - Apps : 129 - Goals: 46 - International caps: 33 - Goals: 9

Wayne Rooney became the world's most expensive teenager when he signed for United in a deal which could eventually be worth £30million.The former Everton striker completed his dream move to Old Trafford just hours before the close of the transfer window on Tuesday 31 August 2004. Wayne first burst onto the scene back on the opening day of the 2002/2003 season against Tottenham at Goodison Park. Nine games later he scored his first Premiership goal at the age of 16 - a last minute wonder strike which earned Everton a dramatic 2-1 victory over Arsenal. Wayne's talents were soon recognised at international level and he became England's youngest ever player in February 2003 when he came on as a substitute against Australia at Upton Park. He is also the youngest player to have scored for his country at the age of 17 in September 2003 against Macedonia. His reputation as one of the world's most exciting young players was further enhanced by his hugely impressive performances for England at Euro 2004 in Portugal. Wayne's four goals in four games against Switzerland and Croatia, which included a stunning 25-yard strike against the Croats, were enough to convince Sir Alex Ferguson that he had to sign up the striker he had been tracking since he was a 14-year-old. Following intense transfer negotiations with Everton, United finally got their man to the obvious delight of the Reds boss. "I am very excited, " beamed Fergie. "I think we have got the best young player this country has seen in the past 30 years. Everyone is delighted by this signing”. Wayne himself can't wait to begin a new chapter in an already impressive career. ”I’m very excited to be here,"  " As soon as I knew United were interested, there was only one place I was going." There’s a really good squad of players here who are all top players. I hope I can gel in as quickly as possible and become one of those players as well.” Wayne exploded out of the box on his debut against Fenerbahce in the Champions league scoring 4 goals and guiding the team to a 6-2 victory. Since then he has taken time to settle but is starting to find the net and indeed create plenty of chances for the rest of the team. He scored 17 goals in all competitions by the end of the season and was named Europe's top young player. He had a very good season 2005/06 and scored some brilliant goals which made him only second to Van Nistelrooy in the goal scoring table. However he broke a bone in his foot against Chelsea near the end of the season and was expected to be out for 6 weeks. True to his bulldog spirit he made the team for England within 4 weeks but was sent off in the WC game against Portugal (see below) and then was sent off again in a pre-season game against Porto (4/08/06). He was given a 3 match ban which disrupted his preparation. Wayne's form in 2006/07 has been a bit up and down but overall he has been a pivotal player in United's rise to the top of the premiership and in making sure we are involved in all competitions. Wayne's Page
 

Louis Saha completed his £12.82million move from Fulham to United on 23 January 2004.
Just seven days later the French striker scored on his Reds debut – albeit via a deflected free-kick - as United earned a 3-2 victory over Southampton at Old Trafford. Despite suffering a string of niggling injuries in the months that followed, he still managed an average of a goal every other game as he ended the campaign with 7 goals in 14 appearances. Saha’s impressive performances for United lead to him winning his first cap for France in a 2-0 win over Belgium – a match in which he scored – in February 2004. He also earned a place in his country’s Euro 2004 squad, but was only used as a substitute as the French crashed out in the quarter-finals. United are Saha’s third Premiership club having turned out for both Fulham and Newcastle, where he spent four-and-a-half months on loan during the 1998/99 season, making 12 appearances and bagging 2 goals. The French striker was former Fulham manager Jean Tigana’s first signing at Craven Cottage in June 2000 after he joined for £2.1million from French club Metz. In his first season with the Cottagers, Saha’s 32 goals helped Fulham gain promotion to the Premiership. The Frenchman first sprung to Sir Alex Ferguson's attention when he ran United's defence ragged with two goals as the Reds’ laboured to a 3-2 win over the newcomers on the opening day of the 2001/02 season. It proved something of a false dawn, however, as Saha managed just nine goals that season and only seven in 28 appearances during the 2002/03 campaign. The goals finally started flowing in the first half of the 2003/04 season and he found the net on fifteen occasions before penning a five-year deal at Old Trafford. A combination of injuries and the arrival of both Wayne Rooney and Alan Smith made Saha’s second season with United an increasingly frustrating one; he played just 22 games and scored only twice. At the start of the 05/06 season he was injured in pre-season. Louis did come back later in the season to score some vital goals and help United to win the Carling cup and finish second in the premiership to Chelsea. When injury free his goals per game are pretty good and he started the 06/07 season in sparkling form. He scored a brilliant winner against Benfica (A) in the Champions league to put United top of the group. Louis was in great form until an injury kept him out for over a month but came back to score in the FA Cup win against Reading.
 

After playing part time Third Division football in Norway for Clausenegen FK, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer moved to Premier League Molde in 1995. His performances earned him a place in the national team, and it was not long before he started to attract the interest of bigger clubs throughout Europe. He was also dubbed the Norwegian Alan Shearer. In the summer of 1996 Alex Ferguson paid a £1.5m fee for Solskjaer's services. Not expecting to be playing for United until the new year, Solskjaer found himself an almost permanent fixture in the first team, scoring on his first team debut and ending the season as top scorer with 19 goals, 18 of them in the League. A full international for Norway, he won a League Championship medal in his first season and helped United to the semi-final of the European Cup, finding the net in the second leg of the Borussia Dortmund game, only to find his goal ruled out when the referee spotted a 'mystery' foul. In addition to this he was also recognised by his fellow professionals, being short listed for the 1997 PFA Young Player of the Year Award. Ole represented Norway at the 1998 World Cup finals, playing three matches as the Vikings reached the second round, only to be knocked out by Italy. Although he was mainly limited to substitute appearances, he could not be kept out of the headlines during the 'treble-winning' season. Grabbing a dramatic winner against Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Solskjaer rightly claimed the glory and the limelight, with the newspapers calling him United's super sub for the first time. Two weeks later Solskjaer rewrote the record books, again after coming on as a sub, against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. He scored four times in an emphatic 8-1 victory to create a new Premiership record for an away win. His personal feast of four goals scored in 13 minutes had historians, statisticians and supporters alike pondering as to whether this had been done before. No one has yet come up with any answers, so we assume that Ole Gunnar has indeed created a new football record. Despite this feat, Solskjaer's starting opportunities continued to be scarce. He did make the first XI for the FA Cup Final victory over Newcastle United and was again on the bench for the Champions League Final against Bayern Munich. There was a sense of deja vu about the sensational end to this game. Once again Ole Gunnar was called from the bench and produced a last gasp winner. The United supporters attending the final in Barcelona promptly struck up a new song of "Who put the ball in the Germans' net?" On 4 December 1999, Ole became the first player to score four goals in two separate Premiership matches. Following his exploits at Forest in February, Solskjaer netted four times against Everton in a 5-1 victory at Old Trafford. That prolific scoring was spread throughout the title-winning season. Fifteen goals for a man who usually starts on the bench was a terrific return from just 20 starts and 21 substitute appearances, but his form inevitably led to talk of him moving away from Old Trafford. The 2000/2001 season did little to halt the usage of his 'supersub' tag. After bringing back memories of the Nou Camp by scoring late to beat Real Madrid in the Bayern Munich pre-season tournament, only three of his thirteen goals in 47 appearances were scored after coming off the bench. But as all three were either the winning strike or the goal that wrapped up a victory, the nickname continued to haunt the man who doesn't think of himself just as a substitute. Nowhere better was his skill at getting up to pace in game after coming off the bench demonstrated than against Charlton in April 2001. The scores were locked at 1-1 before Ole came on and won the game for the Reds with eight minutes to go. Ole's Premiership winners' medal in 2000/2001 was his fourth since joining United, to go with his FA Cup and European Cup winners' gongs, and he finished the season having just broken the 200-mark in appearances. He won the Norwegian Player of the Year Award in the 1995-96 season. He scored on his debut for Manchester United, the 87th player to do so. He is known as the ‘baby faced assassin’, because of his youthful looks. A nickname he personally dislikes! He played 19 games and scored 13 goals for the Norwegian under-21 team. Unfortunately Ole sustained a serious knee injury in 2003 which took most of the this season to recover from. He regained his match fitness in pre-season 2006 and is once again available for selection. Having proved his fitness he has come on as a sub in United's first premiership games and topped it with both goals against Newcastle (1/10/06) to put United top of the table. He then suffered an ankle ligament injury but came back to score again and prove his worth to the team. United have extended his contract for another season. Despite having another op on his knee he is expected to be ready for pre-season training.
Ole's Page