Matheus Cunha will hope his Manchester United debut runs a lot smoother than the last player to have joined the club from Wolves.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Brazil international makes his unofficial first outing for the Red Devils in their pre-season opener against Leeds<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n 7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> Cunha remains United’s only new arrival this summer<\/a>\u00a0after the club triggered his \u00a362.5million release clause from Wolves.<\/p>\n The Brazilian<\/a>\u00a0has become the first senior player in over five decades to make the switch from Molineux\u00a0to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n Darren Ferguson and Denis Irwin have both moved in the opposite direction, but the Red Devils rarely poach Wolves’ top talent.<\/p>\n Jim McCalliog was the last to be recruited<\/a> for the first team from the Black Country side on transfer-deadline day in March 1974.<\/p>\n However, Daniel Nardiello did leave Wolves’ youth ranks to head to Man United’s academy in 1999.<\/p>\n The son of ex-Wales international Donato, the Coventry-born star played for the FA’s School of Excellence at Lilleshall<\/a> at age\u00a014.<\/p>\n United beat out their rivals to win the race for Nardiello’s signature<\/a>, but were ordered to pay Wolves \u00a3200,000 in compensation.<\/p>\n Wolves’ former chief executive Jez Moxey said, as per the BBC<\/a>: “I am delighted with the verdict of the tribunal.<\/p>\n “I hope this sends out a message to predator clubs that they cannot get away with cherry-picking the outstanding young talent being developed at Wolves without significant financial consequences.”<\/p>\n A Football League Appeals Committee also ruled that the west Midlanders were entitled to further payments of \u00a3150k-a-time if the forward played five, fifteen, 25 and 40 first-team matches.<\/p>\n 7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> 7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> A further \u00a3250,000 would have been owed if Nardiello played in a UEFA or FIFA competitive international fixture.<\/p>\n Ex-Wolves Academy director, Chris Evans, described Nardiello as the \u2018jewel in the crown\u2019\u00a0of their schoolboy development programme.<\/p>\n Despite welcoming the Football League Appeals Committee ruling, he also shared his belief that United may still have got a bargain.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for both the club and the player, that didn’t prove to be true, with Nardiello making just four first-team appearances.<\/p>\n The first of which came as a just-turned 19-year-old substitute in a humbling 4-0 defeat at Arsenal<\/a> on Monday, November 5, 2001.<\/p>\n Following a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool<\/a> a day earlier, only Dwight Yorke was included by Sir Alex Ferguson<\/a> in the League Cup third round.<\/p>\n 7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> “Don’t get me wrong, looking back at it now, from a 40-year-old’s perspective, it’s something I’m extremely proud of that I managed to do, not many people manage to pull on that shirt and represent Manchester United<\/a>‘s first team”, Nardiello told the\u00a0Manchester Evening News<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n “So it’s something I look back on with real pride.<\/p>\n “At the time, I was an 18-year-old kid and you sort of just take it in your stride at that age, so I didn’t really realise the achievement of playing for Manchester United’s first team until my older age and when I retired.<\/p>\n “I was a confident young lad and I had confidence in myself to be playing football at the highest level, so it [his debut] just seemed like the next step in my development, and to do it at Arsenal at Highbury is something I am really proud of and something I am glad I wasn’t nervous about at the time.”<\/p>\n Nardiello later came on in a Champions League tie at Maccabi Haifa, and even started a League Cup win against Leicester at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n He fronted a three-pronged attack alongside Diego Forlan and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer<\/a>, with David Beckham<\/a>, Rio Ferdinand<\/a>, Paul Scholes<\/a>, and Gary Neville<\/a> all named in the starting XI.<\/p>\n 7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> 7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> “It was great starting a game and again there were no nerves or anything like that, it was just a case of trying to do as well as I could on the day,” Nardiello added.<\/p>\n “Looking back now and looking at the starting line-up from that game, it was a really strong starting XI, with me being probably the weakest link in the starting XI.<\/p>\n “It was great that Sir Alex had the confidence to put me in and to say I’ve played alongside those lads, although I did it in training and a few reserve team matches, it was amazing and something I look back on with pride.”<\/p>\n Nardiello’s final appearance for United saw him replace Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> during a shock 2-0 defeat to West Brom in the 2003\/04 Carling Cup, in what was the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s first outing in the competition.<\/p>\n After impressing on loan, Nardiello joined Barnsley on a permanent deal in 2004 following his Old Trafford release.<\/p>\n 7<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> The three-cap Welshman then enjoyed a journeyman career around the EFL, including stints at QPR, Blackpool, and Bury, before retiring at Bangor City in 2017.<\/p>\n Unlike Cunha, Nardiello has admitted to sometimes wondering what might have happened had he stayed at Molineux all those years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I said I loved my short time at Wolves as a youth team player and will always want them to do well especially still having so many friends in the area,\u201d he told the Wolves former players association<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I also loved going to United, all the experiences I had there, and the career that followed afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you can think about it and wonder how things might have turned out differently but ultimately there isn\u2019t too much point looking back too much.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things both in football and in life, that you make the decision which you think is best and then stand by it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nread more man united news<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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