Love the man but feel he's a bit overrated on this forum. He was never someone Fergie built the team around (Cantona, Keane, RVN, Ronaldo), Barca semi aside he never truly shone in the CL (often a substitute during the 1999 run and taken off during the 2008 final - his best CL showing might have been against Madrid in 2000 or 2003, can't remember which), never really dominated a top CL team. His peak was 2003 (
@Eboue by that time it was a few years since he'd been getting dropped for the likes of Butt and Johnsen) playing off RVN. His move back to the deep-lying role helped cement his legendary status but he only had one truly great season in that position (06/07).
He was, however, an absolute joy to watch, the type of technical footballer that the PL really hasn't seen much of over the years.