JOE’s Forgotten Footballers: William Prunier

Alex Ferguson will head off into the sunset as the most decorated manager in United history, but not all his signings were top drawer.

By Declan Whooley

When you have been in management for as long as the Scot has, it is inevitable that a good deal of signings don’t materialise as you would have hoped, and the names of Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson, Bebe and Taibi are just some of the names often recalled with delight by opposition fans.

Another man who often slips under the radar is Frenchman William Prunier, though to be fair to the defender, he didn’t cost the Red Devils anything and only played in two matches for United before going back to his homeland.

A product of the famous Auxerre youth team that included his future United colleague Eric Cantona, Prunier was seen as one of the most consistent and cultured defenders in the French league. Earning his one and only international cap against Brazil in 1992, he moved to Marseilles and then Bordeaux before Alex Ferguson decided to give the player a trial during the 1995/96 season.

Cantona, it is believed, played a strong role in persuading Ferguson to bring Prunier to Old Trafford and a defensive injury crisis meant that Fergie was forced to put him into the first-team. With Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister and David May on the treatment table, he was drafted into the side to play QPR in December 1995 where he partnered Gary Neville at the heart of the defence and it couldn’t have gone too much better.

Looking composed - obviously pictured against QPR rather than Spurs

The Red Devils won 2-1 to stay second in the table behind high-flying Newcastle, and Prunier was involved in Andy Cole’s opener and even hit the crossbar. Unfortunately that was as good as it got during his short-lived stay in England.

Two days later and it went horribly wrong for Prunier and his team-mates at White Hart Lane. The defensive crisis got worse when Peter Schmeichel had to cry off injured and with Denis Irwin also unavailable for the contest, Spurs ran riot and put four goals past a make-shift United in a crushing 4-1 defeat.

Prunier was largely the scapegoat for that loss although Ferguson did offer to extend his trial at the club, the Frenchman declined and left to join Copenhagen. He later played for Montpellier, Napoli, Toulouse and even had a short stint at Hearts and retired after two years in the United Arab Emirates.

Currently the head honcho at Colomiers

He was voted as the sixth worst Manchester United footballer of all time, a harsh call on a player who only appeared in two games, and the game in which he was poor he was no worse than most of his distinguished team-mates. Still, that matters little to the majority of football supporters when they think of William Prunier’s time at United.

He remains involved in football, currently the coach of Colomiers and in his own small way is part of Fergie’s tenure at one of the biggest football clubs in the world.