Juan Mata is hungry for Champions League glory with Manchester United after being forced to watch the biggest club competition in the world from his sofa last year.
Two years after Mata helped Chelsea win the competition on that famous nail-biting night in Munich, Mata was forced to exit the most glamorous stage in European club football.
In January of last year he boarded a helicopter and flew to Carrington to complete his £37.1 million move to the self-styled biggest club in the world, but there was to be no Hollywood ending to his story as United failed to qualify for the Champions League.
For the next nine months, Mata would invite compatriots David de Gea and Ander Herrera round to his house every Tuesday and Wednesday night to watch the matches on television.
The three amigos were engrossed by what they watched, but there was also more than a hint of frustration.
“Ander, David and I watched almost every game every week. You watch it but you feel you want to play,” the United playmaker said.
“We would watch every Tuesday and Wednesday. The game did not matter – it’s the Champions League.”
It did not come as a surprise, therefore, that Mata was over the moon when United finished fourth last season.
Winner’s medal
And after being starved of European football for a year, Mata is hungry to add another winner’s medal.
“I have been lucky enough to win it. But I am hungry to win it again, for sure,” he said. “This club needs to be there. It needs to be fighting for the Champions League.
“Hopefully we can win the play-off, and we can start the season knowing that we are going to play in the Champions League and Old Trafford knows it can enjoy European football.”
Louis van Gaal and Ed Woodward realised quickly that the squad needed strengthening to cope with the demands of challenging on two fronts and added four new players before the US tour.
Mata thinks each addition will have a big impact at United.
Matteo Darmian is a “very tough” full-back who is “very quick and intense,” according to Mata, who regards Morgan Schneiderlin as an experienced “very solid midfielder”.
Bastian Schweinsteiger “brings experience and quality,” Mata says, and Memphis Depay is described as “a talented player who will bring us a lot of skills and goals”.