Alexis Sanchez and the history of Manchester United told via the number seven jersey

The Manchester United number seven shirt has been worn by some of the club’s greatest players, and by some of its most costly disappointments.

From the Busby Babes to Alexis Sanchez, the man with the number seven on his back has been a totem of the club’s wider story. Here is the history of Manchester United Football Club as told through the number seven jersey.

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Johnny Berry: Munich, Memory and Forgetting

The outside-right joined United in 1951 and helped them to three League titles. He was quick, technical and two-footed. He was also exceptionally brave: at five foot five, he was repeatedly targeted by opposing defenders, and this in an era where there was little or no protection for tricky wingers.

Had he not played in the same position as Sir Stanley Matthews, he would have had a lot more than four caps. Fearless, fast, feisty: he was a template.

Berry was in the Munich Air Crash, suffering a fractured skull, a broken leg and a broken pelvis. He was given the last rites and was in a coma for two months. He survived, but never played football again. In 1960, United evicted Berry from the club-owned house he lived in and he left Manchester.

In the Premier League era, United have done a brilliant job of honouring the victims of the Munich Disaster, and of incorporating that tragedy and the rebirth from into into the mythology and marketability of the club. Those directly affected by Munich did not always feel well looked after.

Neil Berry, in his book about his father “Johnny, The Forgotten Babe”, wrote: “On reflection it would have been nice to have had some kind of ongoing support from the officials of Manchester United, not necessarily financial, but as Dad always said: 'You're only as good as your last game.' He had played his and the regime at the time did not want to know of his circumstances and preferred that he just vanished.”

George Best: The Beauty, The Booze

Best is associated in the mind with number 7, but actually played more for Man United with the 11 on his back (141 games versus 246, according to United fan and statistician, John Russell.)

Best was, of course, wearing seven for the 1968 European Cup Final against Benfica that represented the apogee of the recovery from Munich. The win still stands as the club’s finest hour, with Best’s genius goal the crowning glory of it.

And yet the great Northern Irishman’s United days were already numbered: he was only 22 then, the next 37 years would never match up to 1968.

Manchester United had the best of George, and then alcoholism got the better of him. His verve, skill and guts represented the very best of United.

Bryan Robson: The might-have-been Marvel

Robson was a box-to-box titan for United throughout the 1980s and, were it not for injury, might have claims to be in England’s best-ever XI. He was a fine captain, a warrior who carried United through a decade in the doldrums. But he could not inspire them to the old First Division title.

Throughout the 1980s and the first years of the 1990s, United were a club not punching their weight. When Alex Ferguson arrived, he realised the need to dismantle a dressing room and drinking culture that Robson, whose benders were the stuff of legend, had come to typify. Would Robson have been a greater player had he not drunk? Could he have stayed fitter with modern conditioning? He was a Manchester United seven who might have been even greater.

Ferguson kept Robson, successfully, but it was the emergence of Roy Keane (and Ryan Giggs) that really drove them forward.  It was only in the Premier League era that United would become the top dogs again, and Robson cannot be said to have been a key Premier League figure. Other than as a manager obviously. Ahem.

Eric Cantona: Volatile genius

The talent who propelled United to Premier League dominance, the signing that assured Sir Alex Ferguson’s sporting immortality, the talisman who made United the most hated club in Britain for non-believers.

Cantona was the embodiment of all the stories that Manchester United, and Manchester, told itself about itself: hard, swaggering, touched by genius, touched by madness, wild, untameable, and full of life and passion and devil.

He was a rock and roller: the jersey inspired him, and he elevated it to legendary status.

David Beckham: Official Manchester United Partner™

Beckham was a tremendous, reliable, utterly dedicated wide midfielder whose repeatable excellence with that magic right foot gave United (and England) some of the best football moments of the era bookended by Britpop and the Iraq War.

He was also the bridge between footballer as skilled labourer and footballer as A-List celebrity, walking billboard, marketing device and self-facilitating media node. Eventually it got too much for the old skool Ferguson and Beckham became a Galactico at Real Madrid. The real power in European football switched at around the same time, away from Manchester, to Spain and Catalonia, and then to Germany.

Raul's 7, or Zidane's 5, or Totti's 10 were where it was at. Until...

Ronaldo: The PlayStation Superhero

The fact that Sir Alex managed to build a third great United team was as surprising as the fact that he didn’t leave around 2005 after the Rock of Gibraltar incident and the takeover. It looked for all the world that staying on was just going to tarnish everything he achieved. But then came Cristiano.

Under Sir’s eye, the Portuguese went from six-a-season show pony to Premier League all-time great, inspiring the team and allowing Wayne Rooney to burn, briefly but brilliantly, as a world-class star.

Ronaldo was everything United wanted in a seven: pace, skill, elan, the unwavering hatred of other clubs’ fans. United circa 2007-2008 hit new heights, and the man responsible was CR7.

Angel di Maria: Unworthy Successors

At £59.7 million, the Argentine was the most expensive dud number seven United have bought in the post-Ferguson era. But he was by no means the only misfire. Michael Owen, Memphis Depay, Antonio Valencia are among the players to have worn the great shirt without distinction, or with only occasional success.

And the decline of the great United sevens has been a microcosm of the club: no longer pre-eminent in Europe, nor the Premier League. Not even the best team in Manchester. It’s not just the results, though: in the sourness of van Gaal, the inadequate dithering of Moyes and the world-weary negativity of Mourinho, something has been lost. Something uniquely United, something that was once embodied by their sevens.

Where is the genius of Best, the engine of Robson, the swagger of Cantona, the relentless magnificent arrogance of Ronaldo?

Alexis Sanchez has some shirt to fill - and the club needs it bad.