Paul Ince names extraordinarily obscure player as best he ever played with

Ince was part of Manchester United's all-conquering side in the 1980s and 1990s, playing alongside the likes of Bryan Robson, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona and Peter Schmeichel.

He also played alongside Roberto Carlos at Inter Milan and Michael Owen at the peak of his powers at Liverpool, as well as lining up for England alongside the likes of Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne.

Yet when asked to name the best player he ever shared a dressing room with, he came up with the bizarre name of Stig Inge Bjørnebye, a former Liverpool and Norway left-back.

"Amazing," he said of Bjørnebye. "He had the inner drive, the ability to question himself, the ability to work hard all the time.

"He was not the greatest talent, but he had something that many of the others lacked: guts."

Ince's comments were made, according to the Daily Mirror, at a book launch. In Norway. Which may explain the choice since it will have delighted the local fans lining up to buy signed copies of a book called "Liverpool captains: Management and passion" by a writer called Ragnhild Lund Ansnes.