History: The various links that join Roma and Manchester (United)

AS Roma and Manchester United will face off on Thursday night in the Europa League - but perhaps the first time our paths crossed with the English city came way back in 1883.

That's because it was that year, in the Greater Manchester Town of Hazel Grove, William Garbutt was born.

Garbutt would go on to become the first coach of AS Roma, after the side's formation in 1927. Garbutt never coached an English team but he had an outsized influence on Italian football, coaching as he did both the Giallorossi and Genoa Cricket and Football Club in their formative years.

As a player, meanwhile, he represented Reading, Woolwich Arsenal and Blackburn.

Another of Roma's English managers, Herbert Burgess, actually played for both Manchester clubs - representing United between 1906 and 1910.

Architect of perhaps the first great Roma side, Burgess was on the touchline for a 5-0 win over Juventus in 1931 that would eventually be immortalised in film.

In terms of action on the pitch, it took a while for the paths of the two sides to ever cross - bar three friendlies that took place in 1961, where a mixed Roma and Tevere Roma side edged out their visitors.

It was not until 2007, then, that the sides met for the first time in a competitive match; the quarter-finals of that season's Champions League.

In 1977, however, there was another event in the Manchester area that would go on to have a significant impact on Roma's story. Simone Perrotta, the son of two Calabrian emmigrants, was born in Ashton-under-Lyne.

Perrotta and his family would return to Italy five years later, and the youngster would grow up to become an all-action attacking midfielder who would even win the World Cup in 2006 (earning himself a statue in his birthplace).

With Roma, meanwhile, Perrotta made 327 appearances and scored 48 goals between 2004 and 2013 - leaving him 12th on the club's list of all-time leading appearance makers.

Direct links between the two clubs involving players are surprisingly few and far between, at least until quite recently. The first player to make the move directly between the two clubs was Davide Petrucci, who joined the Red Devils as a 17-year-old in 2008.

At the time the young forward was viewed as one of the brightest talents in the world, but a combination of injuries and other factors meant he never even made a first-team appearance for United.

Gabriel Heinze, meanwhile, is a different story. The uncompromising Argentine full-back won plenty during his time with United between 2004 and 2007, before joining Roma in the summer of 2011 on a free transfer. He would just spend one season in the Italian capital.

The other two most notable members of this particular gallery are with the team right now: Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Chris Smalling.

Both were members of United's Europa League-winning run in 2017, and both joined the Giallorossi in the summer of 2019 (although Mkhitaryan arrived from Arsenal). Both have since gone on to prove themselves invaluable members of Paulo Fonseca's side.

Perhaps, then, it makes sense to look at a couple of 'what might have been' transfer rumours.

One of those surrounds the great defender Rio Ferdinand. Back in the summer of 1999 the Roma president Franco Sensi was on the hunt for a reliable centre-back to support Aldair and Zago. Ferdinand at that time was emerging as a formidable prospect at West Ham United, and Sensi himself confirmed the interest: "We like an English centre-back - but it's not [Sol] Campbell."

In the end, though, no deal was struck - with Roma signing the experienced Amedeo Mangone from Bologna instead. Ferdinand would complete his apprenticeship with the Hammers before completing a blockbuster move to Leeds United in 2000. Manchester United would come calling two years after that.

A similar story, from a similar period, surrounds the Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy. Having earned a reputation as a devastating finisher with PSV Eindhoven, top clubs around Europe were looking at him - and Roma at the time had both the need and the funds to pursue a top-class No. 9.

In the spring of 2000 the club were on Van Nistelrooy's tail, with reports growing that it was close to being done. Instead, it all fell apart - Manchester United having seemingly snatched his signature instead. A devastating knee injury delayed the deal a year, but Van Nistelrooy would go on to be a success at Old Trafford.

Roma, of course, made do by signing Gabriel Batistuta that summer instead. The Argentine had already scored in the Champions League against United at Old Trafford - at Roma, he would help the team become champions of Italy.