Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed the fear of never experiencing European success again drove him on to build his third great Manchester United side.
After the 1994 Double winners and unparalleled Treble campaign five years later, United are once again at the peak of their powers, with only domestic rivals Chelsea standing between them and another Champions League crown.
It seems hard to believe now but it is only two seasons ago that Ferguson's team were turfed out of Europe at the group stage, with many pundits openly starting to question how long the Scot would last in the Old Trafford hotseat.
While such an embarrassingly early exit was not part of the masterplan, it did prove to be part of the learning process that now leads to the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow for the newly-crowned Barclays Premier League champions.
"You have fear of many things but sometimes that drives you on," said Ferguson.
"I felt it was an important time for us when we started to make another change and began to rebuild again. "It is not easy to manage change and when you see a team starting to break up due to age, injuries or merely because others are not maintaining the level they should be at. But today, United are the best team around at the moment. The team has some great youngsters in Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez, Evra, Nani, Anderson with some experienced players like Giggs and Scholes, which balances the side perfectly.
Another european success in Moscow would assure that United are the best team in the world!
