A year ago
Ben Foster certainly proved his worth at Wrexham, on his second visit to the club, but his first visit to Wales left Sir Alex Ferguson feeling 'robbed'.
Now, I don't want to offend by comparing Ben Foster to religious figures, but the Wrexham goalkeeper took just a few days over Easter weekend to go from lowly status to hero status.
On Friday, the former England goalkeeper was completely buried after his side lost 1-3 to Halifax Town, a result that threatened their chances of automatic promotion.
Fans called his short-term contract at the Racecourse an "8-week PR deal", following his performance in the loss.
Downstairs in the Premier League, however, the Easter break offers a very quick recovery, and fortunately for Foster.
On Monday, the Red Dragons faced fellow title rivals Notts County in a big game, with both sides holding a 100-point lead ahead of arguably the National League's biggest game of all time. The score was 3-2 in the dying moments, the home team awarded a penalty, but Foster crossed the line to save and immediately became the hero.
However, he was not always so respected, and even when Ferguson signed him as a youngster from Stoke City, after his first time at Wrexham, the manager The legendary agent thought he had been 'robbed'.
Former Stoke City director of football John Rudge explained, via Stoke on Trent Live, how the move to the Potters and ultimately United came about.
"Ben trained with us and had a couple of loan spells out of the league but we had two established goalkeepers (Ed de Goey and Steve Simonsen) so he was third choice when I got the call. Called from Denis Smith, Wrexham's coach." Rudge explains the signing of the goalkeeper for £15,000.
"They've gone through management, are in a relegation battle and need a goalkeeper.
Foster won the League Cup with United under Ferguson. Image:
alamy
"I suggested Ben but Denis suspects that he has someone who is too inexperienced with the problems he is having.
"But he took him to see the training session and called back to say he did a great job and would accept it.
"Alex Ferguson's son, Darren, was playing for Wrexham at the time, so he went to a game, watched Ben play and also liked the way he looked...
“Fergie called me and told me to go see him, so I went to their training ground.
"Alex has always been very nice to me. We've built a relationship since Port Vale, although every time we negotiate something I say we don't have the money, it's true. He asked what we wanted for Ben and I said it would cost £1 million. He said, 'What are you talking about! He never even played for you!
"But we did a £1m deal with a few knickknacks on it. I would text him for years whenever Ben was particularly well and get a response: ' You're ****ing me. give it!"
Foster certainly costs a lot less money from Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney retiring to his current team for the 'peanuts' he can get them into League 2 which is absolutely not a public relations disaster.
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