Security smuggle new Man Utd signing Manuel Ugarte out through loading bay of swanky restaurant as agent acts as DECOY

By Phil Thomas

NEARLY two decades have passed since Roy Keane led Manchester United into battle for the final time.

Fittingly enough, in a typically brutal showdown with bitter rivals Liverpool, Keane collected the 102nd yellow card of his Old Trafford career.

Two months later he was gone.

A fall-out with Sir Alex Ferguson ended in United’s greatest general of the Premier League era exiting for good.

It left a gap in the engine room that the Red Devils have never really come close to filling in the 19 years that have followed.

Many tried and some managed it in flashes and, although the trophies still rolled in for a time, there was no snarling, bring-it-on warrior prowling the midfield.

Until now… until the imminent capture of a man who views a 50-50 challenge like a starving Labrador staring at a side of ham.

For three months, United have licked their own lips at the prospect of a midfield marshalled by Uruguayan tough guy Manuel Ugarte.

Finally, it appears, they are getting their man.

A transfer deal rising to £50million is all but agreed with Paris Saint-Germain.

The signing of a player many believe will be the most crucial of the Erik ten Hag tenure is a whisker away from completion.

And, at long last, United will once again have a never-take-a-backward-step scrapper protecting their back line.

Of course at just 23, in only his fourth season in Europe, the South American is far from the finished article.

Ugarte is pretty much a ball-winner pure and simple.

Rarely will you see him pinging 40-yard passes to split a defence.

But ending his days with half the reputation of Keane and a fraction of his silverware would still mean a hell of a career.

And with just three goals in eight years as a professional, he will never be a box-to-box replica of their legendary Irishman’s early days.

But a midfield containing Ugarte — a natural replacement for the ageing Casemiro — alongside Kobbie Mainoo will certainly see an end to United being soft-centred rollovers.

This is the man who, on arriving at PSG from Sporting Lisbon a year ago, gave a telling glimpse into what French fans could expect.

There was more hitman than humour in his almost sinister response: “When we have the ball, it’s a game.

“When we don’t, it’s a fight.”

It was one he rarely lost in a stunning opening six months, too, soon becoming a cult figure with fans and a regular in the team.

The player Juan Ramon Carrasco, coach of his first club Fenix, once described as “having seven lungs and owning half the pitch” was living up to the hype.

Winning hearts and minds everywhere . . .  apart from in the PSG manager’s office.

Boss Luis Enrique, more used to ballerinas than brute force from his Barcelona days, poured cold water on the potential by highlighting limitations and much room for improvement.

So much so, from the turn of the year, he was suddenly a bench player, although still managed to top the Ligue 1 tackling charts with 98 as PSG won the double.

Yet if Enrique had little faith, Marcelo Bielsa — now Uruguay’s national boss — lacked none.

He saw Ugarte as the pillar in his plans for this summer’s Copa America.

Already a hero back home for starring in January’s World Cup qualifying win in Argentina, he was a regular, and even hit the winner in a quarter-final shootout triumph over Brazil.

Confidence was restored but back in Paris the arrival of Joao Neves from Benfica pushed him further down the pecking order.

With the door to Old Trafford swinging wider, Ugarte — a 15-year-old schoolboy when he made his pro bow with Fenix — was determined to stroll through it.

A fifth summer signing for Ten Hag after Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui, albeit with less bells-and-whistles hype than some of them.

Definitely more piano carrier than piano player.

Then again, you need all kinds to make an orchestra . . . and in Ugarte, United may just have found their conductor.