Loved his first goal for us, at home against Chelsea. We knew he had the potential to be a great player when we signed him, but there were plenty of doubts as to whether he was going to be a prolific goalscorer, or a goalscorer at all in the Premier League. That was all banished with one drop of the shoulder and a finish across the goalkeeper.
Just a shame the outcome of that game was ruined by one of the worst refereeing decisions I've ever seen.
Rob Styles wasn't it? Giving a penalty for Malouda jumping into Finnan? No I'm not bitter about it
Was gutted when he left for Chelsea, things were starting to look up, what with H&G getting ousted and then Hodgson getting the boot. Whilst Rafa clearly got the best out of him, I don't think he was all that poor for us in his final half season either, we were under Hodgson and he still scored a few and he looked a lot better once Kenny took over. Can understand it from his point of view I suppose and he did go on to win the trophies he left his boyhood club for in the first place and we did get £50m for him. Mainly though, he seems to regret leaving us despite the trophies and it feels like he knows he made an error, given how loved he was here.
Still, prefer to to think of the good times, we were one of the best sides in Europe the few year he was here and he gave us some great memories, the aforementioned terrorising of Vidic was great as was his goal in the Champions League against Arsenal in his first season - got to say that little shimmy against Newcastle taking the keeper out before finishing is my favourite. Don't know why, it was a comfortable victory in the league but it was a genius bit of play and was him at his best - he was awesome for those few years he was here.
Thanks for the memories