I agreed to join Plymouth Argyle – but I came away signing for Man Utd instead

It's not often Plymouth Argyle will have their transfer business hijacked by Manchester United - but it was in the case of Andy Kellett.

Argyle were looking to secure a return for Kellett in the 2015 winter transfer window transfer window. He'd spent two months on loan at Home Park earlier in the season, making 15 appearances in League Two and scoring his first career goal in a 3-2 away win at Northampton Town - a superb solo effort to win the club's goal of the year.

Then 21, he was mightily impressive at left wing-back as Argyle targeted promotion to the third tier. And boss John Sheridan was keen to get him back on another temporary switch from Championship side Bolton Wanderers to aid the push in the second half of the season.

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A deal was set to be completed in the final hours before the deadline - until Premier League giants United swooped in unexpectedly to turn Kellett's head. The 30-year-old, who now plays for reborn ninth-tier club Bury FC, recalled his shock to the Daily Star.

"The deal at Plymouth had all been agreed," he said. "So I went to the training ground on Deadline Day, quite late on actually. I went in and the manager said there's an option for you to go to Man United on loan if you want.

"So that's how it came about. I was going down to the training ground to sign for Plymouth and I ended up coming away signing for Man Utd! At first I was quite shocked by it.

"But then further on in the night I got quite emotional because it was quite a big thing. I can't really remember my initial reaction, I just think I was in a bit of shock really."

Unsurprisingly, making the jump from Plymouth to the grandeur of United came as quite the culture shock for Kellett, who was added to their youth team on a loan deal until the end of the season. His eyes lit up as he entered their Carrington training ground for the first time

"It literally had everything," Kellett continued. "The six months before I was at Plymouth, which I really enjoyed, but they didn't have the kind of facilities that United had. So it was a massive, massive shock in terms of that."

Despite never making it into the Red Devils' senior line-up and only turning out occasionally for their U23 side, Kellett rubbed shoulders with some of the team's major stars. "On most of the training days lads like myself would go over to the first team whenever they needed bodies," he explained.

"So I trained with them quite a lot. When the first team had games, the lads who weren't in the squad would drop down to the 23s, so there was always a lot of experience in training. Obviously the standard was very good.

"I've always said this to people, though; I don't know whether it was the surfaces or playing with better players, but it felt a lot easier than playing in the lower leagues where it's a bit more like pinball.

"In training, you would get time on the ball, whereas lower down the levels everything was kind of frantic. If you gave someone an opportunity to score, they would score nine times out of 10. In terms of the standards, they were a lot higher. But in terms of actually playing, it felt like you had a lot more time than you would lower down."

After his time at United, Kellett went on to sign for Wigan Athletic with a three-year contract. He struggled to nail down a starting spot and his career then continued with stints at Chesterfield, Notts County, Fylde, Alfreton Town, and Guiseley before arriving at his current club.

Nearly a decade on, Kellett does wonder what might have been had he returned to Argyle. He added: "There is one question I ask myself. At the time Plymouth were in the play-offs, and they got to a play-off final that season (sic: Argyle lost in the semi-final to Wycombe Wanderers).

"Could I have gone down that route, maybe? If we'd had gone up that year, we would have been League One. But, I don't think going from playing first-team to United's under-23s - I don't think that would have done me any harm. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

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