Who are the greatest players in Manchester United’s history? The Athletic gave Andy Mitten the task of compiling his top 25, and we are counting them down this summer, in reverse order.He explains his thought process here.Goodison Park’s old Park End was an odd, disorientating section for away fans because visiting supporters stood behind the goal on an almost flat terrace offering a terrible view of the pitch.Perhaps that’s what led to one Manchester United fan to start what must one of the most obscure player songs in United’s terrace songbook. It was at Goodison in 1992 that a lone voice shouted: ‘SCHMEI-CHEL! SCHMEI-CHEL! Der, der, der, der, der, der, der, der, der, der”, set to the theme tune of the Kirk Douglas/Tony Curtis 1958 epic The Vikings.Bizarrely it caught on. Soon United fans were singing this weird ditty to someone who could be, well, in the grand tradition of goalkeepers, eccentric. But what a goalkeeper, the best in United’s history — and there have been several greats.Peter Schmeichel barking out orders in 1992 (Teesside Archive/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)Harry Gregg (247 games) went back into the burning wreckage at Munich to rescue stranded passengers. Alex Stepney was the Londoner who won the European Cup, played 539 United games and is still sprightly aged 83. Gary Bailey (375 games) was a middle-class university educated South African who later married a former Miss Universe.David de Gea, with 545 games, was a four-time player of the year and Golden Gloves winner. Edwin van der Sar (266 games) arrived a few months after the Glazer takeover in 2005 and brought calm and success during turbulent times.And then there was Schmeichel, raised in a Copenhagen tower block, the son of a Polish jazz musician who battled his demons for years.I first met Big Pete on a pre-season tour in Norway in ’91. Yet I had almost no relationship with the man Sir Alex Ferguson said: “I don’t believe there is a better goalkeeper who has played the game.”Except once. “Your problem is that you never made it as a footballer!” he shouted at me once in Manchester when I bumped into him on a night out. To which his team-mates who had actually seen me play football interjected and said: “Woah, that was never on the cards!” Thanks for putting him straight.Assistant manager Brian Kidd called him ‘The Mad Mullah’. Argumentative and possessing a self-assured arrogance, Schmeichel wasn’t even popular with all of his team-mates. Yet those same peers regarded him as the best goalkeeper in world football throughout the 1990s. He was indomitable for 1992 European champions Denmark — for whom he part-composed and provided backing vocals for the anthem ‘Big Boys in Red and White’ — and United.Former chairman Martin Edwards considered Schmeichel and Eric Cantona as the best two buys he oversaw. Edwards enjoyed bringing him to the club for a bargain £505,000 from Danish side Brondby in 1991.