While Arsenal were about to enter their legendary peak that became known as the Invincibles season and Chelsea began to ramp up Roman Abramovich’s spending power, Manchester United were slowly and silently rebuilding in the background.

The message during the 2003 summer transfer window was crystal clear: invest in some of the most promising young players around who could help rebuild the first team over the next few seasons.

Each of the five signings Manchester United made were aged 24 or under, coming at a total cost of £34.5m - a pretty big transfer budget for the time.

But what happened next to each member of United’s youthful cabal, and where are they now? GIVEMESPORT take a look below…

Cristiano Ronaldo - £17.1m

With around half of United’s outlay that summer spent specifically on one player, even from the off there was an obvious jewel in the crown - Cristiano Ronaldo. Aged just 18 at the time, it would take a couple more years for the Portuguese prodigy to truly hit top gear. But by the 2007-08 season, a return of 50 goal involvements in 49 games drove Manchester United to Champions League glory and earned Ronaldo his first Ballon d’Or.

Of course, Ronaldo has been handed the award four more times since then and won four more Champions League titles while cementing his status as a Real Madrid legend and one of the greatest footballers to ever grace the game. Now aged 35, Ronaldo is still going - he’s made 170 appearances for Portugal and last season fired Juventus to yet another Serie A title.

Tim Howard - £2.88m

The MLS isn’t a traditional recruitment pool for the Premier League’s top clubs but Tim Howard proved to be the exception to the rule. Ultimately though, the USA goalkeeper’s time at Old Trafford was mixed with some brilliant performances offset by incredibly costly errors - including an ill-fated parry that saw United eliminated from the 2003/04 Champions League at the hands of eventual winners FC Porto.

Howard did enjoy consistent success in the Premier League with Everton, however, serving as their No.1 for the best part of a decade after an initial loan spell. He’s seventh in the Premier League’s all-time clean sheets chart - joint with fellow American Brad Friedel - and an impressive third for saves, although it’s not clear when the division started officially recording them.

Howard left Goodison Park in 2016 and returned to the MLS with Colorado Rapids, where he spent four seasons before hanging up his gloves in 2019. However, the 41-year-old briefly came out of retirement in 2020 to represent USL Championship side Memphis 901, who he also serves as minority owner and sporting director.

David Bellion - £2.7m (out of court settlement)

Widely regarded as one of Manchester United’s most underwhelming signings of the Premier League era, the club embroiled themselves in tapping up controversy as they swooped for then-Sunderland’s young and hungry striker David Bellion on a free transfer, following one of the Black Cats’ many top flight relegations.

Aged just 20 at the time, Bellion was always a signing for the future but within a few years he was already being frozen out of the first team and loaned to West Ham, where he failed to make any impact. He then moved on loan to Nice who he’d sign for permanently, before a switch to Bordeaux.

Bordeaux became the club Bellion’s most synonymous with, having made 156 appearances for them despite the pretty modest return of just 28 goals. He finished his playing career at hipster’s favourite Red Star and despite retiring in 2016 continues to work there as creative director.

What does that mean exactly? Well, Bellion now spends his time masterminding things like Red Star’s new lifestyle fashion range, which is intended to help sustain the club’s reputation as being interlinked with progressive politics, social activism and cultural change.

Kleberson - £7.74m

A young player who was simply in the right place at the right time. Kleberson made his first international appearance at any level in January 2002; six months later, Phil Scholari had declared him the driving force behind Brazil lifting the World Cup that year.

Naturally, Manchester United were amongst a number of clubs eager to land the midfielder and a year later that’s exactly what they did, announcing his Old Trafford arrival on the same day as Ronaldo’s. The two signings’ careers, however, went down completely polarised paths.

Albeit often plagued by injuries, Kleberson just didn’t take to English football and within two years was sold to Besiktas where he’d also struggle for staying power, before returning to Brazil in 2008. He switched to American “soccer” in 2013, representing Philadelphia Union, Indy Eleven and Fort Lauderdale Strikers but finally called it a day in January 2017.

Nowadays, Kleberson is still in America, working as a youth coach at Philadelphia Union, regularly insisting to the club’s young prospects that he did indeed once play alongside Ronaldo.

Eric Djemba-Djemba - £4.05m

So bad they named him twice. Initially hailed as a potential successor to Roy Keane, Manchester United snapped up Eric Djemba-Djemba from Nantes as a 22-year-old but he ultimately failed to live up to his billing and within two years was swiftly moved on to Aston Villa.

A stint at Villa Park, which also included a loan spell with Burnley, didn’t work out for the Cameroonian either and thus began a journeyman career which took the tough-tackling midfielder to Qatar, Denmark, Israel, Serbia, Scotland, Indonesia and Switzerland.

Djemba-Djemba is still going at 39, albeit operating in the fifth tier of Swiss football with amateur side Vallorbe-Ballaigues. Clearly his passion for the game hasn’t left him just yet, and while Djemba-Djemba may be remembered as a perennial flop, you’ve got to respect that.