When Wilfried Zaha talks about being more determined than ever to succeed, he leaves you in no doubt that he means it. You can see it, hear it, feel it.
Zaha is fascinating as he discusses an array of topics — his current club, his future, his Champions League dreams and the upbringing that now inspires his award- winning charity work. But especially relevant before a crossroads summer for the 26-year-old Crystal Palace winger, and a topic which brings out the most emotion in him, is his time at Manchester United.
Zaha cannot hide his hopes of returning to the highest level and is ambitious to challenge for the big trophies. Driving him on are memories of what happened when he earned the 'opportunity of a lifetime' — a dream move to Manchester United — which did not unfold as planned.
Wilfried Zaha has opened up on his dream move to Manchester United that didn't go to plan
When talking about his spell at Old Trafford, it brings out the most emotion in the winger
Zaha recalls a catalogue of incidents, what he calls 'the ins and outs of what really happened', which support his belief that then manager David Moyes and his staff tried to 'break me in every way possible' and 'destroy my career for no reason'.
That Sir Alex Ferguson made Zaha his final signing, only to retire before he joined full-time, is common knowledge. That his successor Moyes had already deemed Zaha 'not my type of player' while he was Everton boss is lesser-known.
Looking back now as he speaks to Sportsmail, that alone is an indication that he barely stood a chance from the off. 'It was the opportunity of a lifetime,' Zaha says. 'The chance to play for Manchester United. It was beyond anything I could have hoped for and I treated it that way. I tried my hardest in every training session to show what I could do.'
But he recalls feeling marginalised when Moyes took issue with the way he dressed and even the car he drove. Zaha felt further let down by the club's failure to shut down false rumours he was sleeping with Moyes' daughter and that his absence was due to an attitude problem. He remembers being 'belittled' in training by one United coach after scoring. On another occasion he was shown a video of himself in tricky winger mode for Palace and was asked how he could recapture that form, having already been told by Moyes to cut out the fancy footwork. 'You see the mind games they were playing?' a bewildered Zaha asks.
Despite all this, Zaha continued to give Moyes the benefit of the doubt, accepting he would opt for experienced players as he tried to find his feet as Ferguson's successor.
Sportsmail's ADRIAN KAJUMBA discussed all things football with the Crystal Palace star
The tricky winger talked about being more determined than ever to succeed in his career
Zaha claimed his transfer to Premier League giants United was an 'opportunity of a lifetime'
'But when he took me out of the Champions League squad and put in Adnan Januzaj, who had never played for the first team, I knew then that this is way bigger than I ever thought and had gone way beyond footballing reasons,' he says. 'When it was not about football or ability, what could I do?'
This was not what Zaha had envisaged after meeting Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton and discovering that United wanted him.
Zaha was United's standout player in 2013-14 pre-season under Moyes but was inexplicably frozen out until late October after starting in the Community Shield.
By the time Zaha escaped to join Cardiff on loan in January 2014 he was a shadow of his former self.
'They got a ghost of Wilfried Zaha at Cardiff,' he said, despite impressing the Welsh club's manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with his application as he tried to get back on track.
Zaha described what should have been a fresh start at United the following season under Louis van Gaal as 'like being on trial at my own club.' He remembers the Dutchman and his assistant Ryan Giggs saying they would decide his future based on the outcome of one training session. 'Wayne Rooney said to me "you've trained the best",' Zaha recalls.
'Then I go inside, have the meeting with them and they just said: "We just don't think you're good enough". So I said "OK then, I just want to go on loan".'
Zaha felt marginalised under David Moyes at United after Sir Alex Ferguson's departure
Moyes speaks to the winger during pre-season training back in July 2013 in Bangkok
Zaha returned on loan to Palace and signed permanently in February 2015, having made only four appearances for United and played just 28 minutes in the Premier League as a substitute.
Zaha stresses he is now 'over' how things turned out. But with many using it to question whether he is cut out for life at the top, it is
