Blind on Manchester United Move: A Chance Like This May Never Come Again

New Manchester United signing Daley Blind has explained his decision to leave his childhood team, Ajax, to move to Old Trafford, saying that "a chance like this may never come again".

United completed the transfer on deadline day after agreeing to pay £14m to Ajax for the Netherlands international.

"It's a little bit crazy! I was with Ajax from seven years old which feels like a whole lifetime. But I'm 24 now and I think it's a good move to make and a chance like this may never come again" Blind told Manchester United's official website.

"Ajax gave me everything that I needed to be a player in the youth academy and then the first team and I'm really happy that I was there for such a long time, and it was they who helped me get here [to Manchester United]."

"United are one of the biggest clubs in the world. If you look at their history they have won a lot of cups and they have had players here for their whole career, like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Those are players everyone knows about and I am a big fan of them. It's now a dream come true to play for Manchester United and I'm very happy that I have this chance.

"Everything was going so fast so I didn't really have time to think about it all, but as I said I'm really happy to be here."

Blind will be reunited with both Louis van Gaal and Robin Van Persie after their successful experience together during the summer World Cup in Brazil.

"He [van Gaal] has put a lot of trust in me and I feel really good about that. I know him very well from the Netherlands squad and it was very nice to work with him. I look forward to doing that here.

"He expects everything at 100% every day in training and in matches and everybody wants to produce that for him and also for yourself. That's one of the biggest strengths of the manager," Blind said.

While speaking about Van Persie, Blind added: "Robin is a great person and he really helped me at the World Cup. I'm looking forward to working with him again."