Van Der Sar and Schmeichel bumping into each other on the street (video)

All of these transfers were great and along with VDS transfer, I believe that Vidic's transfer was the biggest bargain. He came from a Russian league and was largely unknown. He came for a very small fee and somehow didn't caught the attention of other big clubs despite being 24 at that time.
Schmeichel came from the Danish league for 750K and, no disrespect to Vidic, were in a different league in terms of importance to the team. Hard to argue against him as the bargain par excellence. SAF himself called it “bargain of the century”.
 
Schmeichel came from the Danish league for 750K and, no disrespect to Vidic, were in a different league in terms of importance to the team. Hard to argue against him as the bargain par excellence. SAF himself called it “bargain of the century”.
Different times though. 750k wasn't the nothing fee it would've been at the time we signed Vidic
 
VdS admitted that it was his biggest regret and he should have gone to United in 99
I wonder why he didn’t. We’d just won the treble, and the number 1 position was available. You’d think we could’ve had our pick of keepers really, but got stuck with Bosnich.
 
The first full match I watched with Edwin was Fulham vs Arsenal, where he was just an absolute wall. I remember wondering why we hadn’t signed him. A few months later, he was our keeper. I’ve never been happier with a transfer.
 
Different times though. 750k wasn't the nothing fee it would've been at the time we signed Vidic

Schmeichel was already considered to be one of the very best in the world at the time. When the likes of Seaman, James, Peruzzi, Martyn and even Taibi went for well more than that, you could say 750k was a decent bargain.
 
What id give for someone like Edwin these days. I genuinely think he was better than Schmeichel. It's close like but I always loved him as a goalkeeper prior to us signing him. So the day we actually did was amazing. It should have been him straight after Schmeichel left though.
 
What id give for someone like Edwin these days. I genuinely think he was better than Schmeichel. It's close like but I always loved him as a goalkeeper prior to us signing him. So the day we actually did was amazing. It should have been him straight after Schmeichel left though.
I always wonder if this isn’t a generational thing. You could argue that it’s Schmeichel’s higher ceiling vs VdS’s general level, but it seems that people who watched one of them as young adults are more inclined towards him.

Personally, I think Schmeichel had a bigger impact and was more instrumental in big games.
 
What id give for someone like Edwin these days. I genuinely think he was better than Schmeichel. It's close like but I always loved him as a goalkeeper prior to us signing him. So the day we actually did was amazing. It should have been him straight after Schmeichel left though.
People forget that Edwin was 35 when he signed for us. If he signed for us in 99 he would have been like 28 or 29. It's insane how good he was in his late 30s and he was almost 41 when he retired at UTD. Simply amazing!
 
I always wonder if this isn’t a generational thing. You could argue that it’s Schmeichel’s higher ceiling vs VdS’s general level, but it seems that people who watched one of them as young adults are more inclined towards him.

Personally, I think Schmeichel had a bigger impact and was more instrumental in big games.
I watched both. Im of the opinion they had a similar impact, just in different ways. Schmeichel was more animated and vocal, but with Edwin, you just felt secure. His command of the area and positioning just looked effortless. Both were great shot stoppers though. I think the fact their trophy haul is quite similar while at Utd while Edwin was here a couple of years less is telling. If we'd have gone for him straight after Schmeichel left in 99 he'd be considered the greatest goalkeer in English league history. Its all personal opinion though obviously. Schmeichel had more "moments" due to his style and athleticism and so is the more memorable of the two.
 
I watched both. Im of the opinion they had a similar impact, just in different ways. Schmeichel was more animated and vocal, but with Edwin, you just felt secure. His command of the area and positioning just looked effortless. Both were great shot stoppers though. I think the fact their trophy haul is quite similar while at Utd while Edwin was here a couple of years less is telling. If we'd have gone for him straight after Schmeichel left in 99 he'd be considered the greatest goalkeer in English league history. Its all personal opinion though obviously. Schmeichel had more "moments" due to his style and athleticism and so is the more memorable of the two.
I'd argue Schmeichel had higher highs and lower lows. VdS was just so so consistent for us, you could just rely on him. That must have been invaluable for the defense, culminating in that clean sheet record streak
 
I'd argue Schmeichel had higher highs and lower lows. VdS was just so so consistent for us, you could just rely on him. That must have been invaluable for the defense, culminating in that clean sheet record streak
Yeah, you could put that down to the obvious experience difference. We signed Schmeichel from Brondby, Edwin had been at Ajax, Juve, had Premier league experience at Fulham, a full international and was 7 years older than when Schmeichel signed. That plus Peter was just all blood and guts in every game haha. He must have been terrifying for attackers to play against. Both are 100% in the top 5 keepers in league history, possibly top 3. Not many teams can claim to that.
 
I watched both. Im of the opinion they had a similar impact, just in different ways. Schmeichel was more animated and vocal, but with Edwin, you just felt secure. His command of the area and positioning just looked effortless. Both were great shot stoppers though. I think the fact their trophy haul is quite similar while at Utd while Edwin was here a couple of years less is telling. If we'd have gone for him straight after Schmeichel left in 99 he'd be considered the greatest goalkeer in English league history. Its all personal opinion though obviously. Schmeichel had more "moments" due to his style and athleticism and so is the more memorable of the two.
By some for sure. I still don’t think we’d have won the treble without Schmeichel though. He had unreal performances and stepped up on big occasions like when he almost single-handedly won Denmark the 92-Euros
 
By some for sure. I still don’t think we’d have won the treble without Schmeichel though. He had unreal performances and stepped up on big occasions like when he almost single-handedly won Denmark the 92-Euros
I'm not sure we would have won that treble without a few players though to be honest. Schmeichel was a key player, but that team grinded as a whole. I think Edwin would have fitted in with that 99 squad though. Not saying we'd still have won like but his clean sheet record was something to behold. 135 clean sheets in 266 games for us. That's more than Schmeichel’s record in his premier league career with 3 clubs in about 50 less games. As was mentioned a few posts back too. I'm not sure anyone but maybe Cech could have gone 14 games without conceding.
 
All of these transfers were great and along with VDS transfer, I believe that Vidic's transfer was the biggest bargain. He came from a Russian league and was largely unknown. He came for a very small fee and somehow didn't caught the attention of other big clubs despite being 24 at that time.
Yes definitely a massive bargain at £7 million as central defenders were going for £30-£40 million back then like Rio, Nesta, Ramos, Thuram, Cannavaro, Pepe and Carvalho all around a few years period yet Vidic was better than all of them and it’s arguable that he or Rio are the best centre back in PL history with Vidic probably edging it due to being one of only a few people to win footballer of the year twice and the only defender.
 
Wasn't Schmeichel only £750k? That's from memory I've not googled it honest but it was around that.
 
I'm not sure we would have won that treble without a few players though to be honest. Schmeichel was a key player, but that team grinded as a whole. I think Edwin would have fitted in with that 99 squad though. Not saying we'd still have won like but his clean sheet record was something to behold. 135 clean sheets in 266 games for us. That's more than Schmeichel’s record in his premier league career with 3 clubs in about 50 less games. As was mentioned a few posts back too. I'm not sure anyone but maybe Cech could have gone 14 games without conceding.
Clean sheets in itself is not a great way to measure goalkeepers. Goals conceded are better, though still not great, but let’s look at that instead. Here Edwin edges it with 0.77 to Schmeichels 0.83 per game. But they played with different teammates in different eras and Schmeichel was not only regarded as the best in the world, he brought something new to the art of goalkeeping - redefined it. As Sir Alex put it: “He’s the greatest goalkeeper we’ve ever had”. I agree.
 
Yes definitely a massive bargain at £7 million as central defenders were going for £30-£40 million back then like Rio, Nesta, Ramos, Thuram, Cannavaro, Pepe and Carvalho all around a few years period yet Vidic was better than all of them and it’s arguable that he or Rio are the best centre back in PL history with Vidic probably edging it due to being one of only a few people to win footballer of the year twice and the only defender.
VIdic may be the most disrespected center back of the modern era. I see people putting people like Kompany, Van Dijk and Pique as one of the GOAT CBs but they usually omit Vidic. Vidic is easily the cb of the EPL era and people tend to forget that.

The media is constantly glazing Van Dijk but they forget about Vidic and how good he was.
 
VIdic may be the most disrespected center back of the modern era. I see people putting people like Kompany, Van Dijk and Pique as one of the GOAT CBs but they usually omit Vidic. Vidic is easily the cb of the EPL era and people tend to forget that.

The media is constantly glazing Van Dijk but they forget about Vidic and how good he was.
I agree. Still not anywhere near the value for money bargain Schmeichel was at 750K though.
 
I wonder why he didn’t. We’d just won the treble, and the number 1 position was available. You’d think we could’ve had our pick of keepers really, but got stuck with Bosnich.
Assume Juve were paying him a lot more, I never understood how he ended up at Fulham though, seemed odd at the time
 
Assume Juve were paying him a lot more, I never understood how he ended up at Fulham though, seemed odd at the time
I think Fulham were paying well too. Wasn’t that when Al Fayed was there and they’d just come up out of the championship? They had Saha, Boa Morte, Van Der Sar, not a bad side really. Being west London probably helped too.

As you say it’s still mad. I was a kid and even I remember it being weird that this mid table side had one of the best keepers in the league.
 
Wasn't VdS somewhat poor for Juve?
He wasn't great there, so they signed Buffon and let him go to Fulham. We had Barthez at the time so GK probably not top of our list but imagine if we'd got him in 99 instead of having Bosnich/Taibi/Barthez/Howard/Carroll for those 6 years
 
Clean sheets in itself is not a great way to measure goalkeepers. Goals conceded are better, though still not great, but let’s look at that instead. Here Edwin edges it with 0.77 to Schmeichels 0.83 per game. But they played with different teammates in different eras and Schmeichel was not only regarded as the best in the world, he brought something new to the art of goalkeeping - redefined it. As Sir Alex put it: “He’s the greatest goalkeeper we’ve ever had”. I agree.
So he had more clean sheets and conceeded less and won pretty close to the same in less time. Think Edwin takes it IMO
 
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I wonder why he didn’t. We’d just won the treble, and the number 1 position was available. You’d think we could’ve had our pick of keepers really, but got stuck with Bosnich.
Serie A before Abramovich came into the PL/Calciopoli was in a different stratosphere regarding player pull compared to the PL.

I see no shame in missing out on him at the time to Juve, the baffling thing was going through the string of keepers after Bosnich when VdS already didn’t work out there.
 
I wonder why he didn’t. We’d just won the treble, and the number 1 position was available. You’d think we could’ve had our pick of keepers really, but got stuck with Bosnich.

He only joined Juve in 1999. He was their no.1 until they signed Buffon in 2001. He wasn't to know that Juve would buy Buffon for 30m a couple of years later and he'd be one of the best goalkeepers ever.
 
He only joined Juve in 1999. He was their no.1 until they signed Buffon in 2001. He wasn't to know that Juve would buy Buffon for 30m a couple of years later and he'd be one of the best goalkeepers ever.
Yeah I meant even as their number 1. You’d think we’d have the bigger pull after the season we’d had, but then again maybe I’m doing Juve a disservice. Weren’t they generally seen as the best team around in the mid-late 90s?
 
Made me smile seeing them both together. What a great pair of keepers!
We really need a goalkeeper.
 
I always wonder if this isn’t a generational thing. You could argue that it’s Schmeichel’s higher ceiling vs VdS’s general level, but it seems that people who watched one of them as young adults are more inclined towards him.

Personally, I think Schmeichel had a bigger impact and was more instrumental in big games.

A lot of people lived through Schmeichal and VDS - whilst the years of Bosnich, Howard, Barthez seemed long it was only 6 years between the two.

All these things can be true. (Except the talk about ceilings, as that’s a particular bug bear of mine - and irrelevant for retired players in case).

Schmeichal was more spectacular, and I cannot remember VDS having the type of game Schmeichal had against Newcastle. He was the keeper we needed at the time. The quality of player was also more variable in the early 90s, the quality of all players got better and better as time went on.

However, ultimately I think VDS was a better keeper. His calm, and composure was incomparable.

We should also remember the role of the keeper changed in the 90s with the introduction of the back pass rule in 92. The Great Dane was not very good with his feet, and VDS was far better with the back pass - which is unsurprising given he had more time to grow up with this aspect of the game.

As mentioned above, yes
£505k. But a bargain nonetheless.


He only joined Juve in 1999. He was their no.1 until they signed Buffon in 2001. He wasn't to know that Juve would buy Buffon for 30m a couple of years later and he'd be one of the best goalkeepers ever.
He didn’t do well at Juventus, and whilst not a complete failure never got near fulfilling expectations - there was a reason that he ended up at Fulham for a small fee when he should have been at a top club. If he hadn’t made some high profile mistakes, maybe Juventus wouldn’t have bought Buffon?

His revival at United was unexpected. The fact he’s even in the conversation as United’s best keeper (and personally for me he was) was a stunning turnaround.
 
Yeah I meant even as their number 1. You’d think we’d have the bigger pull after the season we’d had, but then again maybe I’m doing Juve a disservice. Weren’t they generally seen as the best team around in the mid-late 90s?

Juve from mid 90s to early 2000s were one of the top teams in Europe. They were in about 5 CL finals, always in and around the semi finals etc. Absolutely a top class team full of great players. Around that time Serie A was probably seen as the biggest / best league as well.

So you can see why he went there.

A lot of people lived through Schmeichal and VDS - whilst the years of Bosnich, Howard, Barthez seemed long it was only 6 years between the two.

All these things can be true. (Except the talk about ceilings, as that’s a particular bug bear of mine - and irrelevant for retired players in case).

Schmeichal was more spectacular, and I cannot remember VDS having the type of game Schmeichal had against Newcastle. He was the keeper we needed at the time. The quality of player was also more variable in the early 90s, the quality of all players got better and better as time went on.

However, ultimately I think VDS was a better keeper. His calm, and composure was incomparable.

We should also remember the role of the keeper changed in the 90s with the introduction of the back pass rule in 92. The Great Dane was not very good with his feet, and VDS was far better with the back pass - which is unsurprising given he had more time to grow up with this aspect of the game.


£505k. But a bargain nonetheless.



He didn’t do well at Juventus, and whilst not a complete failure never got near fulfilling expectations - there was a reason that he ended up at Fulham for a small fee when he should have been at a top club. If he hadn’t made some high profile mistakes, maybe Juventus wouldn’t have bought Buffon?

His revival at United was unexpected. The fact he’s even in the conversation as United’s best keeper (and personally for me he was) was a stunning turnaround.

Yeah, he kind of dropped off a bit there, it was his first move to a new league, new team and he was replacing a long standing player in Peruzzi. There was a lot of pressure on him to go there and step to be one of the best in the world. Regardless of how he played though, I think Juve would have been buying Buffon anyway.

But I think he learned a lot from that experience of how to deal with the pressure of a big club. He was superb at Fulham and I think that helped his revival when he ended up back in a high pressure environment at Utd, he just played his way and didn't let the pressure get to him.
 
Assume Juve were paying him a lot more, I never understood how he ended up at Fulham though, seemed odd at the time
He made a crucial mistake in a title race for Juve and they pretty much blamed him for it. Juve still had the best defensive record in both of his seasons and I think that they pretty much scapegoated him.

At Fulham he regained confidence and was amazing. He was world class in Man Utd and Ajax as well. He's probably the most underrated gk of the modern era, and you thank the Italian media and the Italians for misjudging VDS and ruining his reputation.
 
The Great Dane was not very good with his feet, and VDS was far better with the back pass - which is unsurprising given he had more time to grow up with this aspect of the game.
Well, ok. If you don’t factor in the different times they played in, certainly. Schmeichel was an outfield player as a youngster and actually quite good with his feet for his time - and he had an incredible and unmatched long throw distribution.