"Correct" post-Fergie transfers that turned out to be poor

pacifictheme said:
Di Maria was never correct. We knew he didn't want to come here but psg didn't want him that season for some reason.
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Would agree with that , reservations form the start.

He was almost transferred to us against his will , he made it very clear that he wanted PSG and had no interest in joining us , Madrid forced his hand to come here and he sulked non stop from the day he arrived. He always saw it as a stop gap he had to endure before moving on to PSG.
 
Plant0x84 said:
Harry Maguire fulfills this criteria, I don’t consider him a flop.
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He did improve our defence upon arrival, but I expect a lot more from an expensive, PL proven CB in his prime years who's been blessed with few injuries. He gave us two decent years and two bad ones and now he'll warm the bench for another. That's a flop in my eyes. Even at half the price I wouldn't consider him a good signing to be honest.
 
KikiDaKats said:
Zlatan
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At age 35 (?) and on a free transfer, he did exactly what he came to do. He improved us big time for the short term. His injury cut his stay down to 1 year rather than 2 or 3, but all things considered it was a good transfer in my opinion.
 
Scandi Red said:
At age 35 (?) and on a free transfer, he did exactly what he came to do. He improved us big time for the short term. His injury cut his stay down to 1 year rather than 2 or 3, but all things considered it was a good transfer in my opinion.
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Agree, he nearly got to 20 goals.
 
Pretty much every CB prior to Varane and Martinez.

We've never really been able to replace the Rio-Vidic partnership, and every player we've signed to try and emulate them has either been shite or a crock.
 
Simbo said:
Don't forget Falcao
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We really got screwed with Falcao in that he was playing for us 7 or 8 months after an ACL injury, Walcott had the same injury at the same time and didn’t come back for another 6 months. He was never the threat he was pre injury but the player he was for Monaco could have been a good player for us. Classic Woodward though, celebrity signing over practicality.
 
Sanchez and Sancho totally felt right at the time. What a nightmare they turned out to be.
 
Whenever we finally address the position we’ve lacked in for ages with a long term signing, they’re usually shit. I was certain Schneiderlin was going to be a mainstay in our midfield. Then I was sure Lukaku would be our number 9 for 5 years. Next Maguire was the leader we needed. Then Sancho was the answer to our right wing prayers.

They’ve all been in areas we’ve needed a big player in, they’ve all flopped and then we’ve continued to need players in that position. And by the time we realise they’ve flopped, players in positions we didn’t need have declined - see Matic, De Gea, next it’ll be Casemiro, Bruno…

It’s like playing whack-a-mole, we never seem to have everyone firing at once.
 
There is so many bad transfers I just want to scream, it seems as though everything united have tried the past decade has backfired spectacularly whilst our rivals prevail at almost everything, even Chelsea who have been atrocious the past few years have managed to do alot better than us , ugh!
 
Jev said:
Wait, was I wrong or right? Can't figure out the context.
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Right. The poster said they didn't think people were against Maguire, I was showing proof there were many posters against it.
 
AdM - prospect of him, Rooney, Mata, all feeding RvP...
Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin - felt like the club was doing sensible business in the correct area.
Pogba - main problem with the LvG team was creativity, thought this was finally the needed #10 but Mkhi was bought a month earlier, it didn't make sense. And Pogba stayed as a DM/CM for almost his entire time here.
AWB - another long-term hole, correctly targeted, but with the wrong player.
Maguire also, to a lesser extent (because he was needed less, Smalling was at the club at that point)
Antony - there's been a gaping hole on the right for more than 10 years, finally a left-footer, natural winger, and he underperforms and now ...

Lukaku, Sanchez, and Sancho were the wrong profile, remember trying to convince myself that Sanchez and Sancho could maybe play RW...

e - Herrera, Shaw, Varane, Casemiro were the opposite - looked correct and it's worked out. Eriksen was a pleasant surprise.
 
RaddyRed said:
I was at the Newcastle away game shortly after Sanchez signed and watching him closely you could see what a superstar he was, touch, movement, skill etc.

I'm still stunned how bad he actually turned out in the end.

Agree on Sancho, we needed a RW, we got a RW. We then are told he needs a different RB to get the best out of him. We then got told he is actually a LW. We then realise he is rubbish.
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We let him get fat, like Rooney and like Shaw.
 
Scandi Red said:
At age 35 (?) and on a free transfer, he did exactly what he came to do. He improved us big time for the short term. His injury cut his stay down to 1 year rather than 2 or 3, but all things considered it was a good transfer in my opinion.
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I hear you. I just don’t agree with your take, which seem to be the only acceptable take.

It was a backward and poor move by the club.
 
KikiDaKats said:
I hear you. I just don’t agree with your take, which seem to be the only acceptable take.

It was a backward and poor move by the club.
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There's nearly no instance in which signing a reputable player on a free is a bad move. Zlatan scoring 17 in the league that season on a free was outstanding transfer business.
 
Todd said:
There's nearly no instance in which signing a reputable player on a free is a bad move. Zlatan scoring 17 in the league that season on a free was outstanding transfer business.
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Agree. It was more the recruitment around him (and even then, in the short-term, we did at least win a European trophy and domestic trophy, then finish 2nd the next season). Mourinho before late-stage Madrid started to damage him, with a forward-looking DOF overseeing transfers, might have worked better than the actual Mou tenure, and a 'forward looking' strategy could still have accommodate a Zlatan for 1-2 seasons, just as SAF brought in the likes of HL when needed as stop-gap or Sheringham as a squad option etc.
 
I think that begs the question, without making some Man Utd exceptionalism, if we need a totally different profile of recruits than what common wisdom would dictate (The other possibility is we just spoil good players somehow).
Which I guess is the "don't buy Dortmund players" lesson but made more general. Whatever it is, we must the absolute antithesis of BVB.
 
Scandi Red said:
He did improve our defence upon arrival, but I expect a lot more from an expensive, PL proven CB in his prime years who's been blessed with few injuries. He gave us two decent years and two bad ones and now he'll warm the bench for another. That's a flop in my eyes. Even at half the price I wouldn't consider him a good signing to be honest.
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His PL experience was battling relegation at Hull and Leicester. It’s a different ball game to playing for trophies. He’s been incredibly reliable and very consistent- his problem is his proneness to individual errors, which is largely driven by confidence. That is understandably low now because of the crap he has to put up with from so called fans. It’s a pressure he doesn’t need.
There is no doubt we overpaid for him, but that’s not his fault or within his control. He also isn’t as good as Varane or as suited to eths system as Licha, but he’s still our 3rd best CB.
The fact people are opining Bailly or Evans are better players is laughable. He is only on this list because it’s fashionable to hate on him.
 
Matic. It became apparent his legs had gone only a few months after signing him. Had his uses in some games but was not the medium-term solution to our DM problem that we had expected.
 
Todd said:
There's nearly no instance in which signing a reputable player on a free is a bad move. Zlatan scoring 17 in the league that season on a free was outstanding transfer business.
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I strongly disagree.
 
Scandi Red said:
This would be mine:

Good
Bruno, Shaw, Herrera, Martinez

Ok
Varane*, Casemiro**, Blind, AWB, Lindelöf, Eriksen

Could make an argument for
Mata, Matic, Cavani, Dalot


* will be bumped to good if he can sort out his injuries
** will be bumped to good if he can regain his form from last season, minus the red cards
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Herrera - good? If you look at his time here he spent 50% of the games he was in the squad for as an unused sub. And he didn’t start all of the other 50% obviously.
 
Has to be Sancho for me. He looked like a genuine world class talent at Dortmund.

I have no idea how you go from the player it looked like we signed. To the player we actually signed. I really like him as a player but he’s done nothing.
 
Raw said:
Honestly thought Schneiderlin was great business and I was ecstatic that we finally had a long term defensive midfielder.
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This. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone on here who didn't want him or wasn't delighted even he arrived.
 
pascell said:
I thought Memphis would become something brilliant at United, same with Martial. Both young, solid potential but both lacked the right attitude.
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I had high hopes for Memphis also. Absolutely gutted he didn’t work.
 
Scandi Red said:
We have signed many duds over the last 10 years, but every once in a while we would make a signing that was considered both good and safe by the majority. These players were supposed to would jump straight into the starting eleven and almost immediately make a positive impact. And they would keep making a positive impact for years to come. These are the so-called "correct" transfers.

But as we all know (probably better than anyone now to be honest) even safe bets don't always turn out the way you think. In our case I would even say that these "correct" transfers very rarely work out. Let's start by naming them. Spoiler alert: what the hell, Mourinho? :lol:

Di Maria
We signed a 24 year old Real Madrid superstar! I almost had to pinch myself to believe it was happening. But we all know how this turned out...

Pogba
Maybe controversial as he wasn't as bad as the rest of the players on this list. But considering the price, attitude, inconsistency and injuries near the end, I don't think that this transfer should be considered a success.

Mkhitaryan
Had an amazing season at Dortmund, played in a position we needed to strengthen and wasn't even that expensive. Turned out to be awful for us.

Sanchez
Was this a conspiracy? Perhaps revenge for RVP? We're talking about an explosive, PL proven, Arsenal star who City also reportedly wanted to sign, who then turned to shit overnight. And his wages were through the roof!

Lukaku
Was probably considered the best striker on the market that we realistically could hope to sign that summer. He wasn't awful per se, but he never justified his price tag.

Maguire
He was first on many fans' CB wish list that summer. Both Mourinho and Pep reportedly wanted to sign him too, but the price tag was of course a big talking point. He has been particularly poor since the middle of 2021 and most fans seem to have wanted him out since.

Sancho
Probably the biggest disappointment on the list all things considered, even though he's not as poor as Sanchez for instance. Sancho was the right profile and ticked pretty much every box. The optimism surrounding him was as high as with the Pogba signing, but the former can actually only dream of reaching that level for us.


Have I forgotten someone? Am I too harsh on some of these players or is it deserved?

PS:
I did not include Antony despite his crazy price tag because I don't think he fits the "correct transfer" description. He was considered an expensive risk by most people. It's kind of the same story with Martial.
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Excellent post. Agree with all of them. Shows that there is obviously something wrong within the club bar maybe Maguire who I always thought was overrated. The rest were all signings 90 per cent of football fans would rate and want at their clubs. I thought Pogba was going to achieve what KDB has done at City. He didn’t flop as had some good seasons. But someone with his attributes and talent should of achieved more in the game. A big issue was not giving him a decent DM after Matic legs had gone. We wasted so many years with thr McFred crap
 
Schneiderlin, Sancho, and Depay are the clear ones that top anyone else for me. Each was considered excellent at their position, the price wasn’t ridiculous, and we thought they would set us up in that position for years.

Many of the others I’ve seen listed either weren’t extreme “failures” or failed for different reasons. Pogba, Lukaku, and Martial had very good seasons for us within their longer careers. Falcao and Schwein were cheap older gambles. Di Maria hated it here and hated LvG but was brilliant before the fallout. No one thought Maguire was a good signing in the first place for that price.
 
No one could've imagined just how bad Maguire would turn out to be but many rightfully questioned the signing – with Ole supposedly trying to build a more proactive pressing side his deficiencies were there for everyone to see (same goes for Wan-Bissaka). I'm not even going to talk about the price – so no, he's a very poor example.

With Sanchez there were questions about his form and our actual need for him with our two best performing players already competing for that left wing position. I wouldn't call it a correct signing from the strategic point of view.

Di Maria, Sancho... absolutely. Probably Schneiderlin too, considering how desperate we were for a midfielder.
 
Telles.
Shaw had dropped off and it looked like we had a ready made replacement who was a set piece monster and a defender who could maraude down the left wing whipping in crosses. I don't think I'll ever trust a YouTube compilation again due to Telles.
 
Sancho being the latest one. Just doesnt have the mentality
 
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