Guaranteed successful signings

eire-red

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Feels like every big club manages to pull one of these off for every "team cycle". Think Mbappe to Real, Haaland to City, Kane to Bayern, Rice to Arsenal to name just a few very recent examples.

There are loads more examples to go along with these down the years. So my question is, when is the last time we signed someone and you thought: "Yeah, guaranteed to be a success here."

Last one I can think of is RvP, or maybe Juan Mata. But I honestly can't think of any others. Any I'm not thinking about?
 
I thought Onana would change the way we played and was right, we played a lot worse.
 
eire-red said:
Feels like every big club manages to pull one of these off for every "team cycle". Think Mbappe to Real, Haaland to City, Kane to Bayern, Rice to Arsenal to name just a few very recent examples.

There are loads more examples to go along with these down the years. So my question is, when is the last time we signed someone and you thought: "Yeah, guaranteed to be a success here."

Last one I can think of is RvP, or maybe Juan Mata. But I honestly can't think of any others. Any I'm not thinking about?
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I thought Sancho, Ronaldo and Varane were all going to be incredible signings. How wrong I was. I thought Ronaldo for the ego and drive to make our team better, Sancho for the raw talent, and Varane to FINALLY sort out our defence. As it turned out, Ronaldo destroyed our morale, Sancho wasn't very good, and Varane was injured all the time.
 
kopviolator said:
To be honest I thought Pogba back was pretty guaranteed success. I feel stupid now.
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Wow, I completely forgot about him, which just goes to show how much of a disappointment he was.

But same here, I thought he was guaranteed too.
 
These players who give that guaranteed sense that they would succeed anywhere tend to excel in all of these 3 areas: skill, physical attributes, and an elite mindset.

Casemiro matched that ... Unfortunately that was only the case for one season.

I was listening to an interesting argument that a for a player used to challenging for CLs & La Liga titles, it may naturally be a struggle to get themselves going mentally for Europa league qualification.
Personally I don't know about that, but goodness, his decline was something else.

Other players we've had have tended to have 1 or 2.

Pre-EtH it's been mostly skill we've seemed to go for.
EtH has appeared to go for mindset but they've been found wanting in one or two of the other areas.
 
Kane isn't really a guaranteed success. A signing is successful if it achieves the goal for the team, sometimes irrespective of individual performance. So far they spent 100m on a 30 year old and then had their first trophyless season in ages..

Also you're basically just saying teams signing established stars is the way to go when it really isn't. That only makes sense to splash the cash when you have a good, settled team and are on the verge, just missing the final piece (or like Madrid, you are already top and strengthening). Looking for that final piece to be the start of of your build is a bad idea.
 
RVP was our last signing who fit that mould.

Of the post-Fergie crop, I'd say Zlatan came closest - his first season was breathtakingly good and we obviously won the Carabao and Europa. Judging from his re-emergence at LA.Galaxy and Milan, if we'd have given him longer to recover from the knee injury, he could have been a massive part of perhaps winning a title under Jose.
 
bosnian_red said:
Kane isn't really a guaranteed success. A signing is successful if it achieves the goal for the team, sometimes irrespective of individual performance. So far they spent 100m on a 30 year old and then had their first trophyless season in ages..

Also you're basically just saying teams signing established stars is the way to go when it really isn't. That only makes sense to splash the cash when you have a good, settled team and are on the verge, just missing the final piece (or like Madrid, you are already top and strengthening). Looking for that final piece to be the start of of your build is a bad idea.
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That's not what I said at all, read the first sentence again.
 
Di Maria, Sancho & Pogba felt like ones in the post-Fergie era. Great success!

I had some reservations about Varane’s fitness and Casemiro/Schweinsteiger/Cavani/Zlatan’s age, so they don’t go into certainties for me.
 
The genuine answer would be RVP, otherwise Shaw or maybe Sancho.
 
eire-red said:
That's not what I said at all, read the first sentence again.
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You're just selectively picking guys out in hindsight though. So many of these signings flop. Di Maria was one for us, Sanchez another, Sancho, Varane, Ronaldo, Casemiro, Ibra, Pogba, schweinsteiger more.. Mata you said, but he was a #10 we signed to play out of position and did ok at best, far from a guaranteed success before and the outcome... Madrid signed Hazard, Barca signed griezmann & Coutinho, and so on.

It's just a big club thing that once in a while they'll make some big name signing, quite often they flop or don't have the desired effect. For us, it's the exact signings we need to stop chasing.
 
eire-red said:
Feels like every big club manages to pull one of these off for every "team cycle". Think Mbappe to Real, Haaland to City, Kane to Bayern, Rice to Arsenal to name just a few very recent examples.

There are loads more examples to go along with these down the years. So my question is, when is the last time we signed someone and you thought: "Yeah, guaranteed to be a success here."

Last one I can think of is RvP, or maybe Juan Mata. But I honestly can't think of any others. Any I'm not thinking about?
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I really liked Mata. But he was just another player we ruined. Was player of the season for Chelsea in CAM. So what do we do, buy him and play him RW for most of his time here. RVP was probably our last one… came and won us the title.
 
Pogba, Sanchez and Sancho - I thought were absolute slam dunks by the club.
 
bosnian_red said:
You're just selectively picking guys out in hindsight though. So many of these signings flop. Di Maria was one for us, Sanchez another, Sancho, Varane, Ronaldo, Casemiro, Ibra, Pogba, schweinsteiger more.. Mata you said, but he was a #10 we signed to play out of position and did ok at best, far from a guaranteed success before and the outcome... Madrid signed Hazard, Barca signed griezmann & Coutinho, and so on.

It's just a big club thing that once in a while they'll make some big name signing, quite often they flop or don't have the desired effect. For us, it's the exact signings we need to stop chasing.
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This thread is the opposite of hindsight. It's about signings that, at the time, appeared as if they would be guaranteed successes.
 
bosnian_red said:
You're just selectively picking guys out in hindsight though. So many of these signings flop. Di Maria was one for us, Sanchez another, Sancho, Varane, Ronaldo, Casemiro, Ibra, Pogba, schweinsteiger more.. Mata you said, but he was a #10 we signed to play out of position and did ok at best, far from a guaranteed success before and the outcome... Madrid signed Hazard, Barca signed griezmann & Coutinho, and so on.

It's just a big club thing that once in a while they'll make some big name signing, quite often they flop or don't have the desired effect. For us, it's the exact signings we need to stop chasing.
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Mbappe hasn't played a game for Madrid yet, so clearly not just "picked in hindsight". Everyone just feels he's going to achieve great things there and it looks a perfect fit. Everyone knew Haaland would bag goals for fun, and he does.

Suarez to Barca, Lewandowski to Bayern, even going further back I remember Liverpool getting Torres and being really disappointed. Same with Aguero to City. VvD..

All these signings worked out, but crucially the point I'm making is I don't really remember many questioning whether these were the "right" moves or not.

I think you're missing the point of the question. When was the last time you, as a fan, seen us sign a player and felt it was going to be a definitive success?

The question is not about who achieved what, how it turned out etc. Many clubs consistently manage to make these profile of signings, whereas with us there seems to always be a cloud of doubt around our big money signings, be it age profile, mentality, value for money etc..

For me, I named RVP and Mata. I forgot about Pogba, and think he was a good shout too. I'd also add Di Maria to that list, maybe Zlatan. That's 5 players in like 12 years, seems a bit nuts.
 
eire-red said:
Mbappe hasn't played a game for Madrid yet, so clearly not just "picked in hindsight". Everyone just feels he's going to achieve great things there and it looks a perfect fit. Everyone knew Haaland would bag goals for fun, and he does.

Suarez to Barca, Lweandowski to Bayern, even going further back I remember Liverpool getting Torres and being really disappointed. Same with Aguero. VvD.

All these signings worked out, but crucially the point I'm making is I don't really remember anyone questioning whether these were the "right" moves or not.

I think you're missing the point of the question. When was the last time you, as a fan, seen us sign a player and felt it was going to be a definitive success?

The question is not about who achieved what, how it turned out etc. Many clubs consistently manage to make these profile of signings, whereas with us there seems to always be a cloud of doubt around our big money signings, be it age profile, mentality, value for money etc..

For me, I named RVP and Mata. I forgot about Pogba, and think he was a good shout too. I'd also add Di Maria to that list, maybe Zlatan. That's 5 players in like 12 years, seems a bit nuts.
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RVP, Sanchez, Di Maria, Pogba, Ibra, Varane, Ronaldo, Sancho, Casemiro to name a chunk... We make loads of them. Most of them flopped relative to what we hoped for. I wouldn't put Mata in that list as he wasn't a logical signing at the time due to the whole positioning thing.
 
GazTheLegend said:
I thought Sancho, Ronaldo and Varane were all going to be incredible signings. How wrong I was. I thought Ronaldo for the ego and drive to make our team better, Sancho for the raw talent, and Varane to FINALLY sort out our defence. As it turned out, Ronaldo destroyed our morale, Sancho wasn't very good, and Varane was injured all the time.
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I had similar thoughts after summer. I remember thinking we had finally brought some star quality and winning mentality into the club in key positions.

I also think it's why we shifted from our counter-attacking style to a front-footed team. Think Ole felt the pressure to try and be a dominant team due to the stature of the signings, and ultimately led to us getting pasted 5-0 at OT by Liverpool, and ultimately led to Ole's demise.

Funny how these things pan out.
 
harms said:
Di Maria, Sancho & Pogba felt like ones in the post-Fergie era. Great success!

I had some reservations about Varane’s fitness and Casemiro/Schweinsteiger/Cavani/Zlatan’s age, so they don’t go into certainties for me.
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I'd go with these three too. The talent is clearly there but just goes to show without the correct mentality and application no signing will work out.
 
I think Zlatan is an obvious one. He was always going to be good here. Di Maria is another, problem being he didn't actually want to be here so it went to shit.

I wouldn't include Pogba with those two, I remember even at the time the people actually watching him before the transfer said he's not what people think he is as a player. Far too many expected some all action, box to box Bryan Robson on steroids when many Juve watchers at the time noted he's far more artistry than industry and would need a good midfield setup around him (we basically never did the second part).
 
No such thing as a guaranteed great signing. Rice obviously doesn't have to move and knows the league and some players on the squad so the factor that facilitate a success are there in a higher order.

Kane to Bayern is different. New country, new league, doesn't know anyone, the family is moving. If the family moves with you it's really important to the success that they integrate. Kane and his family really embraced the move.

On the other end of the spectrum you have Di Maria to United. His family hated it in England. They suffer a home invasion. The player really doesn't like how the manager instructs him to play.
 
I was absolutely buzzing when we signed falcao, was one of my favorite strikers. Shame it didn't work out
 
eire-red said:
I had similar thoughts after summer. I remember thinking we had finally brought some star quality and winning mentality into the club in key positions.

I also think it's why we shifted from our counter-attacking style to a front-footed team. Think Ole felt the pressure to try and be a dominant team due to the stature of the signings, and ultimately led to us getting pasted 5-0 at OT by Liverpool, and ultimately led to Ole's demise.

Funny how these things pan out.
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Funnily enough it might sound daft but I always thought that game was on de Gea and this Solskjaers sacking. Felt he let in way too many soft goals against Pool particularly
 
I had doubts on many players when we're linking to them, but once they're signed, I always feel optimistic they'd be a raging success. Even down to Bebe.
 
Highly doubt it, But Mbappe could potentially be the right player at the wrong time.

They’ve just won the League and CL Double and others to see where he fits.

He’ll obviously score shitloads and they’ll probably just convert Vini to a 9 and the pair of them will run riot.

But he’s not guaranteed to actually improve their outcomes.
 
Thought Miguel Veloso would have killed it here, to the point I thought it was a when, not if we signed him.
 
eire-red said:
Feels like every big club manages to pull one of these off for every "team cycle". Think Mbappe to Real, Haaland to City, Kane to Bayern, Rice to Arsenal to name just a few very recent examples.

There are loads more examples to go along with these down the years. So my question is, when is the last time we signed someone and you thought: "Yeah, guaranteed to be a success here."

Last one I can think of is RvP, or maybe Juan Mata. But I honestly can't think of any others. Any I'm not thinking about?
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Mata was a record signing and hardly made us better.. Bruno would be a far better example for us
 
Isotope said:
I had doubts on many players when we're linking to them, but once they're signed, I always feel optimistic they'd be a raging success. Even down to Bebe.
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Even Mount? I can't think of a more uninspired signing for 60 mill
 
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