Yup. Mid 30s, over the hill, Fulham player, Juve flop, etc. Proved a ton of people wrong thankfully!
Most Disappointing Signings
- Thread starter Loony BoB
- Start date
£2 million as well, what a bargain.
Well, by the letter of the law, Atkinson signed both, and he did so as soon as he knew early doors that Hughes would eventually sign for Barca. Gibson wasn't a decent player , he was awful. I only ever remember seeing him score against Arsenal when the game was won.
He was awful for us, but scored plenty for Coventry previously and went on to do at least ok for Wimbledon. He came into a completely dysfunctional United side whose manager had more or less given up.
Wanted Pagliuca personally, or Neil Sullivan
Ian Ure, Terry Gibson, Ralph Milne, Mal Donaghy, Andy Goram...although to be fair most fans gave EVERYONE the benefit of the doubt back then as there was minimal TV coverage, no internet and no Football Manager.
No-one really knew if they were good or bad until they played for us.
Now everyone is an expert.
No-one really knew if they were good or bad until they played for us.
Now everyone is an expert.
No...they are thinking if I get selected and have a bad game the dickheads on social media are going to send me abusive messages, start 30 page threads on internet forums about how shit I am and tell which 18 year-old from Monaco, Sporting or Bilbao they think is better based on how they play Football Manager.
When we bought Valencia from Wigan after selling Ronaldo to Real Madrid. That was a comedown.
Always thought we wasted that £80m.
Always thought we wasted that £80m.
In recent years, take your pick...
Fellaini, Lindelof, Matic, Fred, Schweinsteiger, Grant.....I could go on...
Fellaini, Lindelof, Matic, Fred, Schweinsteiger, Grant.....I could go on...
Sancho - terrible
Martinez - waste of money on a position not needed
AWB - awful
telles - awful
varane - french Phil Jones
maguire - awful player, terrible captain.
basically just 90% of players we’ve signed in recent years.
Martinez - waste of money on a position not needed
AWB - awful
telles - awful
varane - french Phil Jones
maguire - awful player, terrible captain.
basically just 90% of players we’ve signed in recent years.
Carrick springs to mind. There was a lot of negativity around United that summer. Ronaldo and Rooney incident at the WC, Carrick was our only signing, fans and pundits questioned if Fergie was past it, everybody was convinced Chelsea would walk the title and win three in a row. Little did the world know that we were about to witness another United dynasty.
Lindegaard, Djemba-Djemba, and Ighalo
Did you actually read the original post? Like, I mean the first sentence. That’s in bold font.
Maguire is the one with the most significant (negative) impact in my opinion. He is the worst that yet somehow is the captain and seems to be irreplacable. Other disappointing signings get benched and rotated.
Obviously this is in hindsight but it didn't sit right when we paid 80M for him at the time of signing either.
Obviously this is in hindsight but it didn't sit right when we paid 80M for him at the time of signing either.
Fellaini - perfect way to top off a tragic transfer window
Ighalo - felt similar to the potential signing of Arnautovic, minus the racist part. Just stinks of lack of ambition, strategy and planning
Cavani - yet another stop gap. Again, lack of planning and ambition
Ronaldo - old egomaniac dickhead who cares about individual stats above being a team player, signed for commercial reasons and to stop City getting him. Stupid from everyone involved
Ighalo - felt similar to the potential signing of Arnautovic, minus the racist part. Just stinks of lack of ambition, strategy and planning
Cavani - yet another stop gap. Again, lack of planning and ambition
Ronaldo - old egomaniac dickhead who cares about individual stats above being a team player, signed for commercial reasons and to stop City getting him. Stupid from everyone involved
I think the signing of Fellaini really set the tone for the car crash that has been (and still is!!) our recruitment in the post Fergie era.
David Bellion especially after Ronaldo left.
Fellaini is by far the winner here, its not even close. With many of the other names there was at least the question of potential and growth under SAF. Fellaini was a known quantity, the epitome of the anti-flair player and came as a panic buy at the end of our first big disappointing post-SAF window.
I’d go Maguire from recent times. His weaknesses were already known and yet we went and spent a record fee on him.
Fellaini wasn’t great but then he’d absolutely destroyed us in recent memory in that weird AM role and I thought he’d be a useful squad choice (which I guess he turned into although he started way too many games).
Cavani also up there. Just a reversion back to classic United recruitment. Old, injury prone player who actively wanted another club but with a greedy agent stopping that happening. Guess who turns up? Woody with his bag of cash. Ended up paying him £10m+ a season, just under £10m sign on and then lord knows about agent fees and add ons. He barely even featured last year.
Fellaini wasn’t great but then he’d absolutely destroyed us in recent memory in that weird AM role and I thought he’d be a useful squad choice (which I guess he turned into although he started way too many games).
Cavani also up there. Just a reversion back to classic United recruitment. Old, injury prone player who actively wanted another club but with a greedy agent stopping that happening. Guess who turns up? Woody with his bag of cash. Ended up paying him £10m+ a season, just under £10m sign on and then lord knows about agent fees and add ons. He barely even featured last year.
And he was still constantly criticised (probably for not being Roy Keane).
What high standards we once had. I’d be over the moon with signing Darron Gibson now.
Fellaini.
Moyes was bad enough but this signing represented what I feared would happen. A lowering of standards, quality, and us passing up on the chance to update our football after falling behind under Sir Alex himself.
Moyes was bad enough but this signing represented what I feared would happen. A lowering of standards, quality, and us passing up on the chance to update our football after falling behind under Sir Alex himself.
We only used around 20m of it. Tony V cost around 16, Owen was free and Obertan was less than 5m.
Sheringham... Replacing the king with some old Tottenham squad player past his prime
Fellaini is the obvious candidate for so many reasons. We were right on that one.
Carrick a very good shout - completely wrong on that one. Became one of my favourite players for all the reasons I was at first incapable of seeing.
Maguire. I thought at the time he would be a downgrade on Smalling. I still think he is. Far too slow, really made Welbeck look like a prime Usain Bolt. Takea too long on the ball, and altough accurate with his long range passing, they sre as slow as his running. Also far too expensive.
Evra: never thought he would dispossess Heinze - became my favourite player. Such a great player and character.
Carrick a very good shout - completely wrong on that one. Became one of my favourite players for all the reasons I was at first incapable of seeing.
Maguire. I thought at the time he would be a downgrade on Smalling. I still think he is. Far too slow, really made Welbeck look like a prime Usain Bolt. Takea too long on the ball, and altough accurate with his long range passing, they sre as slow as his running. Also far too expensive.
Evra: never thought he would dispossess Heinze - became my favourite player. Such a great player and character.
Liam Miller.
Oooh yes Sheringham.
13 year old me would transfer list him at the start of every CM 97/98 game.
Mata, Fellaini, Matic, and McGuire in recent times.
I call them disappointing because I had expected them to do much better at the time of signing.
I call them disappointing because I had expected them to do much better at the time of signing.
Valencia was a very good signing. Yes he wasn't Ronaldo but still very good. They were both very different players in style etc
The issue from that period was not strengthening the midfield. Had Fergie signed a world class partner for Carrick in 2009, there was every chance we would have gone on to win the Premier League and Champions League again. We started Darren Gibson in a quarter final against Bayern and only lost on away goals. We only missed out on the title by a point in a race swung by Drogba's offside goal.
Bosnich, Taibi.
We had a good team and momentum from the treble and went to this. I was overjoyed when we finally got VDS, I knew he could still do it and was a top keeper, it was no surprise we went on to our best spell with him in net and our previous best spell was with Peter.
Barthez was good for a year but I wasn't convinced when he signed. Wasn't long for him to lose his agility and end up diving backwards and we started conceding goals from all sorts of angles.
Fellaini. A very nice person and gave his all but simply not good enough for where we had to get back to quickly
We had a good team and momentum from the treble and went to this. I was overjoyed when we finally got VDS, I knew he could still do it and was a top keeper, it was no surprise we went on to our best spell with him in net and our previous best spell was with Peter.
Barthez was good for a year but I wasn't convinced when he signed. Wasn't long for him to lose his agility and end up diving backwards and we started conceding goals from all sorts of angles.
Fellaini. A very nice person and gave his all but simply not good enough for where we had to get back to quickly
they signed in the same summer (Bellion and Ronaldo)
Few heads were being scratched over the double swoop for Vidic and Evra at the time, especially after the first couple of games.
I am old enough to remember when we signed Ralph Milne from Bristol City - I rest my case
In recent years it has to be Fellaini because of the context of him costing more than he should have in a transfer window where we didn't make any other improvements to the squad. If he'd come as a cheapish squad player in a window where we'd also added some real quality it'd probably have been a different story, but as it was it highlighted how inept Woodward was, and seemed to confirm fears that Moyes was an Everton-level manager who was incapable of making the step-up.
Yep that's another good shout.
I remember Vidic and Evra being somewhat underwhelming at the time too. Evra especially. Vidic seemed more like a ’who the feck?’ signing.
A good 18 months or so had passed since Evra had been to the CL Final with Monaco and disappeared after that, and we had Heinze at the time who had just been player of the season at left back but had a horrific injury. Evra had a nightmare debut against City too.
A good 18 months or so had passed since Evra had been to the CL Final with Monaco and disappeared after that, and we had Heinze at the time who had just been player of the season at left back but had a horrific injury. Evra had a nightmare debut against City too.
Pretty much every signing since 2009 Apart from Ronaldo, I was genuinely ecstatic when we signed him last year.
Owen. It officially ushered in the no value era after we failed to fully re-invest the Ronaldo fee.
I will echo what most of the people on here are saying - Fellaini.
It was obvious he wasn't good enough before we signed him. Add to that, his best position at Everton was as a second striker, and we already had Rooney/Kagawa/Welbeck/Hernandez/Van Persie, and he wasn't going to play ahead of any of them.
Turned out that he stank the place out for 4 years then fecked off.
It was obvious he wasn't good enough before we signed him. Add to that, his best position at Everton was as a second striker, and we already had Rooney/Kagawa/Welbeck/Hernandez/Van Persie, and he wasn't going to play ahead of any of them.
Turned out that he stank the place out for 4 years then fecked off.
We haven’t had a functional midfield for a decade.
Prove me wrong.
Prove me wrong.
As so many posters are saying, Marouane Fellaini. We needed to reboot the post-Fergie era with actual class and quality to get excited about. Instead we decided that we needed to be more like Everton. So even though it was clear that SAF was leaving for months in advance, the changeover was so spectacularly botched it makes you wonder if it was done on purpose. The incompetence on display from the club was breathtaking.
Around that time, Thiago Alcantara was available and he could have been a mainstay of our midfield for years and years; but we passed that up and opted for a tall bloke who puts himself about and then tried to parade him as a marquee signing.
In the context of the last 10 years, we've had worse managers than Moyes and Fellaini actually did okay in the end, but the timidity and wrongheadedness of it all it just seemed to set the tone for everything that has followed.
Around that time, Thiago Alcantara was available and he could have been a mainstay of our midfield for years and years; but we passed that up and opted for a tall bloke who puts himself about and then tried to parade him as a marquee signing.
In the context of the last 10 years, we've had worse managers than Moyes and Fellaini actually did okay in the end, but the timidity and wrongheadedness of it all it just seemed to set the tone for everything that has followed.