Most Disappointing Signings

I remember wondering why the hell we'd blown one million on Dion Dublin. Mostly because I had no idea who he was at the time.
 
Pickle85 said:
I remember wondering why the hell we'd blown one million on Dion Dublin. Mostly because I had no idea who he was at the time.
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Yes , Dion Dublin for me

First, missing out on Shearer who seemed the complete package at his age and you just knew he was going to be one of those strikers that would just tear up the division as it was at the time. He had scored for England on his debut and with the money you just felt this was a player you had to push the boat out a little extra for.

Secondly, I didn’t know much about him and he came from Cambridge. I think there had been a documentary on TV around that time with John Beck and it was like football from a past age when even then things had started to move on after Italia 90 and we realized English football had to change to compete. I thought we had signed a throw back donkey of a player who wasn’t fit for the coming modern game.

In hindsight, he was unlucky with the injury and proved himself to be quite a tidy player and a modal pro (oh, how we could do with players like him now). You can tell he has a soft spot for United too in his analyst roles.
 
groovyalbert said:
Few heads were being scratched over the double swoop for Vidic and Evra at the time, especially after the first couple of games.
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And along with the fact that they were mid season signings which usually does not bode well either.

It was all a bit underwhelming at the time especially after the less than stellar starts.

Very few would have been predicting what club legends they would both go on to be.
 
I was extremely dissapointed with the Maguire signing. 80 mill for him seemed like we got robbed (which seems more and more to be the case)

Obertan and Bebe where obviously also very dissapointing.
Fellaini as well, especially due to how the transfer went, with us panick buying him and paying more than was needed.
 
I was disappointed in the Carrick signing but what a beauty that turned out to be! Valencia is another one I was disappointed with but was a good player. (TBF everyone we signed in the window we sold Ronaldo was disappointing to me)

I was also disappointed with Kleberson, Blanc, Maguire (horrendously overpriced) and Fellaini.
 
Valencia, Owen, David May, Dublin, fellaini, Carrick

need to balance this out with signings I love, generally young players who look like they could be brilliant

Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Ronaldo, Rooney and also some that don’t always work out like Miorana, Tosic.
 
Beans said:
Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka (for 50 million pounds we should spell it out), Alexis Sanchez, Morgan Schneiderlein, Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba, Fred...

Ole's purchases have put us in a dangerous position.
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You didn't read the OP, did you ?
 
pallistersgiantcokebottle said:
Yes , Dion Dublin for me

First, missing out on Shearer who seemed the complete package at his age and you just knew he was going to be one of those strikers that would just tear up the division as it was at the time. He had scored for England on his debut and with the money you just felt this was a player you had to push the boat out a little extra for.

Secondly, I didn’t know much about him and he came from Cambridge. I think there had been a documentary on TV around that time with John Beck and it was like football from a past age when even then things had started to move on after Italia 90 and we realized English football had to change to compete. I thought we had signed a throw back donkey of a player who wasn’t fit for the coming modern game.

In hindsight, he was unlucky with the injury and proved himself to be quite a tidy player and a modal pro (oh, how we could do with players like him now). You can tell he has a soft spot for United too in his analyst roles.
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Yeah this is how I saw it too. He seems a thoroughly decent bloke and definitely still likes united.
 
In terms of actual output and cost, Sanchez and Di Maria are the worst.

All of the others may have cost too much but ultimately, they weren't necessarily bad players all the time.

pallistersgiantcokebottle said:
Yes , Dion Dublin for me

First, missing out on Shearer who seemed the complete package at his age and you just knew he was going to be one of those strikers that would just tear up the division as it was at the time. He had scored for England on his debut and with the money you just felt this was a player you had to push the boat out a little extra for.

Secondly, I didn’t know much about him and he came from Cambridge. I think there had been a documentary on TV around that time with John Beck and it was like football from a past age when even then things had started to move on after Italia 90 and we realized English football had to change to compete. I thought we had signed a throw back donkey of a player who wasn’t fit for the coming modern game.

In hindsight, he was unlucky with the injury and proved himself to be quite a tidy player and a modal pro (oh, how we could do with players like him now). You can tell he has a soft spot for United too in his analyst roles.
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United apparently looked at re-signing him in 1998. We ended up with Yorke from Villa and Dublin ended up being his replacement there.

Also, his injury in 92 was an incredible sliding doors moment. He actually started ok with us before he broke his leg. Had he not got injured though, we wouldn't have signed Eric.
 
Howard. We needed a world class gk to replace the French national gk and we brought one from MLS.
Eventually, not a bad gk just not for a PL winning side and he cost us a CL running.
 
Lights Out said:
Did you actually read the original post? Like, I mean the first sentence. That’s in bold font.
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Yes I did read it and at the time of signing 90% of players we've signed in recent seasons were one of 2 things either never good enough in the first place or vastly overrated.
 
Maguire, for sure. Decent player but I didn't want us going anywhere near him at the prices quoted in 2018 - going back in for even more money the next year was just...

Daniel James as the only attacking signing in the same window was massively disappointing too. Nothing against the guy but he was clearly not good enough, despite a good 3 games at the very start

Pellistri and Amad for however much we paid for them in 2020 was pretty crap, after the disaster of that transfer window and the start to the season. 2 years on and they still look miles away from being useful players

Matic for 40 million was kinda underwhelming, especially as he was already showing clear signs of physical decline in his last two seasons at Chelsea

Going further back, Ashley Young was an underwhelming signing when we already had Nani and Valencia - pretty sure he only had a year or so left on his contract at the time too, and we paid a fairly hefty fee by 2011 standards

And Michael Owen...
 
In terms of how it turned out -

Sanchez, sancho, varane and pogba as I thought they would be great at the club

In terms of actually signing - fellaini, Maguire, bissaka, lukaku as I just don't fancy any of them as players.

Also di maria because we knew he didn't want to be at unites right from the start so it is no surprise it went wrong
 
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