New signing you thought would turn out better

I remember when some were crapping themselves because Chelsea bought Shev and Ballack.
 
Recently it's Schneiderlin and Di Maria.
 
I really thought Schneiderlin would be the second coming of Jesus Christ himself... got a bit let down by that one.
 
In recent memory it's most definitely Soldado. He came in with an impressive pedigree, loved the fans and we loved him. Unfortunately it just didn't work out at all.
 
Darmian.

He comes from a country famous for their defenders and was a part of the National team when we signed him. Isn't particularly great at attacking or defending. Decent squad player though
 
Harsh to mention Mkhitaryan at the moment.

Kagawa and the LVG lot
 
Ikon said:
Really, Tévez..?
Loved him when he played for us, an utter cock when he left.

Schneiderlin - Shaw - Anderson - Di Maria - Depay - Etc

Infact, how many in the past 5 years have truly lived up to, and surpassed expectations..?
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Tévez was shit in his second season. 5 league goals in 29 games, frankly, despite running around a lot, he wouldn't have deserved a new contract anyway. And he already acted like a cock, without backing it up with performances.

And yes, when we got him I thought we'd have another technically excellent goalscorer; instead we got a workhorse who admittedly scored important goals in his first season but then regressed significantly in his second.
 
Kagawa

I thought he was exactly what we needed, that silky AM who could unlock any defence and provide some quality touches in the final third of the pitch.... :(

Shaw

At this stage 3-4 years into his United career I thought he'd be a regular and genuinely one of the best left backs in the world, injuries and confidence have plagued him to the point of wondering if his contract will even be renewed.

Memphis

I thought we could be in for a 'Hazard' type of signing, a young highly rated winger who had also impressed during a World Cup. Man he is probably the worse of the lot, absolutely shite, he could barely even control a simple ball towards the end of his time here.

Something really annoying about him too, in his head he thinks he's Ronaldo #2 like he's a massive superstar, even last week I seen the picture of him with a cigar and you can't help but think he's a complete cnut.
 
Kagawa
Schneiderlin
Schweingsteiger
Jones and Smalling (I thought they would be the new Vidic and Ferdinand)
Depay
Zaha
Powell
 
I remember when Brentford signed Paul Davis on a free from Arsenal and I thought he would be fantastic in League One - he was an absolute shower and disgrace to professional footballers everywhere, he retired after 5 games :D
 
Siorac said:
Tévez was shit in his second season. 5 league goals in 29 games, frankly, despite running around a lot, he wouldn't have deserved a new contract anyway. And he already acted like a cock, without backing it up with performances.

And yes, when we got him I thought we'd have another technically excellent goalscorer; instead we got a workhorse who admittedly scored important goals in his first season but then regressed significantly in his second.
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Very few of those 29 league games were starts though, he mostly came off the bench. At the time I felt we should have done more to keep him around, but I think he would have left sooner or later anyway.
 
Schneiderlin: I was "sure" that he will be our next Carrick or even Scholes.

Kagawa: I thought he will give us some creativity for years.

Memphis: I thought he will be something like the next Nani: Entertaining and sometimes frustrating. But he was just frustrating.
 
I was very wrong about Schneiderlin. I did feel that no way would Bayern sell Schweinsteiger if they felt he was still capable of worldclass performances so I had my doubts over that. Also thought Memphis Depay would do well...
 
Darmian definitely. His initial few performances as a RB were terrific. Had a few rival fans too complimenting him back them. Hardly ever featured at right back since that patch.
 
Benteke is the standout for me in recent years.

Prior to that - Robbie Keane. Seemed like the safest bet signing we could have made at the time.

I Ballack was going to be absolute monster for Chelsea. He was very good, but not quite the player everyone expected.
 
Schneiderlin and Memphis. Had high hopes from both of them. Couldn't have been more wrong.
 
Di Maria comes to mind firstly, But right now I would say Martial. I was expecting more from him, last season, and hope he can produce it this season.

He has skill, and speed of feet, that he should be using more frequently, and needs to step up his game.
 
Podolski. I thought that he would be playing off Giroud as a second striker but he was shoved out wide. He did score some great goals but he was underwhelming.
 
Mr Smith said:
Very few of those 29 league games were starts though, he mostly came off the bench. At the time I felt we should have done more to keep him around, but I think he would have left sooner or later anyway.
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18 league starts. His best games were in the League Cup, including scoring four against Blackburn. In the important competitions, it was 9 goals in 29 starts. Not great for a striker.
 
I can't believe Memphis didn't become a great player for us. I thought he had everything you could ask for in both ambition and talent, but I guess not.

To this day I'm still not really sure what Schneiderlin is even good at tbh
 
Memphis Depay. I hope he can tear it up in France and perhaps get another chance at a big club. I actually feel like we could do with him right now because he's a natural winger and when he's playing with confidence like he was with Lyon last season he can be unplayable. Maybe the move came too soon for him.
 
Memphis, Schinederlin, Schweinsteiger and Di Maria

AngliaRed said:
He lacked confidence and other than a few moments of brilliance he never really got going.
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Nani had 10 goals and 20 assists in 10/11, and then 10 goals and 15 assists in 11/12, he was one of the best players in the premier league in that period, and one of the best wingers around overall. Hell, in 09/10 he had 6 goals and 10 assists.

"Never really got going" is not true for Nani, in fact, the treatment Nani got, both from management and fans, (he was boo'd at times) is one of the weirdest things to happen at Manchester United in recent times imo
 
TsuWave said:
Memphis, Schinederlin, Schweinsteiger and Di Maria



Nani had 10 goals and 20 assists in 10/11, and then 10 goals and 15 assists in 11/12, he was one of the best players in the premier league in that period, and one of the best wingers around overall. Hell, in 09/10 he had 6 goals and 10 assists.

"Never really got going" is not true for Nani, in fact, the treatment Nani got, both from management and fans, (he was boo'd at times) is one of the weirdest things to happen at Manchester United in recent times imo
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Them stats are great on paper but they dont tell the full story! He was capable of so much more and often gave the ball away or made bad decisions in the final 3rd. He was player whos speed was matched by virtually noone but in his last couple of seasons his confidence was so low he was very hesitant to try take players on and often opted for the simpler pass sidewards.

I was always a big fan of Nani and never quite understood the boos. He was clearly a confidence player and the boos would of got to him. Either way its a shame. Sad to see him leave.
 
AngliaRed said:
Them stats are great on paper but they dont tell the full story! He was capable of so much more and often gave the ball away or made bad decisions in the final 3rd. He was player whos speed was matched by virtually noone but in his last couple of seasons his confidence was so low he was very hesitant to try take players on and often opted for the simpler pass sidewards.

I was always a big fan of Nani and never quite understood the boos. He was clearly a confidence player and the boos would of got to him. Either way its a shame. Sad to see him leave.
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Its not just the stats on paper, he was unplayable in that period of time, he was consistent for 3 years but more so from 2010 to 12 he was beastly, i even remember one interview where he said he felt that alongside ronaldo he was the best wide player in the world and no one batted an eyelid because it wasn't a crazy statement. There's articles from that period stating he was the best in the league, saying otherwise or that he never got going is just not true.

Things went wrong after that, his play time was suddenly reduced (i can't remember why, maybe injury???), and his confidence suffered and he went through a period where he couldn't get a run in the team and fans turned on him and it snowballed super quick like an avalanche, the clown managers that we had didn't help either
 
TsuWave said:
Its not just the stats on paper, he was unplayable in that period of time, he was consistent for 3 years but more so from 2010 to 12 he was beastly, i even remember one interview where he said he felt that alongside ronaldo he was the best wide player in the world and no one batted an eyelid because it wasn't a crazy statement. There's articles from that period stating he was the best in the league, saying otherwise or that he never got going is just not true.

Things went wrong after that, his play time was suddenly reduced (i can't remember why, maybe injury???), and his confidence suffered and he went through a period where he couldn't get a run in the team and fans turned on him and it snowballed super quick like an avalanche, the clown managers that we had didn't help either
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One issue I felt was that he was always much better playing on the right, but because Valencia wasn't flexible Nani often had to shift to the left so we could get both in the side. IIRC his best form in those seasons came when Valencia was hurt and Nani got the starting berth on the right.
 
Did not buy the hype of Memphis for one second so that wasn't really a disappointment.

Di Maria was a major let down. Loved the guy first and I genuinely thought that he'll be an excellent signing for us. To be fair, he was for few couple of games. I was really gutted when things got sour and extremely disappointed how the whole thing ended.
 
Morientes, Cisse, Aquilani, Carroll (thought he would be monsterly for us), Keane, Benteke. Special mention to Harry Kewell who I thought would go on to do special things with us, shame his body was always broken.
 
Barthez
Darmian Blanc Smalling Shaw
Schneiderlin Anderson Veron
Kagawa Depay
Falcao

tbh Kagawa was always on the left coz of Rooney so that didn't help but I don't think our style of football ever suited him, I reckon he would have been better at Arsenal.
 
in recent years got to be schneiderlin and memphis.

schneirdelin was suposed to be the solution to our midfield problem.

memphis got the talent and swagger to be a top class player. was excellent at PSV and i thought he could be somewhere between a nani to hazard scale of success at the very least.
 
Falcao, and Schneiderlin. I genuinely thought that Schneiderlin was going to be the dogs bolloc.. for us...
 
Memphis: i bought his shirt and was pretty bullish when we signed him, sad it didn't work out for him but he's done well in France so hopefully that gives him the kickstart he needs
 
Veron, Bosnich (hadn't realised what his kicking was like apart from anything else)

Jesper Olsen - liked him a lot but top form attained only in patches

Birtles - wasn't expecting miracles but he was your actual chocolate teapot
 
Di Maria/Schneiderlinn (especially Schneiderlinn) are the two that stand out that never really showed what I hoped they could do. Falcao was clearly not fit and Hargreaves was blighted by injuries so that didn't really help them.

A lot of Fergies signings like Tosic/Manucho never really did anything but then didn't expect them to.
 
Peanut Butter said:
I remember when some were crapping themselves because Chelsea bought Shev and Ballack.
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To be fair Ballack wasn't bad, (seem to remember him having quite a few important moments including a few against us) but Shevcenko was just terrible.
 
Schweinsteiger :(
I thought we were going to have Carrick, Herrera, Schweini dominating all opposition.

Kagawa. Never coped with the physicality of the league, and our very pedestrian tactics didn't help.

Anderson, I guess. Very weird trajectory since the came here.

di Maria was amazing initially, creating goals from nothing, but regressed badly.
 
Kagawa was one I hoped would be huge. Particularly as we missed out on Hazard so all of us were looking for him to be that creative force we all thought he was going to be.
 
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