Nah Andy Goram takes that crown
Replacing Peter Schmeichel with Mark Bosnich
- Thread starter Bastian
- Start date
I never trusted Barthez when he played for us. Always seemed like he could make a mistake or do something stupid at any moment.
I liked Tim Howard more than him, but it's a similar sort of story there, too. Promising in lots of ways, but have the ability to make mistakes and that makes the rest of the team nervous. When you don't fully trust a goalkeeper, that lack of confidence then drips into other areas of the team. It has a ripple effect.
VDS was such a brilliant keeper post-Schmeichel. Exactly what we needed and he just looked mentally strong and solid. When he came in, you just knew that the position had finally been sorted and nailed down. Top class keeper. Wish we had got him years earlier.
Apparently we had the chance to sign van der Sar earlier but Martin Edwards had already shaken hands on a deal with Bosnich's agent... 
I always remember how bad his distribution was.
I always remember how bad his distribution was.
He played twice for United.
yeah totally agree. howard was clearly not a elite level talented keeper, but after barthez and the chance that absolutely anything could happen, i remember really liking howard ! and then vds I remember being a teenager and thinking... oh this is what a goalkeeper should be...
We rarely did under Fergie which was one of our main problems.
Barthez wasn’t a catastrophe. He was like Lloris is for Spurs now. Pretty shit but fundamentally a good keeper
but yeah VDS was such a huge difference when we finally got a top keeper
but yeah VDS was such a huge difference when we finally got a top keeper
He only played twice for us...Wouldn't call that regular, same with Taibi.
Carroll played for us 72 times... Which is roughly 72 times too many
I know Howard made a couple of errors but I could never understand how Carroll took his place and kept it so long when he was clearly out of his depth at United .
Off course he then put in a superman effort against us when playing for Fulham a few years later till Ronaldo finally beat him .
He was responsible for that non goal at Spurs though that gets shown over and over again whenever the media want to say we get all the decisions so for that alone I dislike the guy
V.D.S chose Micheal Jackson F.C over us
I forgot all about Taibi. What a debut he had.
I seem to recall we were either linked with Antti Niemi and Kasey Keller from Leicester, both would of made excellent replacements than Bosnich
I seem to remember him and silvestre having the games of their lives at Anfield
And STILL cost us a goal.
I can see that I should have worded my originalmpost more clearly: I was meaning to refer to one aspect of our game - playing on the break - not our whole game. I was also trying to pinpoint the type of games were we met a good, tight organized defence. I clearly remember noticing this in several tight games. You may of course see those games and disagree, even if it’s 20 years ago, but looking up goal stats is not really relevant to the point I am trying to make. I did not mean to say we struggled generally, which we certainly didn’t, only that there were types of game situations were we struggled as a team when we previously had a very important tool in those situations.
We had a historically fantastic team from the midfield up, with Becks, Giggs, Keane, Scholes, Yorke and Cole all in their prime and fully gelled, and our motto was ‘attack attack attack’ - of course we scored a lot! We played with three different keepers and our left back Silvestre playing most games at CB because of massive amounts of injuries on Ronny Johnsen, David May and Wes Brown, and we played a risky, yet sometimes vulnerable game. Of course we let in a lot of goals.
My attempted point was that Schmeichel’s throws and kicks were an important part of our varied swiss tool knife, and in situations were we could do well with the option of quick breaks without taking big risks, you could see the players starting ferocious runs early because they were so used to Schmeichel feeding them the ball. With Bosnic, Taibi, Carroll etc you could see players starting, stopping as the balls didn’t come as quick, or behind them, or were imprecise, and after a while attackers would often not go for those early runs. Similarily to how Rashford, Martial and Greenwood go on more proactive runs when they have Bruno behind them than when Lingard or Pereira plays. Or how RvN struggled with parts of his play when Ronaldo replaced Becks (and Solskjær!) as the main source for his balls. If you want to dispute any of this in particular, feel free. When it comes to most of what youve written to me, I fully agree with it, it’s just not very relevant to the point I was trying to make.
I just remember him wearing pants. I was never a fan of keepers wearing jogging bottoms.
It wasn't extraordinary back then Edwards was at it all the time. In 1998 Ferguson wanted Kluivert and Yorke, Edwards dilly dallied on moves for both because he on the advice of Brian Kidd wanted to sign John Hartson instead.
We have had these mad spells in one position haven't we?
Refusing to buy a centre mid for years, and how long we've gone without a proper right sided attacker too.
Refusing to buy a centre mid for years, and how long we've gone without a proper right sided attacker too.
We got Yorke in 98 though?
Yeah because Ferguson pushed for him and wouldn't even consider Hartson. I think that episode also lead to the breakdown in Ferguson and Kidds relationship.
«We’ve shaken his hand» ffs
Yeah, you're right about 15m not being a paltry sum. Still, it was quite ridiculous for a big club like United to be able to sign a player (Stam) for a world record fee for a defender, add a winger for not a huge sum and not have anything at all for another player. And to think Fergie wanted two strikers rather than one.
And people think Ole's got it rough beacuse he could only sign three players for huge money in the last two transfer windows.
Yep, I was in 6th form around the time, and the figure quoted for Stam was utterly spellbinding for that time.
Those 3 signings are arguably our best ever summer of transfers in 20 years.
Even Blomqvist was a key acquisition, with Giggs prone to absences with hamstring strains, at a time when most teams played proper wingers on their correct side.
Trying to think what the equivalent set of signings this summer would be...
Probably a Van Dyke level defender, for more than the Maguire fee, a striker well over 100m (PGS have warped the records, so let's not use those), and a winger, probably around 50-60m?
The back pass thing is bollocks surely? 1992 was when that was finished, he became a regular that year for Villa (or least joined them) he did play for us between 1989 and 1991 though! Forgot that he was on our books before.
Bozzy was one of the top keepers in the league in 1999 at a time when we were a comfortable top 6 team. One of my heroes growing up and this was one of the best ever saves I saw live as a 9 year old:
His kicking was awful though. I remember as a lad going down to our training ground when fans could actually watch the team train from 10 yards away and I remember his kicks kept flying to the left and hitting the nearby hut by the training pitch.
He'd been at Man. United in early 90s before joining us but couldn't get a work permit so SAF knew what he was like day-to-day although of course his ego had grown playing for us.
Think getting arrested on his stag do the day before he joined Man. United did for him and then he had fitness issues. Still had some good games though if you watch the club world final v whoever in late 1999 and then the 0-0 away to Real Madrid in the CL quarter finals. Then got injured again and completely fell out of favour when you signed Barthez.
Then he completely fell apart when he moved to Chelsea and was washed up when he was barely 30. When Australia played in 2006 world cup he was still only about 33 but had been done with football for years.
This is a good video of when he was focused and professional.
His kicking was awful though. I remember as a lad going down to our training ground when fans could actually watch the team train from 10 yards away and I remember his kicks kept flying to the left and hitting the nearby hut by the training pitch.
He'd been at Man. United in early 90s before joining us but couldn't get a work permit so SAF knew what he was like day-to-day although of course his ego had grown playing for us.
Think getting arrested on his stag do the day before he joined Man. United did for him and then he had fitness issues. Still had some good games though if you watch the club world final v whoever in late 1999 and then the 0-0 away to Real Madrid in the CL quarter finals. Then got injured again and completely fell out of favour when you signed Barthez.
Then he completely fell apart when he moved to Chelsea and was washed up when he was barely 30. When Australia played in 2006 world cup he was still only about 33 but had been done with football for years.
This is a good video of when he was focused and professional.
Probably one of the first signs that we weren’t as far ahead technology, infrastructure, and staff wise as some might have thought. We should’ve had feelers out for a Schmeichel replacement for a few years before he left.
I like the Moyes comparison, because we definitely should’ve planned Fergie’s leaving years in advance, and clearly didn’t.
I like the Moyes comparison, because we definitely should’ve planned Fergie’s leaving years in advance, and clearly didn’t.
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Yeah, a decent keeper overrated, I assume partly because he may have had a good season or two elsewhere (too young to know) and partly because he was somewhat extravagant.
I think that would have been the same again. I mean, apart from his professionalism, or lack thereof. We needed to be looking at elite players. Went through so many goalkeepers in the following years. Howard, for instance, was a good keeper, but not close to elite.
People can then show statistics about how "we didn't suffer" because we scored more goals and did not need Peter's quick and accurate distribution, but it's an overall thing. The base of the spine affects the rest of the team enormously. If the defenders don't trust the keeper (which they clearly didn't with Bosnich) it affects the entire way we play.
It's all in Fergie's book... he claims he didn't wanted him and had changed his mind on Bosnich (wanted Van der Sar) but a deal was already done/too late to back out.
Scholes has his say.
“I go back to the goalkeepers, when you had to try and replace Peter Schmeichel, which is always going to be difficult,” said Scholes.
“We had a few [bad signings].
“I was thinking [Massimo] Taibi, Mark Bosnich.
“I thought he was a good keeper at Villa, Mark. He came to us, he was so unprofessional.
“Honestly, it was ridiculous.
“In shooting practice, you normally have like 15, 20 shots.
“After three shots, he’s knackered, ‘oh no, get someone else in’.
“I never realised, he couldn’t kick a football. I’ve never seen anything like it.
“We played Everton away in first game of the season, and none of us picked up on it, he couldn’t reach the halfway line.
“There was no wind, it was a perfect day. But when you look at his feet, size 14s, honestly he was just kicking the floor all the time, big flippers.
“I go back to the goalkeepers, when you had to try and replace Peter Schmeichel, which is always going to be difficult,” said Scholes.
“We had a few [bad signings].
“I was thinking [Massimo] Taibi, Mark Bosnich.
“I thought he was a good keeper at Villa, Mark. He came to us, he was so unprofessional.
“Honestly, it was ridiculous.
“In shooting practice, you normally have like 15, 20 shots.
“After three shots, he’s knackered, ‘oh no, get someone else in’.
“I never realised, he couldn’t kick a football. I’ve never seen anything like it.
“We played Everton away in first game of the season, and none of us picked up on it, he couldn’t reach the halfway line.
“There was no wind, it was a perfect day. But when you look at his feet, size 14s, honestly he was just kicking the floor all the time, big flippers.
it must have felt so bad for the players to see Schmeichel replaced by this dud. And later on Bosnich had some serious drug addiction issues, right?Bosnich was terrible. Except for one game in the Pan-Galatic Universal World Club Championship Cup Final Trophy, or whatever the feck it was called that week. It was against Palmeiras, we won 1-0 and he had an absolute blinder.
I seem to remember him having a decent game in a 0-0 away to Real Madrid once as well. But that's literally it. The lazy, fat bastard.
Going from Schmeichel to....that.
I seem to remember him having a decent game in a 0-0 away to Real Madrid once as well. But that's literally it. The lazy, fat bastard.
Going from Schmeichel to....that.
To be fair to VDS admitted he regreted not going to United sooner. He thinks he'd have won more CL's if he'd done so and I'd tend to agree
I assume he was bought in as a placeholder until someone younger and better emerged. He was shite for us though. He seemed like a funny dude but he had no business at the very top of the game.
Intercontinental Cup. Different thing to the World Club Championship, where we failed to make it out of the group stage.
It's almost fitting depiction of more recent United squads.
Aye, in 1999 he was at Juve. They didn't sign Buffon until 2001. Utd could have gone for VDS then, but Utd had opted for Barthez in between which was ok for a season or 2 before he turned to absolute shite.
Part of the overall transfer malaise that happened right after '99.
Same happened again right after 2008.
Same happened again right after 2008.
No Valencia wasn’t a great player at any time.
He was decent, not a United level though
I was very bored last night. I watched Scholes saying he couldn't kick a ball.
So I watched United vs Arsenal 1999-2000, full match is on YouTube. It was horrendous, the commentators mentioned it a few times throughout the match.
Interestingly his jersey got ripped and he had to wear the 1994/95 keepers jersey in the second half.
So I watched United vs Arsenal 1999-2000, full match is on YouTube. It was horrendous, the commentators mentioned it a few times throughout the match.
Interestingly his jersey got ripped and he had to wear the 1994/95 keepers jersey in the second half.