Signings that we didn't see coming.......

The Larsson one really sticks out. I remember going on the United website as I also do and seeing the headline along the lines of "Larsson signs" and my first reaction was why have we signed Seb Larsson :lol:.

The second one has to be Owen. I was working abroad as a holiday rep at the time and got a text through saying he was having a medical and met SAF for breakfast to discuss joining. At the time I was fuming but when I started to calm down and take stock I thought oh well it'll annoy the scousers. He scored one of my favourite goals vs City as well.
 
I felt a crushing inevitability about signing Owen. He was one of those players Sir Alex had a blind spot for.
 
Herrera for me. Had the transfer thread creator on ignore, think I only found out once his thread went up in the Utd forum.
 
Skills said:
Think a lot dreaded that for a quite some time (a lot of weirdo's were excited/hoped for it for quite some time too). He was linked to us for years.
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I lived with a United fan at the time and will never forget the few days when the news broke. He was gutted. As an aside, I really do wonder what the next right step for Pochettino is. He would be a great post Mourinho/Pep man for the Manchester clubs.
 
Henrik Larsson although he was only on loan. Don't think I ever in a million years expected him to line up in a United shirt, wish he stayed longer tbh
 
I remember being on ceefax when Cole signed, and the headline popped up. That was a huge!

Cantona though, fookin ell... That was the big one for me
 
Michael owen, andy cole, lukaku
 
Manchester Dan said:
I lived with a United fan at the time and will never forget the few days when the news broke. He was gutted. As an aside, I really do wonder what the next right step for Pochettino is. He would be a great post Mourinho/Pep man for the Manchester clubs.
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Think Pochettino will manage one of Spain's big two at some point.
 
Tarrou said:
I remember being on ceefax when Cole signed, and the headline popped up. That was a huge!

Cantona though, fookin ell... That was the big one for me
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I had the season review on video when I was young and it had a clip of Fergie talking about signing Cantona. Can't remember the exact words, but he was on the phone to the Leeds manager about someone else, and he just casually mentioned Cantona, and it was agreed upon.

Seems impossible in the current age of social media and complex negotiations etc etc
 
Falcao, Hernandez, Tevez, Nani, Anderson, Vidic, Evra off the top of my head.
 
T00lsh3d said:
I had the season review on video when I was young and it had a clip of Fergie talking about signing Cantona. Can't remember the exact words, but he was on the phone to the Leeds manager about someone else, and he just casually mentioned Cantona, and it was agreed upon.

Seems impossible in the current age of social media and complex negotiations etc etc
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Awful paraphrase but I think it was;

LEEDS : What about Dennis Irwin, available?
FERGIE : Lol. What about Cantona?
LEEDS : Sure. You'll have to find £1m and whatever you can find down the back of your couch as he's just been the catalyst for us winning the League.

Couldn't believe his luck.
 
I didn't mention the 'homeless guy' SAF signed for 7m
 
Falcao.
Owen was totally out of the blue just because you never thought it would actually happen because of the Liverpool connection.
Henrik Larsson-I got a text from my brother to say he had joined while I was doing a training class at work. Couldn't believe it and got nothing done the rest of the day. :)
Tevez.
Andy Cole.
David May.
LawCharltonBest said:
Lindelof was out the blue for me in a sense. There were Portuguese sources, but I genuinely thought it was just another Gaitan. When we actually announced it, I was like "wait, what?" Kind of like if a kid told you it could fly, then actually did.
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Yeah, did anyone really expect us to sign any Benfica player?

Lukaku in the circumstances has been a big surprise.

I know it dragged on but never expected to see us re-signing Pogba.
 
dogwithabone said:
The Lukaku deal has certainly taken us by surprise and I was trying to recall a few others that came right out of the blue......

I can actually remember where I was (waiting at a temporary red light in a village close to home !!) when I heard the news on the radio we'd signed Cantona, that's the most memorable I guess because that just didn't seem to fit at all at the time. How wrong !

Andy Cole was another that was announced right out of the blue without any talk beforehand or any declaration of interest from us. Seem to have an image in my mind of Keegan on the steps at St James' announcing to the media a deal had been done.

Sheringham surprised me too, totally unexpected.
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I saw the Cantona on Ceefax (remember that?). It said: United sign Cantona and immediately thought Eric must have a brother! Have to admit being surprised by little Michael Owen too
 
I cant believe nobody has mentioned Forlan. Who just touched down in Gatwick about to make his way to Middlesbourgh when Fergie kidnapped him and brought him to Old Trafford. Granted he was woeful, but i good story none the less.
 
Keeping the signings completely under wraps now is clearly way harder than it used to be pre social media.

Nowadays every one has a camera phone and is 5secs away from posting it or who they've seen online, and it quickly gets passed on.

So the idea we're trying to pull off a big signing out of the blue now seems a bit fanciful. Even Lukaku was linked to us months ago, it was just the way everyone assumed it was Chelsea done and dusted
 
sunama said:
Was Bebe highly rated - were the fans excited by his signing?
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Oh not even close :lol:. From who/what the feck to not being able to find youtube video of him and when people found out that he played in homeless world cup or something like that...
 
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