I reckon he would have had a chance if you look at his competition last season but for the abysmal performance under Moyes and the ushering in of new talent by LVG
Wilfried Zaha - Sold to Crystal Palace
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Nah, he's spent most of the last two seasons on loan yet failed to look any better than team-mates who will probably never end up playing for a CL team.
He has his moments of magic but unfortunately fails to deliver consistently.
dont care about the money at all but his place/minutes could have been invested in one of our products or other players we could buy. Wouldn't blame scouts, he was one of the most talented kids in the country, we could know his attitude is not perfect but SAF could have thought that he can menage him, same with powell. Both are disappointing signings after all..
He was always a strange signing given Fergie knew he was retiring.
I think Ferguson would have some sort of plan for him. Moyes and Van Gaal did not which is understandable since all his accolades were in the Championship.
I'd really like an interview from him to see exactly what his tenure at United was like and where it all went wrong for him in his mind. An intriguing case for sure given that he is a talented lad and still young.
So basically Palace loaned him to us for circa 15 mln quid just so we can loan him back to them, Cardiff and them again just so they can buy him back for far less in 2 years.
Nice, we should be on covers of The Economist and Forbes tomorrow.
Nice, we should be on covers of The Economist and Forbes tomorrow.
People are really over thinking this, the main reason it didn't work out is because he's absolutely useless.
More or less, this.
That's genius business by Palace. They took us to the cleaners with this one. Zaha was an utter fraud.
We bought him for £10m + add-ons up to £15m max; which in reality is £10m as he didn't play for us, nor did we win the PL or CL. We got a loan fee from Cardiff of £1m or perhaps slightly more. We also got a loan fee from Palace, apparently £3m. The deal for them to buy him seems to be another £3m + £3m in add-ons. Add that all together and it looks like we may get our money back, or we may lose around £3m depending on whether they end up paying the add-ons; which I'm guessing are part appearance based and part Palace avoiding relegation.
By United's standards, certainly not a financial disaster, given we paid his £35K a week wages for half a season.
Perhaps not a wise move from Sir Alex to buy such a raw talent when he knew he was leaving in the summer.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/02/manchester-united-sell-wilfried-zaha-crystal-palace
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Yep. Not that talented and not at all motivated. Guys like Mane at Soton are vastly superior to Wilf. I think that Anderson proves that SAF didn't have a magic wand for the unmotivated too.
Yeah, Fergie would definitely have given the guy a good run in the side I think. Moyes didn't seem to want to give him a shot. I wish him well but it's annoying the club wasted that money.
I think Palace underplayed him so as to lower his price.
Ferguson would at least get 5-10 good matches from Anderson a season.
Such a strange signing
Fergie signs him in January for 10 million rising up to 15 million but then loans him straight back to Palace for the rest of the season even though he knows he's retiring at the end of the season so will never actually manage him
Fergie signs him in January for 10 million rising up to 15 million but then loans him straight back to Palace for the rest of the season even though he knows he's retiring at the end of the season so will never actually manage him
Such a strange signing
Fergie signs him in January for 10 million rising up to 15 million but then loans him straight back to Palace for the rest of the season even though he knows he's retiring at the end of the season so will never actually manage him
The loaning out made sense. He did the same with Smalling. It just makes no sense signing him in the first place if he knew he was leaving.
Why did it make no sense? He probably thought he was buying a top young English talent to give to the next manager in charge, I doubt Fergie was thinking short-term when he bought Zaha. Lots of his last few signings were young players he likely knew he wouldn't be around to see develop into their peak years, he obviously was trying to lay foundations for the next manager.
Sadly, Zaha, like others, was just a terrible transfer by him. Never going to be good enough.
Sadly, Zaha, like others, was just a terrible transfer by him. Never going to be good enough.
No longer a United player.
I recall he was signed as a present for David Moyes, wasn't he?
Worst Fergie transfer?
LvG sorting out the dead wood properly.
what an absolute Horlicks of a transfer
He thought he was going to play for Ferguson. Must hurt him a lot that the dream move was an absolute nightmare in every sense of the word. Don't get why he was loaned back out initially either tbh. If Fergie knew he was retiring, it's all well wanting to leave a young talent to the new manager but this is a 15m player, who as it turned out didn't fit with the new manager. He may not have been involved much in the final 6 months of 12/13 - actually he probably would have considering the league title was a stroll. And more importantly his introduction would have been better served under the influence of Ferguson, training with players at the top of their levels and understanding the culture of the club. Leaving it to the summer meant he had to do that, impress the new manager who himself was having to accustom himself to Manchester United. The transfer was a total wreck.
Good luck to him. I don't think he's got the level of talent we needed and he might have a questionable attitude, but I feel for the guy a bit. He's been left in limbo from the moment he arrived in Manchester. Sir Alex obviously liked him, but to Moyes (and then van Gaal) he was just another squad player, and one who needed work/time.
He'll have his days here and there where he looks like a world beater, no doubt.
He'll have his days here and there where he looks like a world beater, no doubt.
Yes, needed to happen. Been overdue for a good couple of years. Think we'll see the final stage of it in the summer.
And miss out on the pleasure of when he inevitably scores against us when we play them at their place in May? Where's the fun in that?
Good luck to him; I liked the signing based on what he did against us in the cup a few years back, and watching him in the Palace promotion season, but clearly something big was missing.
If he was a Chelsea player they'd have shipped him out for £20 million, when you see play at times he looks like he could be worth it too.
Just hope he doesn't come back and bite us when we play them.
Just hope he doesn't come back and bite us when we play them.
You're being far too generous to the player. Even if we ignore him making no impact at United he's had two longish loan spells where he made almost no impact, consistently out-played by teammates who would cost a fraction of what he cost to sign. He wasn't even in unfamiliar surroundings. Has looked like the worst winger at the club where he learned his football.
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Good on him for moving. He could have easily run down his contract and stolen a living for a few years like Anderson. Instead, he decided that he wanted to fight for his career and his reputation. I hope this is the kick up the backside that he needs.
The posters who compared him to Ronaldo in the first 10 pages of this thread need to be named!
This plus it seems he cost us less then originally stated more like 10mil, but since he was on loan for some of that time we got at least some of his wages off the book, plus possibly received a loan fee, so we might not have "lost" anywhere near the money some think we have.
Another Fergie Flop from the last few years. I really do think that in the whole "no value in the market" era, SAF's borderline obsession with trying to turn mid-table PL players into world beaters was detrimental to us.
Good luck to him, so much rubbish and lies written about him.
Well he continued to win with that bunch.
Done dealio
Remember he shagged Moyes' daughter? Good luck Wilfried.
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