Your top 3 "excitement" signings

Kaos said:
1. Juan Sebastian Veron - He was one of the best in the world at Lazio. Bear in mind this is before twitter or any live transfer updates, so us signing one of the best midfielders out of the blue was crazy. Just a shame we couldn't accommodate him, pity - he would have been PERFECT for us now :(

2. Robin van Persie - This was certainly the most shocking. Couldn't hold my excitement.

3. Dimitar Berbatov - I honestly thought he'd go on to be a new-age Cantona for us.
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This would be my 3 as well. Special mentions for Andy Cole in '95, Nani/Anderson & Tevez in '07
 
For me it's Anderson, Nani and Berbatov. The first two came with a lot of hype on the internet and the last was a proven star in the PL.

I didn't know enough about the likes of RVN and JSV during the teletext era to get excited about them; Tevez's scoring record at West Ham didn't inspire much either at the time of his signing; and I wasn't convinced enough of Rooney's quality to think he'd be a success.

Honourable mention to Bebe (no joke). We were all led to believe he was a diamond in the rough. Turns out he was cubic zirconia.


Shows what I know.
 
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1. Veron. That transfer was monumental. It was just unheard of for us to sign a big name player from the Italian/Spanish leagues.
2. RvP. We stole Arsenal's best player, nuff said.
3. Mata. Just look at the sexy fecker :drool:
 
1. Veron. One of the best midfielders in modern football and he had a range of passing I've only seen from Scholes in recent times. He would pass a short pass and use brilliant movement to link-up with it and the next movement he had hit a cross-field pass behind the defensive line at the feet of a teammate.

We were already one of the best teams in history, and we had just bought a huge improvement. Of course ended up worthless.

2. Kagawa/Mata. In both cases it isn't/wasn't much about the players individual skill but rather a sign of change in style of the team. In Kagawa's case it lasted just weeks before RVP was signed and the style-change dream was crushed and thrown out the window.

Now with Mata it is the same thing all over, hoping we change our style but with RVP/Rooney still here it seems unlikely.
 
1. Wayne Rooney: I already liked him at Everton and he was immense at the Euro, so signing him was crazy. I remember my brother and I being over the moon.

2. David de Gea: we'd been linked with him for a while so I'd been trying to watch him as often as possible with Atletico, and I was over the moon when he sealed the deal. Knew we had a world class keeper for years to come.

3. Shinji Kagawa: didn't turn out as good as the first two ones, well so far, but when we signed him I was ecstatic. Loved his style of play for Dortmund and thought he'd be fantastic linking up with Rooney up top. Then, we went on to sign RvP a few weeks later, and the rest is history. Still a really classy player and I think he can have a bigger impact here than he has so far.

There have been bigger profile signings, this is just from a personal point of view the ones that got me the most excited at the time at which we signed them.

Mata would be up there but it all went so quickly and I hardly had any time to build up the excitement; plus the other ones were summer signings when there's not really anything else to do but follow the transfer market, the Mata one is so out of the blue and unexpected I'm not sure I've wrapped my head around it yet! :lol:
 
Tevez
Ronaldo
DDG

I remember really, really wanting those first two. I saw the highlights of Ronaldo for Sporting against us and just thought 'this kid is incredible, we HAVE to sign him' and then we went out and did. It was awesome.

Honourable mention to Kleberson as well, I'd never seen him play but got so excited when we signed a World Cup winning Brazilian midfielder.
 
1. Berbatov - I went full muppet during the summer of 2008. Clinching that signing was so fecking sweet. Too bad it didn't work out.
2. Rooney - Knew he was special. His debut just topped it off.
3. Mata - Really, really excited - not least because it would seem he represent a change in style, moving away from our rigid, winger based tactics. It's a step at least.
 
Veron
Rooney
And Mata I suppose.
We've really not had that many genuinely exciting signings that aren't future prospects and are here and now players have we? Stam maybe?


Ronaldo seems like a silly shout. Maybe it was just because I was really young but did anybody know anything about him at the time apart from playing against us?
 
1) Wayne Rooney : I remember watching his goal to end Arsenal's run with that late goal and going "WOW". Then the type of European Championships he had made it even more exciting when we beat off Newcastle for his signature. And his debut was well worth the hype!

2) Tevez : It had already been a brilliant summer with the Nani/Anderson signings but this was the perfect icing on the cake. I'd been a fan of his for a long time already thanks to my Dad who used to rave about him. Couldn't believe we're getting a player of his talent. Was one of my favorite players in his time here at United and I still love the guy.

3) VDS : Probably won't make it top off too many people's lists but we'd had a disaster of a time with our goalkeepers and you knew you're getting guaranteed class with VDS. Had no idea he'd be as good as he turned out to be though!

Nani/Anderson both being announced late at night, Berbatov for the deadline day drama and Mata also are near the top of the list.
 
Cantona - Still for me the most influential player to play in the Premier League. A true legend and I will never forget flicking through Teletext (:() that night when the headline flashed up "CANTONA SIGNS FOR MANCHESTER UNITED". So out of the blue, I couldnt believe it and he went on to transform the whole club.

Mark Hughes - For no other reason than I just loved the guy when he played for us.

Mata - Genuinely think he can go on and be one of our all time great players. Seems to have the perfect temperment & character to play for us.
 
Really surprised at the number of people naming Veron. It was big money and he was a star for Argentina but had only really had a couple of decent seasons at Sampdoria and Lazio. My main reaction to our bid for him was that it was some dodgy move by him and his agent trying to avoid jail time for a fraudulently obtained Italian passport, while only the agent went down in the end I don't think we ever saw Seba with his footballing brain even half engaged. My Dad was even less impressed that we signed him as he remembered the "friendly" match United played against Estudiantes at OT where Seba's old man kicked lumps out of Charlton and Stiles.
 
Bojan11 said:
I wanted us to get Nedved rather than Veron.
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I'd have preferred Nedved but much as I liked him he was fading in the same way Keane had begun to when we got Veron. The player I wanted us to get was Gatusso who I still think was the ready made replacement for Keane and would have been less than half Seba's price.
 
We bought Veron in 2001, and Nedved won Ballon d'Or in 2003.

Gattuso was just so different to Keane, only similar in energy level and aggressiveness.
 
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