The greatest United value for money signings ever

ZeMario

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Can’t believe so few are mentioning Solskjaer. We practically got him on free. He won us the cl-final as player and is now manager. This has to be the most value for money ever
 

TRUERED89

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Can’t believe so few are mentioning Solskjaer. We practically got him on free. He won us the cl-final as player and is now manager. This has to be the most value for money ever
Definitely a worthy shout, but it has to go to King Eric, the catalyst of our domination which allowed us to go on to win CL's..
 

fps

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Cantona is the obvious one but Van der Sar was amazing value at £2m.

Ronaldo, purely for what he gave us and what we made when we sold him ... awesome.
Great call on Van Der Sar. Schmeichel was seemingly impossible to replace, but, living in London, I'd seen Fulham a fair bit and couldn't understand, with all the best will, what he was doing there when he was clearly one of the best keepers in the world!! For United to get him for £2m was a brilliant bit of business, his calm authority, professionalism and personality, coupled with his outstanding talent, made him the first proper Schmeichel successor to work out.
 

Volumiza

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Great call on Van Der Sar. Schmeichel was seemingly impossible to replace, but, living in London, I'd seen Fulham a fair bit and couldn't understand, with all the best will, what he was doing there when he was clearly one of the best keepers in the world!! For United to get him for £2m was a brilliant bit of business, his calm authority, professionalism and personality, coupled with his outstanding talent, made him the first proper Schmeichel successor to work out.
I would love to see him here as DOF
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

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Cost 20m+ and didn't last long, can't be in the top 10 surely.
We just had to win the league that year. It was a must after how 11/12 ended. Also being Sir Alex’s last season. We couldn’t lose it.

I just can’t imagine him not being part of our history with #20. Van Persie is my sentimental top signing for the club, as big as Cantona.

If you want records, stats, apps there are better options but he is without doubt top 10.
 

032Devil

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Cantona - £1m

He started the revolution. Was a leader, a talisman, a lunatic, a goalscorer, a provider, your go to guy.

Box office and top top drawer
With this young team we could use another Cantona now. Maybe Pogba could be that but I think he's might be too laid back to pick up that gauntlet.
 

davidmichael

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Cantona for £1 million
Schmeichel for £550K
Solskjaer for £1.5 million
Irwin for £625K
Vidic for £7 million
Evra for £5 million
Bruce for £800K
 

Maticmaker

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Here's one from the scrap book, Ernie Taylor, 5ft 2" position inside forward (nowadays known as No 8 or 10 role).

Ernie was bought from Blackpool just after the Munich disaster in 1958 for a reputed £8,000, his debut made in United's first match after the crash at OT against Sheffield Wednesday in FA cup 3rd Rd. Jimmy Murphy had to field virtually a team of kids and reserves, so Ernie was bought in to give maturity and that dash of skill.
Ernie helped us to get to Wembley, but he had his own 'demons' to fight and was sold on in Dec 1958 for reputedly £7,000.
The best £1,000 every spent by this club on a player in a real time of need.

At times out on the pitch Ernie looked like a Granddad having a kick about with his kids.
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

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With this young team we could use another Cantona now. Maybe Pogba could be that but I think he's might be too laid back to pick up that gauntlet.
By all accounts Pogba is a very focal and vocal figure in the dressing room. Agreed that he’s not the Gascoigne-Rambo type captain that takes charge but his influence shouldn’t be underestimated. Even in his worst performances he has a match winning pass on him.
 

The Brown Bull

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All these people insisting it's Cantona, what you have to remember is that he was with us for about four seasons and inspired us to two premier league wins. Probably cost us the double in 95 though. He is a legend bought for £1.2M, which was still a fair amount back in 1992. I would say that even Roy Keane was better value for money than Cantona. Bought for £3.75M and was an inspiration for about 11 seasons.
We won 4 Titles and two FA Cups with Eric.He was a great signing.
 

Mick1

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Antonio Valencia has gotten a lot of flask last year, but overall a brilliant signing for the club who was always first name on the team sheet for 9 years and ran himself to the ground for us.
 

Mugiwarared71

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Edwin van Der Saar - £2m
Patrice Evra - £5.5m
Nemanja Vidic - £7m
Cristiano Ronaldo - £12m
Michael Carrick - £14m
Wayne Rooney - £30m
Rio Ferdinand - £30m

£100m for 7 key players for our 08 CL winners squad, amazing.

hang on a min here Carrick wasn't 14 mil ? he was about 25-30 with add ons
 

fergiesarmy1

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No one mentioning mark hughes coming back for less than what we sold him for and being a beast for 6 seasons (a knob afterwards granted)
 

M15 Red.

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This thread should be 100 pages by now with Eric Cantona as the only answer.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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Rooney - 30M

Joined at 18 and spent 13 years at the club. Within that time, he achieved the following:

  • Premier League: 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13
  • FA Cup: 2015–16
  • Football League/EFL Cup: 2005–06, 2009–10, 2016–17
  • FA Community Shield: 2007, 2010, 2011,2016
  • UEFA Champions League: 2007–08
  • UEFA Europa League: 2016–17
  • FIFA Club World Cup: 2008

  • Manchester United all-time top scorer: 253 goals
  • England national team all-time top scorer: 53 goals
  • Most Premier League goals scored for one club: 183 goals for Manchester United
  • Most Premier League away goals scored: 94 goals
  • Most Premier League seasons reaching double figures in goals: 12
 

MisterLupus

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Denis Iriwin: £625k - Our best full back for the next eight years and then a useful squad player for four more years. Probably our best free-kick taker until Beckham stepped up and I'd claim a solid contender even then.
Peter Schmeichel: £500k - In my opinion our best goalkeeper to date and one of our most prolific players for a near decade. His presence between the poist won us so many games it's incredible and, in turn, also both trophies and titles alike.
Eric Cantona: £1.2M - Enough said really. Left a title winning Leeds side (who suddenly found themselves struggling against relegation after his departure) and then made us the dominant force in England. You can see a video of all his goals then add to the fact that his goals only tells one third the story of how important he was to us.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær: £1.5M - Brought in when Shearer went to Newcastle, and didn't disappoint. People who obsess over "that goal" are selling him way short because he was among the top-five finishers and most consistent goalscorers in the world during his tenure and netted 126 goals for us over the next decade - all this despite being used as either a sub or out of position (right wing) for most games and also while struggling against serious injuries during his latter years.
Cristiano Ronaldo: £12.2M - He could have cost us three times that and still been a bargain, and I don't really have to explain why either. He's GOAT-material - otherworldly.
Edwin van der Sar: £2M - Our third best Goalkeeper during the modern era behind Schmeichel and De Gea, and even though I don't rate him within their tier he was pure class and kept the fort through some very successful years.
Nemanja Vidic: £7M - Him alone returned to us all of that toughness we were missing those years after the 90s crew left the scene and was our strongest defender and one of our best performers for seasons to come.
 
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PeteManic

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Great call on Van Der Sar. Schmeichel was seemingly impossible to replace, but, living in London, I'd seen Fulham a fair bit and couldn't understand, with all the best will, what he was doing there when he was clearly one of the best keepers in the world!! For United to get him for £2m was a brilliant bit of business, his calm authority, professionalism and personality, coupled with his outstanding talent, made him the first proper Schmeichel successor to work out.
Why did VDS go to Fulham? Did he just want to live in London? Was he being paid megabucks?
 

PeteManic

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Denis Iriwin: £625k - Our best full back for the next eight years and then a useful squad player for four more years. Probably our best free-kick taker until Beckham stepped up and I'd claim a solid contender even then.
Peter Schmeichel: £500k - In my opinion our best goalkeeper to date and one of our most prolific players for a near decade. His presence between the poist won us so many games it's incredible and, in turn, also both trophies and titles alike.
Eric Cantona: £1.2M - Enough said really. Left a title winning Leeds side (who suddenly found themselves struggling against relegation after his departure) and then made us the dominant force in England. You can see a video of all his goals then add to the fact that his goals only tells one third the story of how important he was to us.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær: £1.5M - Brought in when Shearer went to Newcastle, and didn't disappoint. People who obsess over "that goal" are selling him way short because he was among the top-five finishers and most consistent goalscorers in the world and netted 126 goals for us over the next decade despite being used as either a sub and out of position (right wing) for most games and also despite struggling against serious injury during his latter years.
Cristiano Ronaldo: £12.2M - He could have cost us three times that and still been a bargain, and I don't really have to explain why either. He's GOAT-material.
Edwin van der Sar: £2M - Our third best Goalkeeper during the modern era behind Schmeichel and De Gea, and even though I don't rate him within their tier he was pure class and kept the fort through some very successful years.
Nemanja Vidic: £7M - Gave us back some of that toughness we were missing in the years after the 90s crew left the scene and was our strongest defender and one of our best performers for years to come.
This is the correct answer. /thread.
 

SaintMuppet

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Value for money???

Probably Fergie himself, whatever the cost he paid it back a thousand times over. How many of those cups/titles would we have won without him? What would the market value of the club be today without all that success?
 

fps

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Why did VDS go to Fulham? Did he just want to live in London? Was he being paid megabucks?
It's quite possible he liked London and wanted to make that his home. From Quora, a response from a poster:-

"Upon joining Fulham from Juventus, Edwin Van der Sar stated one of the reasons behind his decision to join The Cottagers: "The plans that Fulham Football Club presented to me were impressive and I especially like the ambition that the club has. Jean Tigana [then manager of Fulham] wants to go to the top with Fulham and he proved he can do that with Monaco, I like that ambition."

Van der Sar also went on to state that he moved to Fulham because the atmosphere was like his former club Ajax. Consequently this family environment may have made him feel appreciated and wanted by Fulham - after the disappointment he felt when, after being the number one shot stopper for two seasons, Juventus signed Gianluigi Buffon and thus demoted Van der Sar to second-choice 'keeper.

Another reason may be that Van der Sar failed to win the league title during his time at Juventus and thus a so-called 'bigger club' may have wanted to witness how Van der Sar will perform in the competitive and pressurised Premier League."
 

Full bodied red

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Some of the best were obviously those we developed for free. Class of 92, George Best etc. In terms of transfers didn’t we pick-up Denis Law on a free.

The story goes that The King ( my all-time hero ) cost us £ 99,999 from Torino because Sit Matt B said that no player could possibly be worth £ 100,000.

We let him leave on a free to Maine Road, and the rest is history....


https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/did-denis-law-score-goal-relegated-manchester-united
 

Annihilate Now!

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I think anyone who was a record fee at the time (Keane, Robson, Rio etc.) shouldnt really be considered - as ultimately, you're paying a record because you expect massive things from them.
 

DCP

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Wayne Rooney - 253 goals 146 assists.
£25.6m

£64,000 per goal or assist.

Cristiano - 118 goals 68 assists
£17.1m

£91,935 per goal or assist.

Ole - 127 goals 43 assists
£2.25m

£13,235 per goal or assist.

If you want to talk about value....

Slight tongue in cheek, but those Rooney stats are incredible when it comes to value, same with Cristiano. We would be getting nowhere near those stats now.

Neymar - 51 goals 29 assists
£199m

Lets pretend he plays as many games for PSG as Rooney did for United.
510 goals 290 assists
£248,750 per goal and assist.
 
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Grunge

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I personally don’t think any ‘record fee’ signing can be considered as ‘value for money’. IF they succeeded, they simply did what was expected of them given the fee.
It has been said that "Price is only an issue in the absence of value" ... so to your point, regardless of the cost to 'buy a player" if a player "succeeds" by meeting or exceeding expectations than he (or she) has proven their intrinsic "value" to the team.

Given that many posters on this site would not be United fans had Sir Matt not revolutionised the way British football was being played, I find it remarkable there are not more posters like the ones below who suggest Denis Law, the true and original "King" of Old Trafford, reflects the longest lasting value for money.

According to Law's book "Living for Kicks" published in 1963, Italian club Torino paid Man City a record £110,000 in the summer of '61 to buy Denis' services ... a number that actually rose to £125,000 including interest because Torino had agreed to pay via some kind of "Hire Purchase" system, to quote Denis in the book.

After just one season at Torino, where Denis scored 10 goals (a huge tally given the brutal Italian 8-man defensive system) and was named by the Italian press as "Player Numero Uno", Denis learned his contract had been sold to Juventus for £160,000. Denis was "done" with Italian football by then and reused to go. He had found a way to quietly fly home to Britain, spending a few weeks improving his golf skills while "things" got worked out.

A deal was finally done to sell him to United in July of 1962 for £115,000, a record for British football at the time. Busby had wanted to buy Denis much earlier in his career and almost got hime for only £10,000 but perhaps if that deal had been done, Denis would have been on that plane too?

So bear in mind the timing of this transfer ... United were still reeling from the impact of he Munich air crash 4 years earlier and Sir Matt could not afford the time to rebuild his team from what remained, so he had no choice but to buy. And none of the several purchases he made would prove more valuable than Denis. By May '63, Charlton, Herd & Law had made their way to Wembley and there they dominated Leicester to win the FA cup ... later that year a certain Georgie Best arrived at the club and along with Sir Bobby, the new trio including Denis, created an even more attacking and exciting style of football not unlike of what the "Babes" had been groomed to become. The names of this "trio" may not be familiar to newer United fans but perhaps you've seen the statue?

The incredible rise over 10 years from from that awful, fateful day in February 1958 to the spectacular European Cup win in 1968 would not have happened without the goals from Denis Law (some so spectacular had to be seen to be believed) ... not in the actual final of course, but in the many games leading up to winning the league and ultimately that first final.

And my point, the millions of United fans, supporters or whatever we call ourselves these days, have so much to thank Sir Matt for; and spending what seemed like an unreasonable sum for one player at the time is just one of them!

Long live the king!

I think you need to look at transfer fees in the context of the market at the time.
Denis Law cost £110k, and had a far greater impact than many of the names here.
Denis Law
The story goes that The King ( my all-time hero ) cost us £ 99,999 from Torino because Sit Matt B said that no player could possibly be worth £ 100,000.

We let him leave on a free to Maine Road, and the rest is history....


https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/did-denis-law-score-goal-relegated-manchester-united
 

Full bodied red

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It has been said that "Price is only an issue in the absence of value" ... so to your point, regardless of the cost to 'buy a player" if a player "succeeds" by meeting or exceeding expectations than he (or she) has proven their intrinsic "value" to the team.

Given that many posters on this site would not be United fans had Sir Matt not revolutionised the way British football was being played, I find it remarkable there are not more posters like the ones below who suggest Denis Law, the true and original "King" of Old Trafford, reflects the longest lasting value for money.

According to Law's book "Living for Kicks" published in 1963, Italian club Torino paid Man City a record £110,000 in the summer of '61 to buy Denis' services ... a number that actually rose to £125,000 including interest because Torino had agreed to pay via some kind of "Hire Purchase" system, to quote Denis in the book.

After just one season at Torino, where Denis scored 10 goals (a huge tally given the brutal Italian 8-man defensive system) and was named by the Italian press as "Player Numero Uno", Denis learned his contract had been sold to Juventus for £160,000. Denis was "done" with Italian football by then and reused to go. He had found a way to quietly fly home to Britain, spending a few weeks improving his golf skills while "things" got worked out.

A deal was finally done to sell him to United in July of 1962 for £115,000, a record for British football at the time. Busby had wanted to buy Denis much earlier in his career and almost got hime for only £10,000 but perhaps if that deal had been done, Denis would have been on that plane too?

So bear in mind the timing of this transfer ... United were still reeling from the impact of he Munich air crash 4 years earlier and Sir Matt could not afford the time to rebuild his team from what remained, so he had no choice but to buy. And none of the several purchases he made would prove more valuable than Denis. By May '63, Charlton, Herd & Law had made their way to Wembley and there they dominated Leicester to win the FA cup ... later that year a certain Georgie Best arrived at the club and along with Sir Bobby, the new trio including Denis, created an even more attacking and exciting style of football not unlike of what the "Babes" had been groomed to become. The names of this "trio" may not be familiar to newer United fans but perhaps you've seen the statue?

The incredible rise over 10 years from from that awful, fateful day in February 1958 to the spectacular European Cup win in 1968 would not have happened without the goals from Denis Law (some so spectacular had to be seen to be believed) ... not in the actual final of course, but in the many games leading up to winning the league and ultimately that first final.

And my point, the millions of United fans, supporters or whatever we call ourselves these days, have so much to thank Sir Matt for; and spending what seemed like an unreasonable sum for one player at the time is just one of them!

Long live the king!

I've been lucky enough to meet Denis a couple of times at OT.

Probably amongst my most treasured and unforgettable moments in life.

And considering his career in general and his place in our history, it is almost impossible to over emphasise what a hugely modest and gentle man he is and with a fabulous sense of humour.

Just to complete one particular story about him, for almost a hundred years there has been a pub at Crown Point in Denton, a suburb in East Manchester, that's called The King's Head. For maybe the first 70 of those years, the pub's sign was a Playing Card depiction of a King's Head. Then about 30 years ago ( maybe 40 or maybe 25 - I can't remember exactly ) a new Landlord took over the pub and immediately announced that he would change the old Playing Card sign to an artist's depiction of Denis, doing one of his characteristic ' leaping like a salmon ' jumps to head home yet another goal.

As he had played for Citeh both before and after playing for us but without the same level of worldwide recognition and success of his time with us, there was a lot of debate of whether Denis should be depicted wearing red or sky blue.

Eventually, when the painted sign was finally hung outside the pub, it had Denis wearing his beloved Scotland dark blue shirt, but the painting was Denis to an absolute tee.

Sadly, the sign had disappeared the last time I was in Denton, about seven years ago, but there must be some picture of it somewhere on the Net if someone can find it or has a copy, please.
 

Gehrman

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Antonio Valencia has gotten a lot of flask last year, but overall a brilliant signing for the club who was always first name on the team sheet for 9 years and ran himself to the ground for us.
He had a few seasons where he turned into a non-footballer after being quality. Both him and Nani actually. Valencia had some great seasons for us, but also too many where he was absolutely dire to rate him among the best bargains. Also have to consider the context that we had just sold Ronaldo for a world record fee and should have had the funds to buy someone like Rooben instead who was a far better play than Valencia.
 

John Blund

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For me it's Eric. It's not about what we won with him, it's all about the club we became once we started winning again.

As for great value, I'd even say Rooney and Rio were great signings. Transfer records, yes, but having a world-class player for more than a decade is good value no matter how you look at things. Then you have the best bargains, like Ole, VdS, Irwin, Peter.
 

montpelier

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Lee Sharpe £ 200,000 - got Utd looking more like Utd again, even before Cantona arrived.