Any Fergie players shouldn’t have been sold?

andy dufresne

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Oct 15, 2019
Messages
221
Location
Shawshank Prison
The obvious ones have already been mentioned,in particular,some of my favourite players to wear a United Shirt i.e Jaap Stam and Paul McGrath who, when fit,was one of the best defenders I have ever seen.I liked Ruud, a pure out and out striker and goalgetter if ever there was one.I cant quite recall what happened with Ronnie Johnson (did Fergie sell him too)
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,172
I cant quite recall what happened with Ronnie Johnson (did Fergie sell him too)
Injuries finished him, he went to Villa and faded away. Classy defender in his day though, perfect foil for Stam.
 

izec

Full Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2013
Messages
27,164
Location
Lucilinburhuc
Zaha didnt get a proper chance here, but once Moyes caught him shagging his daughter, it was expected
 

Inigo Montoya

Leave Wayne Rooney alone!!
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
38,543
Zaha didnt get a proper chance here, but once Moyes caught him shagging his daughter, it was expected
Was that confirmed?
Anyway. Zaha made the move a tad early . He was a big fish at Palace and couldn’t cope with a huge move
 

Sandikan

aka sex on the beach
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
52,710
Zaha even though he wasn't technically a Fergie player, RW has been a big issue post-Fergie and he would have helped that. Who's to say if he'd become the player he is now had he stayed at United though.

I was going to say RVP/Chicharito because there were a few times where our striker depth was absolute shit but it might not have lead to Rashford getting opportunities.

People saying Evans probably don't remember how awful he was before he left, I don't think he could have coped with the pressure. It was like Ben Foster, made so many stupid mistakes at United but moved to a smaller club and excelled.
Glad someone remembers! One of the all time worst seasons put in by a United player, with that ridiculous spitting ban on top.

A bit of a Lindelöf that needed a quality partner to hide their averageness.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

Gullible
Joined
Feb 4, 2013
Messages
21,623
Location
The Mathews Bridge
I don't think there is a SAF-era player who has gone on to prove us wrong.

Those saying Rafael, Nani, Chicharito etc, none of them really kicked on once they left here. We certainly got Nani's best years. I loved Rafael, but his injury record was pretty woeful. Hernandez was always a limited player, though I guess any centre forward would be good for us right now, since we have barely have any. He had one good season at Leverkusen and that was it.



The only one who comes close is Evans, but he was very poor in those last couple of seasons here. He probably needed to leave and have a fresh start.

Also Zaha, if he counts. He was never given a fair chance. Then again, I think he benefits from being the big man at Palace.
 

Vooon

Full Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
2,600
Location
Hal Institute for Criminally Insane Robots
Obertan. The new Ronaldo they said. Looked good for about 2 minutes..
Massive head.

A number of players suddenly dropped dramatically in form and weekly performance after SAF left. It seems like they lost the drive and motivation to continue, and that it didn't matter what anyone did. Hiring Moyes probably didn't help, had we landed someone like Pep right away I think things could have been different. I can't really think of any player who had a brilliant career after SAF left. Mayba Zaha, but he arrived over the summer.

If thinking back to players who left before SAF, Stam is the obvious one for me. I think SAF even admitted that at some point.
 

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
19,790
Location
England
Would have been our best centre back the last 6 years.
That’s more of a damning indictment of our defence than Evans being good enough. He never looked good enough for us, he was slated constantly on here.

Selling Evans was a good decision, failure to make our defence any better since then, has been a travesty.

Same goes for Smalling, he may be our best natural defender but sooner we sell him to Roma the better. Then I hope we can actually improve our defence with players way better than Evans and Smalling.
 

OverratedOpinion

Full Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2017
Messages
6,205
That’s more of a damning indictment of our defence than Evans being good enough. He never looked good enough for us, he was slated constantly on here.

Selling Evans was a good decision, failure to make our defence any better since then, has been a travesty.

Same goes for Smalling, he may be our best natural defender but sooner we sell him to Roma the better. Then I hope we can actually improve our defence with players way better than Evans and Smalling.
I won't even go into whether I agree with you or not about his general level of quality. The fact is that he would have been our best centre back for the last 6 years and we sold him for peanuts.

There are very few players better than Chris Smalling when looking at defending alone. I personally find this idea that two ball playing defenders are necessary to be a bad attempt to cover for our crap midfield but not the thread for that.
 

cyril C

Full Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
2,634
I think this is totally rubbish. 99% of the players gone were not because the club need the money, as if we are Ajax. Players left either because they WANT to go (Ronaldo, Di Maria) or more likely because they see their starting chance down to 0% (Zaha, Rafael, Evans, Herdnandez) that they better move on before it is evidence. Jones is tasting this right now while Smalling is having games week in week out. Tosic' interview revealed all this, he was initially confused but after careful consideration, he moves on. Of all the players that Fergi did FORCE a sale, was Stam, Beckham, Ruud, plus Keane who was sacked.

The thread should talk about players who should have been sold earlier, such as Rooney....
 

momo83

Massive Snowflake
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,463
Great player but he was moaning saying Rooney and Ronaldo aren't good enough, it was time to go!
Truth be told while he was saying that. SAF had already realised that United needed a different type of forward line to win the CL... honestly it became predictable with Ruud and matches when he got marked out of the game resulted in limited chances and us relying on fortunate or scrappy goals.
 

MoskvaRed

Full Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2013
Messages
5,230
Location
Not Moskva
Post-Fergie: none I can think of. Their replacements were garbage but that’s a different issue.

While Fergie was manager - Stam obviously. Can’t think of any others.

No real howlers though on the scale of letting de Bruyne or Salah go for peanuts. Or Johnny Giles in the Busby era (according to my Dad at least).
 

Irwin99

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
9,124
For all of the criticism LVG got I think he recognised that Fergies last side was punching way above its weight and that we needed a rebuild. Not one of the players sold has gone anywhere but down career wise (Zaha is maybe an exception but he’s still at Crystal Palace).

A shame the players LVG (or Ed) brought in were mostly crap.
 

mnoogood

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Sep 14, 2019
Messages
3
Sir Alex made many football players stars. He knew what to buy, to fit, and when to sell. Ronaldo? Yes, Beckham - yes. But Nani - give him as a gift. Also Chicharito. Ruud was very sympathic, but could not fit. Berbatov - yes, had to sell him too. And even when you love a player you have to let him go - like Teddy Sheringham.
These are United's, not Di Maria, Chicharito.
 

TRUERED89

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 23, 2019
Messages
2,366
Location
England
Just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it's not true. SAF was encouraged by the club to back-down, and rightly so.
back down from what ? He never said anything negative about Stam once he left, so what would he be sued for ?
 

sunama

Baghdad Bob
Joined
Apr 26, 2014
Messages
16,830
Nope, none
Agreed 100%.
In fact, there are still some Fergie players who are lingering and need to be given the boot!

The problem is that standards are so low that some fans think that J.Evans is MUFC quality.
We should be searching for players of the calibre of Rio Ferdinand (when we bought him most felt that he was the English CB, who was most likely to become the best CB in England). J.Evans is not in that calibre, but in fairness to Woodward, Maguire does fit that description, which is why we spent so much money on him.
 

Foxbatt

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
14,297
McGrath himself had said somewhere that Fergie was right to move him.
 

Class of 63

Sourness
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
9,028
Location
Going through the Desert on a Horse with no Name
back down from what ? He never said anything negative about Stam once he left, so what would he be sued for ?
SAF defended selling Stam saying the main reason was that he'd lost some of his pace because of injuries, Stam fired back saying it wasn't true and the only reason he was sold was because of the so-called tapping-up whilst he was at PSV he mentioned in his book, and he was prepared to go to court to prove it - United the club couldn't afford for that to happen because at that time Arsenal were accusing United of tapping up Patrick Vieira as well, so SAF backed-down, no doubt encouraged by the powers that be.
 

Class of 63

Sourness
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
9,028
Location
Going through the Desert on a Horse with no Name
Agreed 100%.
In fact, there are still some Fergie players who are lingering and need to be given the boot!

The problem is that standards are so low that some fans think that J.Evans is MUFC quality.
We should be searching for players of the calibre of Rio Ferdinand (when we bought him most felt that he was the English CB, who was most likely to become the best CB in England). J.Evans is not in that calibre, but in fairness to Woodward, Maguire does fit that description, which is why we spent so much money on him.
He never fulfilled his potential, but he was, but his confidence was totally shot(and some of the fans who gave him grief at Old Trafford should take a long hard look at themselves for their part in that) and it was the right time to move him on when we did if only for the player himself.
 

POF

Full Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Messages
3,795
He never fulfilled his potential, but he was, but his confidence was totally shot(and some of the fans who gave him grief at Old Trafford should take a long hard look at themselves for their part in that) and it was the right time to move him on when we did if only for the player himself.
If there is ever a poster boy for how good Nemanja Vidic was, it's Jonny Evans. He looked genuine quality next to Vidic and bang average next to anyone else.
 

Class of 63

Sourness
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
9,028
Location
Going through the Desert on a Horse with no Name
If there is ever a poster boy for how good Nemanja Vidic was, it's Jonny Evans. He looked genuine quality next to Vidic and bang average next to anyone else.
Vidic was nothing but a box defender at that time which allowed Evans to step out with the ball which he was more comfortable doing being the right-side of a two than he ever was consistently playing to the left of Rio or Phil Jones, and it probably helped being on that side not being exposed by Evra or Buttner offering little or no protection.
 

POF

Full Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Messages
3,795
Vidic was nothing but a box defender at that time which allowed Evans to step out with the ball which he was more comfortable doing being the right-side of a two than he ever was consistently playing to the left of Rio or Phil Jones, and it probably helped being on that side not being exposed by Evra or Buttner offering little or no protection.
Apart from the fact that Vidic moved to the right so Evans could play on his preferred left side.

Vidic was the best defender in the world at the time. He'd have made anyone look good.