Change the fate of a club by swapping a transfer

[stefan92]

2008. Instead of bringing in Jürgen Klinsmann as head coach, we take the other Jürgen from Mainz, not only preventing the disaster that was Klinsmann's time at Bayern, but also Dortmund's 2011 and 2012 league wins. Maybe even Pool's 2019 CL and 2020 premier league, at that.

Klopp is a funny case, as he was a possibility both for Bayern and Hamburg, and both decided not to get him because they were not sure if he would fit the club culture (allegedly the later did not go through with their offer for him because he showed up wearing jeans for a meeting). Just imagine him going to Hamburg and leading them to success instead of Dortmund, which could well have gone further down to the second league were Hamburg is playing now.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

If Pogba & McTominay don’t suffer long term injuries we don’t sign Bruno in January 2020 & Pochettino is United manager right now.

 

[MrMarcello]

Hargreaves gave us a perfect free kick against Arsenal securing the title (2-1) and went on to play a good game in the CL final.

Senna however faded. Senna was very overrated and limited if you ask me - a cleaner we did not need, and a level below Carrick/Scholes - we had a better one for the job already in Fletcher and Sennas defensive awareness in Carrick who was very clever defensively. Hargreaves could do more things than Senna albeit being injured.

Bravo. Hargreaves spent 80% of his United career in the treatment room. Senna would have scored and assisted his fair share, would have been perfect foil to Carrick and Scholes, and a better player than Fletcher.

 

[2cents]

I thought the choice was between Senna and Carrick in 2006, not Senna and Hargreaves in 2007?

 

[MrMarcello]

I thought the choice was between Senna and Carrick in 2006, not Senna and Hargreaves in 2007?

SAF kept pressing to add Hargreaves that summer well after Carrick had signed. The club supposedly low-balled Villarreal and kept Senna in a holding pattern, and the club/player ultimately said no. Senna had later cited family concerns and whatnot but I seem to recall reports from August 2006 that Senna was being kept on hold while the club pursued Hargreaves, who ultimately remained with Bayern for another year (and should have been signed in summer 2005 when his contract had one year remaining, but I guess SAF didn't rate him until the 2006 World Cup as that is when he began pursuing).

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/sep/16/villarreal.manchesterunited
https://www.90min.com/posts/6578176...ts-he-almost-joined-manchester-united-in-2006

 

[2cents]

SAF kept pressing to add Hargreaves that summer well after Carrick had signed. The club supposedly low-balled Villarreal and kept Senna in a holding pattern, and the club/player ultimately said no. Senna had later cited family concerns and whatnot but I seem to recall reports from August 2006 that Senna was being kept on hold while the club pursued Hargreaves, who ultimately remained with Bayern for another year (and should have been signed in summer 2005 when his contract had one year remaining, but I guess SAF didn't rate him until the 2006 World Cup as that is when he began pursuing).

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/sep/16/villarreal.manchesterunited
https://www.90min.com/posts/6578176...ts-he-almost-joined-manchester-united-in-2006

Ah right, yeah that rings a bell actually.

 

[MrMarcello]

Another that ponders the imagination... what if SAF had convinced Essien to take the lesser offer and join United in 2005?

Same could be asked of Ballack in 2006.

 

[SER19]

In 2011 united sign Sergio Aguero. City sign Ashley Young

 

[DWelbz19]

Barcelona sign Isco as the Iniesta replacement and he actually fulfils his potential. Madrid sign someone else instead.

 

[Gopher Brown]

Shearer agrees to join Man Utd, meaning they never end up signing their plan b, a certain Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

It’s impossible to ever know how this will have turned out, we may in fact have been even more successful, but one thing is for sure, the dramatic events of the last few minutes of the 1999 Champions League final would not have panned out the same.

We would in all likelihood have a different manager right now, too, as despite being a fan of the job he’s done so far, it’s hard to deny that nostalgia and sentimentality played a part in his hiring.

Really? You don’t think we would have looked at the Molde manager who had won nothing for 3 years?

 

[WakeAndBeek]

Really? You don’t think we would have looked at the Molde manager who had won nothing for 3 years?

Big if true, lumping on Erling Moe as next United manager- he’s even won something in the last 3 years!

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Liverpool sign Brandt instead of Salah in 2017, as per Klopp’s wishes at the time. Liverpool remain a Europa league team. Klopp is sacked and condemned by the football Gods to hipster manager purgatory as manager of Dortmund in perpetuity. Forever trapped in a Sisyphean fate where any progress is reset by Bayern signing their best players on a free transfer.

 

[pablo__p]

41:40 here https://podtail.com/podcast/the-totally-football-show-with-james-richards/be-a-terrible-boyfriend/

 

[2cents]

Summer 2001, we sign Sol Campbell on a free instead of Laurent Blanc.

Looking back it’s actually a bit bizarre that this didn’t happen, whether or not Stam was sold. Is there some reason we weren’t in for Campbell apart from Fergie being happy with Stam until it was too late? Considering our other options were an aging Johnsen, injury-prone Brown, and error-prone Silvestre, you have to think Campbell on a free would have been on our radar no matter what.

 

[bosnian_red]

Barcelona sign Isco as the Iniesta replacement and he actually fulfils his potential. Madrid sign someone else instead.

I mean Isco did have a couple of great seasons where he played a big role in a champions league win, and has won a boatload of trophies while there. Can't be too hard on the guy!

 

[Stormrage101MUFC]

I’ll be a bit cheeky and swap two - instead of signing Owen and Valencia in 2009, we sign Robben and Sneijder. As a result we end up with at least seven league titles in a row (2007-2013) and at least one more CL victory (probably 2010).

(edit) sorry, just saw they should be around the same price. Still though, it was very much within the realm of possibility.

True. If I remember correctly we were heavily linked with Ribery in that transfer window - the rumoured price was £63m which we could afford with the Ronaldo sale. If we got just Ribery we would have easily won the League and Champions League double in 2010.

Though I must say Valencia was great in that season.

 

[Irrational.]

2003 - United sign Ronaldinho, Barca sign Beckham, Arsenal sign... Cristiano?

 

[led_scholes]

Summer 2001, we sign Sol Campbell on a free instead of Laurent Blanc.

Looking back it’s actually a bit bizarre that this didn’t happen, whether or not Stam was sold. Is there some reason we weren’t in for Campbell apart from Fergie being happy with Stam until it was too late? Considering our other options were an aging Johnsen, injury-prone Brown, and error-prone Silvestre, you have to think Campbell on a free would have been on our radar no matter what.

That's an interesting one. But I believe that we wouldn't sign Rio the summer after, which eventually was a better transfer IMO. Sol had a massive wage, he was also probably happy to stay in London, and Arsenal was a top 2 in England and top-10 team in the world at that point. SAF was definetely happy with Stam and believed in Brown's potential. Taking into account that we also had an experienced Johnsen and a Silvestre who was okayish when playing as a CB, we were not that awful prior to Stam's departure. If he khew that Stam would leave, he would have perhaps gone for Sol Cambell, but that should have happened early 2001, when Campbell made it "public" he will leave.

 

[Shark]

If we'd signed even one of Silva, Toure and Aguero instead of one of Jones, Young or whoever else in around 2011.

 

[Solius]

If we'd signed even one of Silva, Toure and Aguero instead of one of Jones, Young or whoever else in around 2011.

This was what I was thinking. I remember watching clips of Aguero scoring two and assisting two against Barcelona when he was around 20 years old. Looked unreal and I wished we would sign him.

 

[1950]

Eintracht Frankfurt don't hire Jupp Heynckes in 1994. Okocha, Yeboah & Gaudino stay, Uwe Bein decides to postpone his semi-retirement for another season. Eintracht win the title playing scintillating attacking football instead of drab shit-on-a-stick Heynckes-ball. Thorsten Legat never steps on the pitch for the club. Instead of turning into a yoyo-club for a decade following the club's first ever relegation, Eintracht continues qualifying for Europan competitions, now one of a few established top clubs in Germany.

 

[T00lsh3d]

If we sign Ronaldinho and he doesn’t go to Barca, I don’t think they win that 2006 CL or go through the period of success they did during that time, and who knows if the Pep Barcelona team ends up happening after that.

Was going to do similar.
Beckham moves from us to Barca and Ronaldinho moves to Madrid.

 

[Fortitude]

Summer 2001, we sign Sol Campbell on a free instead of Laurent Blanc.

Looking back it’s actually a bit bizarre that this didn’t happen, whether or not Stam was sold. Is there some reason we weren’t in for Campbell apart from Fergie being happy with Stam until it was too late? Considering our other options were an aging Johnsen, injury-prone Brown, and error-prone Silvestre, you have to think Campbell on a free would have been on our radar no matter what.

He wanted to stay in London.

 

[MrMarcello]

Liverpool sign Brandt instead of Salah in 2017, as per Klopp’s wishes at the time. Liverpool remain a Europa league team. Klopp is sacked and condemned by the football Gods to hipster manager purgatory as manager of Dortmund in perpetuity. Forever trapped in a Sisyphean fate where any progress is reset by Bayern signing their best players on a free transfer.

Who signs Salah in this scenario?

Or does he carry on as "immensely talented but never reached that level" while bouncing around clubs?

 

[MrMarcello]

Summer 2001, we sign Sol Campbell on a free instead of Laurent Blanc.

Looking back it’s actually a bit bizarre that this didn’t happen, whether or not Stam was sold. Is there some reason we weren’t in for Campbell apart from Fergie being happy with Stam until it was too late? Considering our other options were an aging Johnsen, injury-prone Brown, and error-prone Silvestre, you have to think Campbell on a free would have been on our radar no matter what.

Also had wondered this over the years. There were rumors in 1999 and 2000 summer windows that United were courting Campbell. I had him pegged to join in summer 2000 with a year left on his deal with Spurs. Never happened, found it weird as if SAF didn't rate Sol, or that he was putting his wager on Brown/Johnsen/May to be fit to partner Stam, or would shift Gary inside if need be, or carry on with disaster Silvestre in the middle.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Shearer agrees to join Man Utd, meaning they never end up signing their plan b, a certain Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

It’s impossible to ever know how this will have turned out, we may in fact have been even more successful, but one thing is for sure, the dramatic events of the last few minutes of the 1999 Champions League final would not have panned out the same.

We would in all likelihood have a different manager right now, too, as despite being a fan of the job he’s done so far, it’s hard to deny that nostalgia and sentimentality played a part in his hiring.

Really? Are you sure about that? Personally I’ve got money on the Helsingborg manager replacing Pep at City.

 

[RealBarcelonaUnited]

1988 United signed Gascoigne. Although seem to work out quite well for us in the end, but still having SAF managing Gazza I truly believe we will see a generational talent fulfil his potential.

 

[MrMarcello]

1988 United signed Gascoigne. Although seem to work out quite well for us in the end, but still having SAF managing Gazza I truly believe we will see a generational talent fulfil his potential.

Interesting, I never got to see him play but have heard much about him. But let's say Gasciogne ignites the club and doesn't descend into his problems... perhaps the club win the league in 1992, which could mean no Cantona signing next season. But perhaps Gasciogne influence and ability he becomes the club icon.