Fergie's transfer record - how good was it?

[The Boy]

Usually Fergie was spot on with his player assessments

This quote about Phil Jones being compared to Duncan Edwards made me think that I've seen quite a few posts here talking about how good Fergie's transfer record was and how he rarely bought a dud. (Sorry I don't mean to pick on you @redmanx, your post just sparked the thought)

Everyone remembers the famous duds, Bebe, Veron etc but when you start looking through his transfers, there are far more that failed than succeeded. To be fair on SAF apart from Veron, the really expensive transfers pretty much all worked out really well, I'm thinking Ferdinand, Rooney, etc

So what think the caf?

Spoiler: Fergie's signings rated - but you will probably disagree!

GREAT IMPACT	cost	AVERAGE IMPACT	cost	BAD	cost
Brian McClair	850,000	Viv Anderson	250,000	Jim Leighton	500,000
Mark Hughes	1.8M	Dion Dublin	1M	Mal Donaghy	650,000
Lee Sharpe	200,000	David May	1.4M	Ralph Milne	170,000
Gary Pallister	2.3M	Jesper Blomqvist	4.4M	Giunliano Maiorana	30,000
Paul Ince	1M	Les Sealey	Free	Mike Phelan	750,000
Denis Irwin	625,000	Quinton Fortune	1.5M	Neil Webb	1.5M
Andrei Kanchelskis	650,000	Roy Carroll	2.5M	Danny Wallace	1.2M
Peter Schmeichel	500,000	Diego Forlan	6.9M	Neil Whitworth	45,000
Paul Parker	2M	Tim Howard	2.3M	Pat McGibbon	10,000
Eric Cantona	1.2M	Alan Smith	7M	Graeme Tomlinson	100,000
Roy Keane	3.7M	Gabriel Heinze	6.9M	Nick Culkin	250,000
Andy Cole	7M	Owen Hargreaves	17M	William Prunier	Free
Raimond van der Gouw	Free	Kieron Richardson	Free	Tony Coton	500,000
Ronny Johnsen	1.2M	Anders Lindegaard	3.5M	Karel Poborsky	3.5M
Ole	1.5M	Michael Owen	Free	Jordi Cruyff	1.3M
Teddy Sheringham	3.5M			Erik Nevland	Undisclosed
Henning Berg	5M			Jonathan Greening	500,000
Jaap Stam	10.7M			Mark Bosnich	Free
Dwight Yorke	12.6M			Massimo Taibi	4.5M
Mikael Silvestre	4M			Bojan Djordjic	1.5M
RVN	19M			Fabien Barthez	7.8M
Laurent Blanc	Free			Juan Veron	28M
Rio Ferdinand	27M			Luke Steele	500,000
C.Ronaldo	12.3M			Ricardo Lopez	1.5M
Louis Saha	12.8M			David Bellion	2M
Wayne Rooney	25.6M			Eric Djembax2	3.5M
Nemanja Vidic	7M			Kleberson	6.5M
Patrice Evra	5.5M			Lee Martin	200,000
Edwin van der Sar	2M			Dong	500,000
Park Ji-Sung	4M			Liam Miller	Free
Michael Carrick	18.6M			Ben Foster	1M
Nani	21M			Anderson	20M
Carlos Tevez	20M			Thomas Kuszczak	4.3M
Rafael	3M			Manucho	1M
Dimitar Berbatov	30.75M			Fabio	3M
Antonio Valencia	16M			Rodrigo Possebon	3.5M
Chris Smalling	10M			Zoran Tosic	6M
Chicarito	7M			Ritchie De Laet	200,000
Ashley Young	17M			Gabriel Obertan	3.5M
DDG	19M			Mame Diouf	4.0M
RVP	24M			Bebe	7.4M
				Phil Jones	16.5M
				Nick Powell	6M
				Shinji Kagawa	12M
				Angelo Henriquez	5M
				Alexander Buttner	4.5M
				Wilfred Zaha	15M

I've probably missed out a few and have tried to focus on players bought expecting first team action rather than just pure youth, which is why Pogba doesn't make the list for example. The good/bad columns are also subjective and are just my rough ratings.

tl:dr Was SAF's transfer record really as good as many now seem to think it was?

EDIT List updated due to general outrage

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Any manager that spends three decades at a top club will sign plenty of bad players. Drawing up a list of "good" vs "bad" is utterly silly and would leave every manager in the world in the negative overall.

tl:dr Was SAF's transfer record really as good as many now seem to think it was?

TLDR Yes, it was amazing.

 

[AltiUn]

He did sign a fair few duds but when he got it right he got it really, really right.

 

[prateik]

Quite a few of the "bad" ones came when he started looking for great value towards the end.. for reasons.

It was very good for the most part.. any club would be delighted with his hit rate.

Also.. Heinze wasnt a bad player.. just a cnut.

edit: googled him.. apparently is now the head coach at ATL .. feck . I wanted to like them.

 

[Galactic]

2/3 success rate. It is not bad at all really. Imagine if we buy 3 players each season and 2 of them turn out to be very good signings. That will be not bad at all if you ask me.

And there are finer details than just good or bad. Luck with injuries for example, such as for the case of Dion Dublin and Alan Smith. And you cant really count free transfers. And some of them had great one season or two, or half in some cases. It's not totally bad in those cases. He didn't ruin Zaha, anyway.

 

[MadDogg]

You're being harsh on some of the 'bad' players. Some gave us a good couple of years before falling away, and some were cheap punts that went on to be good squad players.

I wouldn't really class Kieran Richardson as a buy either - he'd only just turned 17 when he joined us and was obviously just a youth transfer. I'd actually forgotten he hadn't completely come through the ranks.

 

[The Boy]

Drawing up a list of "good" vs "bad" is utterly silly

Sorry for being utterly silly, you must let me know which threads you judge as sensible.

 

[The Boy]

You're being harsh on some of the 'bad' players. Some gave us a good couple of years before falling away, and some were cheap punts that went on to be good squad players.

I wouldn't really class Kieran Richardson as a buy either - he'd only just turned 17 when he joined us and was obviously just a youth transfer.

Yeah, the good v bad is always going to be subjective, but given the way some here judge AWB or Maguire for example is far harsher than anything on that list IMO.

Actually the list was quite fun to do, loads of players I'd forgotten about and some were really hard to place.

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Sorry for being utterly silly, you must let me know which threads you judge as sensible.

Yup, this is definitely not one of them. I'll keep you posted!

 

[MadDogg]

Yeah, the good v bad is always going to be subjective, but given the way some here judge AWB or Maguire for example is far harsher than anything on that list IMO.

Actually the list was quite fun to do, loads of players I'd forgotten about and some were really hard to place.

Maybe there should be a third category for players that were 'ok'. Cheap squad players that did that job, and also players that were good for a season or two.

Not sure about earlier players, but the likes of May, Fortune, Howard, Smith, Heinze, Hargreaves, Anderson and Owen don't feel right to be on the 'bad' list for me. Perhaps Barthez as well since he's kind of the same as Howard in that both had one good season before falling away, but I guess the expectations (and price) on Barthez makes him feel like more of a flop.

 

[Red_toad]

That bad lost is awful, just so picky. I’ll go with Leighton he was perfectly fine for a while, then his form dropped off a cliff, can’t remember why, so he cannot be classsed as just a bad signing, as there was a lot of positive followed by poor form, then he was moved on.

 

[The Boy]

Maybe there should be a third category for players that were 'ok'. Cheap squad players that did that job, and also players that were good for a season or two.

Spoiler: How is this?

GOOD	cost	OK	cost	BAD	cost
Brian McClair	850,000	Viv Anderson	250,000	Jim Leighton	500,000
Mark Hughes	1.8M	Dion Dublin	1M	Mal Donaghy	650,000
Lee Sharpe	200,000	David May	1.4M	Ralph Milne	170,000
Gary Pallister	2.3M	Jesper Blomqvist	4.4M	Giunliano Maiorana	30,000
Paul Ince	1M	Les Sealey	Free	Mike Phelan	750,000
Denis Irwin	625,000	Quinton Fortune	1.5M	Neil Webb	1.5M
Andrei Kanchelskis	650,000	Roy Carroll	2.5M	Danny Wallace	1.2M
Peter Schmeichel	500,000	Diego Forlan	6.9M	Neil Whitworth	45,000
Paul Parker	2M	Tim Howard	2.3M	Pat McGibbon	10,000
Eric Cantona	1.2M	Alan Smith	7M	Graeme Tomlinson	100,000
Roy Keane	3.7M	Gabriel Heinze	6.9M	Nick Culkin	250,000
Andy Cole	7M	Owen Hargreaves	17M	William Prunier	Free
Raimond van der Gouw	Free			Tony Coton	500,000
Ronny Johnsen	1.2M			Karel Poborsky	3.5M
Ole	1.5M			Jordi Cruyff	1.3M
Teddy Sheringham	3.5M			Erik Nevland	Undisclosed
Henning Berg	5M			Jonathan Greening	500,000
Jaap Stam	10.7M			Mark Bosnich	Free
Dwight Yorke	12.6M			Massimo Taibi	4.5M
Mikael Silvestre	4M			Bojan Djordjic	1.5M
RVN	19M			Fabien Barthez	7.8M
Laurent Blanc	Free			Juan Veron	28M
Rio Ferdinand	27M			Kieron Richardson	Free
C.Ronaldo	12.3M
Louis Saha	12.8M			Luke Steele	500,000
Wayne Rooney	25.6M			Ricardo Lopez	1.5M
Nemanja Vidic	7M			David Bellion	2M
Patrice Evra	5.5M			Eric Djembax2	3.5M
Edwin van der Sar	2M			Kleberson	6.5M
Park Ji-Sung	4M			Lee Martin	200,000
Michael Carrick	18.6M			Dong	500,000
Nani	21M			Liam Miller	Free
Carlos Tevez	20M			Ben Foster	1M
Rafael	3M
Dimitar Berbatov	30.75M			Anderson	20M
Antonio Valencia	16M			Thomas Kuszczak	4.3M
Chris Smalling	10M			Manucho	1M
Chicarito	7M			Fabio	3M
Ashley Young	17M			Rodrigo Possebon	3.5M
DDG	19M			Zoran Tosic	6M
RVP	24M			Ritchie De Laet	200,000
				Michael Owen	Free
				Gabriel Obertan	3.5M
				Mame Diouf	4.0M
				Bebe	7.4M
				Anders Lindegaard	3.5M
				Phil Jones	16.5M
				Nick Powell	6M
				Shinji Kagawa	12M
				Angelo Henriquez	5M
				Alexander Buttner	4.5M
				Wilfred Zaha	15M

 

[Adnan]

A lot of those so called duds were actually cheap punts that we took a chance on. Obertan for example we took a chance on due to his potential but were warned by Laurent Blanc that he had issues mentally. Quinton Fortune was at the club for 7 years and was a decent squad option for 1.5m. Bebe was a strange deal that seemed dodgy from the off due to Jorge Mendes. Erik Nevland was signed after he scored a succession of hattricks whilst on trial as a teenager playing in non first team games. It wasn't Fergie who made the call on him but the Coaches who were working with the youth. William Prunier was only on trial at the club and it was reported that Fergie only intended to test him in reserve games but he was drafted straight into the first team after Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce and David May suffered injuries.

I can go on but I'll stop here, because Fergie sure signed duds and there's no question about that. But alot of the names listed in the OP weren't duds at all.

 

[Bebestation]

Whilst I agree - I really dislike people calling owen Hargreaves a flop. The guy was fundamental to our CL win even if he was injury prone..

 

[MadDogg]

Whilst I agree - I really dislike people calling owen Hargreaves a flop. The guy was fundamental to our CL win even if he was injury prone..

Yeah, he was a strange one. He was a flop in central midfield which is where he was obviously bought to play, but he ended up being a really good option playing on the right (either on the wing or fullback) for that CL season. Unfortunately injury destroyed him after that.

 

[Wumminator]

How can Fabio, Barthez or Phil Jones be considered bad signings?

 

[Thaumaste]

If anything, this thread has reminded me of just how good Fergie's transfer dealings actually were. The first set of categorisations is ludicrously off, but even the 2nd fails to do justice to players who maybe didn't live up to all the expectations, but were no means actually poor either as players or signings.

I mean, not only are loads of the 'bad' signings cheap punts as @Adnan has pointed out, but I don't really see how, for example, Michael Owen (much as I have no liking for him) was a bad signing on a free, and players like Anderson and Phil Jones, while not setting the world alight, played valuable roles over reasonable periods of time, and in no way can be categorised alongside people like Taibi.

 

[Adnan]

Les Sealey was also a success story and helped us win the FA Cup final in 1990 after Fergie had dropped Jim Leighton. The following season he suffered a injury in the league cup final and according to Clayton Blackmore his knee was in such a mess that his bone was showing but he refused to come off the pitch. 3 weeks later he miraculous declared himself fit for the Cup winners Cup final where United defeated Barcelona 3-1. He was offered a new contract but he decided to leave the club not long after.

Sadly he died in 2001.

 

[Gazza]

Fergie got most of the big transfer fees right - Pallister, Keane, Stam, Yorke, Ruud, Rio, Rooney
He got some diamonds - Schmeichel, Kanchelskis, Cantona, Solskjaer, Ronaldo
He recruited solidly throughout - Irwin, Bruce, Pallister, Ince, R Johnsen, Evra, Vidic, van de Sar, Carrick, Nani

So basically when you get the above right, you're allowed to have a few that don't work out. He built four great teams.

 

[RedRonaldo]

I think between good and bad, maybe we should add another column of average signing.

 

[RashyForPM]

The bad list is awful. Genuinely awful. Phelan, May, Blomqvist, Foster, Hargreaves, Anderson, Kuszczak, Fabio, Owen, Lindegaard, Jones, Kagawa and Buttner all fulfilled their job descriptions upon signings, be it as an important player or squad player. Fergie got far more right than he did wrong.

The way many people talk, not just OP tbf, you’d think Fergie had no tactics, had awful recruitment and while a good motivator, constantly disrespected his players like Beckham. It’s a wonder how he won 38 trophies including 13 titles in 27 years to become the greatest manager of all-time eh?

 

[Sunny Jim]

This quote about Phil Jones being compared to Duncan Edwards made me think that I've seen quite a few posts here talking about how good Fergie's transfer record was and how he rarely bought a dud. (Sorry I don't mean to pick on you @redmanx, your post just sparked the thought)

Everyone remembers the famous duds, Bebe, Veron etc but when you start looking through his transfers, there are far more that failed than succeeded. To be fair on SAF apart from Veron, the really expensive transfers pretty much all worked out really well, I'm thinking Ferdinand, Rooney, etc

So what think the caf?

Spoiler: Fergie's transfers rated good or bad

GOOD	cost	BAD	cost
Brian McClair	850,000	Viv Anderson	250,000
Mark Hughes	1.8M	Jim Leighton	500,000
Lee Sharpe	200,000	Mal Donaghy	650,000
Gary Pallister	2.3M	Ralph Milne	170,000
Paul Ince	1M	Giunliano Maiorana	30,000
Denis Irwin	625,000	Mike Phelan	750,000
Andrei Kanchelskis	650,000	Neil Webb	1.5M
Peter Schmeichel	500,000	Danny Wallace	1.2M
Paul Parker	2M	Les Sealey	Free
Eric Cantona	1.2M	Neil Whitworth	45,000
Roy Keane	3.7M	Pat McGibbon	10,000
Andy Cole	7M	Dion Dublin	1M
Raimond van der Gouw	Free	Graeme Tomlinson	100,000
Ronny Johnsen	1.2M	David May	1.4M
Ole	1.5M	Nick Culkin	250,000
Teddy Sheringham	3.5M	William Prunier	Free
Henning Berg	5M	Tony Coton	500,000
Jaap Stam	10.7M	Karel Poborsky	3.5M
Dwight Yorke	12.6M	Jordi Cruyff	1.3M
Mikael Silvestre	4M	Erik Nevland	Undisclosed
RVN	19M	Jonathan Greening	500,000
Laurent Blanc	Free	Jesper Blomqvist	4.4M
Rio Ferdinand	27M	Mark Bosnich	Free
C.Ronaldo	12.3M	Quinton Fortune	1.5M
Louis Saha	12.8M	Massimo Taibi	4.5M
Wayne Rooney	25.6M	Bojan Djordjic	1.5M
Nemanja Vidic	7M	Fabien Barthez	7.8M
Patrice Evra	5.5M	Juan Veron	28M
Edwin van der Sar	2M	Roy Carroll	2.5M
Park Ji-Sung	4M	Kieron Richardson	Free
Michael Carrick	18.6M	Diego Forlan	6.9M
Nani	21M	Luke Steele	500,000
Carlos Tevez	20M	Ricardo Lopez	1.5M
Rafael		David Bellion	2M
Dimitar Berbatov	30.75M	Eric Djembax2	3.5M
Antonio Valencia	16M	Tim Howard	2.3M
Chris Smalling	10M	Kleberson	6.5M
Chicarito		Lee Martin	200,000
Ashley Young	17M	Dong	500,000
DDG	19M	Alan Smith	7M
RVP	24M	Gabriel Heinze	6.9M
		Liam Miller	Free
		Ben Foster	1M
		Owen Hargreaves	17M
		Anderson	20M
		Thomas Kuszczak	4.3M
		Manucho	1M
		Fabio	3M
		Rodrigo Possebon	3.5M
		Zoran Tosic	6M
		Ritchie De Laet	200,000
		Michael Owen	Free
		Gabriel Obertan	3.5M
		Mame Diouf	4.0M
		Bebe	7.4M
		Anders Lindegaard	3.5M
		Phil Jones	16.5M
		Nick Powell	6M
		Shinji Kagawa	12M
		Angelo Henriquez	5M
		Alexander Buttner	4.5M
		Wilfred Zaha	15M

I've probably missed out a few and have tried to focus on players bought expecting first team action rather than just pure youth, which is why Pogba doesn't make the list for example. The good/bad columns are also subjective and are just my rough ratings.

tl:dr Was SAF's transfer record really as good as many now seem to think it was?

I dont agree with at least od 1/3 od the bad list. How is Anders Lindegard a bad transfer?

 

[The Boy]

The way many people talk, not just OP tbf, you’d think Fergie had no tactics, had awful recruitment and while a good motivator, constantly disrespected his players like Beckham

Actually I think Ferguson was one of the most adaptable managers and a huge part of his success was being able to foresee changes in football, styles, and tactics and adapt and change his teams to keep you at the top.

I'm not saying he had awful recruitment in the OP I say, when he spent proper money he rarely put a foot wrong, plenty of his signings had an outstanding impact.

I haven't even mentioned disrespecting players.

I just enjoy stats and lists..

 

[The Boy]

I dont agree with at least od 1/3 od the bad list. How is Anders Lindegard a bad transfer?

Sorry I should have been clearer, I was trying to list transfers that had an impact and those that didn't or just faded away a bit, I know Lindegaard was a back up buy, but he had no real impact on the team. As I said its all subjective and that's half the discussion

 

[NoneBmStore]

I dont agree with at least od 1/3 od the bad list. How is Anders Lindegard a bad transfer?

Also, a lot of the players on the bad list were punts, free or young
Labelling Zaha as bad is laughable. He’s a great winger and never played under Ferguson. Moyes ruined that for us. Could have been a staple of our team for a decade.
that and many of the others

 

[roonster09]

@The Boy so many of the players don't belong to the list of either bad buys or didn't make impact.

 

[el3mel]

27 years of transfers. There will be a lot of failed business. Can't be helped.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Yeah, what a terrible manager he was.

 

[Lentwood]

Also don’t forget we had the added advantage of being able to sign top players from our rivals. Many of the signings in the “good” column were blindingly obvious. To say that SAF was in charge for so long he didn’t actually unearth many gems.

I actually think this was a big part of the reason we struggled when he left. Our scouting system had been neglected and was very old fashioned. It had been run by Ferguson’s brother for a long time!

As soon as we stopped being able to just buy the Harry Kane’s etc...and had to be a bit clever in the market we struggled

 

[snk123]

Anderson was an okay signing - yes he did not live up to the potential but still did alright! + used to attack the space really well!

 

[cyril C]

Fergi's last 5-6 seasons record has been poor, since CR/Nani/Anderson. But 1 thing for sure, most of his expensive buy (may be apart from Veron) were starter, at least played 10-15 games a season (Anderson being the worst? but still a starter when fit). Were Smalling and Jones that bad? Both were regular starter when fit.

LVG has to be the worst, with most of his purchase need to flush out.

 

[Adnan]

Also don’t forget we had the added advantage of being able to sign top players from our rivals. Many of the signings in the “good” column were blindingly obvious. To say that SAF was in charge for so long he didn’t actually unearth many gems.

I actually think this was a big part of the reason we struggled when he left. Our scouting system had been neglected and was very old fashioned. It had been run by Ferguson’s brother for a long time!

As soon as we stopped being able to just buy the Harry Kane’s etc...and had to be a bit clever in the market we struggled

We also had the disadvantage that the best players in the world wanted to play in Italy for a large period during Fergie's tenure.

And David Gill is responsible for our non existent scouting system which Ed Woodward has modernised by investing heavily and putting competent people in charge.

 

[Trequarista10]

As a few others have mentioned, the '"bad" list is awful. Most reasons have been stated, but I'll add that many of these signings made the squad more competitive. Is Karel Poborsky a bad signing because he wasn't better than David Beckham, one of the best right wingers of the PL era? No. Does buying players like Poborsky increase competition, raise standards in training, and push players to put in 100% to retain their place in the squad? Yes.

Ferguson is still so underappreciated by many. Genius of a man. Squad management in particular, the guy was thinking several levels beyond you. Even tactically, an area in which he is often claimed to be less superior, he is underrated.

 

[Number32]

Spoiler: How is this?

GOOD	cost	OK	cost	BAD	cost
Brian McClair	850,000	Viv Anderson	250,000	Jim Leighton	500,000
Mark Hughes	1.8M	Dion Dublin	1M	Mal Donaghy	650,000
Lee Sharpe	200,000	David May	1.4M	Ralph Milne	170,000
Gary Pallister	2.3M	Jesper Blomqvist	4.4M	Giunliano Maiorana	30,000
Paul Ince	1M	Les Sealey	Free	Mike Phelan	750,000
Denis Irwin	625,000	Quinton Fortune	1.5M	Neil Webb	1.5M
Andrei Kanchelskis	650,000	Roy Carroll	2.5M	Danny Wallace	1.2M
Peter Schmeichel	500,000	Diego Forlan	6.9M	Neil Whitworth	45,000
Paul Parker	2M	Tim Howard	2.3M	Pat McGibbon	10,000
Eric Cantona	1.2M	Alan Smith	7M	Graeme Tomlinson	100,000
Roy Keane	3.7M	Gabriel Heinze	6.9M	Nick Culkin	250,000
Andy Cole	7M	Owen Hargreaves	17M	William Prunier	Free
Raimond van der Gouw	Free			Tony Coton	500,000
Ronny Johnsen	1.2M			Karel Poborsky	3.5M
Ole	1.5M			Jordi Cruyff	1.3M
Teddy Sheringham	3.5M			Erik Nevland	Undisclosed
Henning Berg	5M			Jonathan Greening	500,000
Jaap Stam	10.7M			Mark Bosnich	Free
Dwight Yorke	12.6M			Massimo Taibi	4.5M
Mikael Silvestre	4M			Bojan Djordjic	1.5M
RVN	19M			Fabien Barthez	7.8M
Laurent Blanc	Free			Juan Veron	28M
Rio Ferdinand	27M			Kieron Richardson	Free
C.Ronaldo	12.3M
Louis Saha	12.8M			Luke Steele	500,000
Wayne Rooney	25.6M			Ricardo Lopez	1.5M
Nemanja Vidic	7M			David Bellion	2M
Patrice Evra	5.5M			Eric Djembax2	3.5M
Edwin van der Sar	2M			Kleberson	6.5M
Park Ji-Sung	4M			Lee Martin	200,000
Michael Carrick	18.6M			Dong	500,000
Nani	21M			Liam Miller	Free
Carlos Tevez	20M			Ben Foster	1M
Rafael	3M
Dimitar Berbatov	30.75M			Anderson	20M
Antonio Valencia	16M			Thomas Kuszczak	4.3M
Chris Smalling	10M			Manucho	1M
Chicarito	7M			Fabio	3M
Ashley Young	17M			Rodrigo Possebon	3.5M
DDG	19M			Zoran Tosic	6M
RVP	24M			Ritchie De Laet	200,000
				Michael Owen	Free
				Gabriel Obertan	3.5M
				Mame Diouf	4.0M
				Bebe	7.4M
				Anders Lindegaard	3.5M
				Phil Jones	16.5M
				Nick Powell	6M
				Shinji Kagawa	12M
				Angelo Henriquez	5M
				Alexander Buttner	4.5M
				Wilfred Zaha	15M

IMO Berg, Blanc, Saha, and Smalling are OK signings. Berbatov, Nani, and Young are debatable regarding their price vs their big impact to the team.

Blomqvist and Fortune are good signings for that price, as I said in other thread our second units were Fergie's secret weapon since the 99 treble to the early 2000. We couldn't be consistent without them. Heinze was also a good signing, fixing the left back problem since Irwin left, and sold with a higher price than we bought him.

 

[flappyjay]

Heinze was a good player it's just that Evra was a beast
Thomas Kuszcack was bought to be a number 2
Zaha was never given a chance at United, he probably would have been an alright player for us

 

[RashyForPM]

Actually I think Ferguson was one of the most adaptable managers and a huge part of his success was being able to foresee changes in football, styles, and tactics and adapt and change his teams to keep you at the top.

I'm not saying he had awful recruitment in the OP I say, when he spent proper money he rarely put a foot wrong, plenty of his signings had an outstanding impact.

I haven't even mentioned disrespecting players.

I just enjoy stats and lists..

Yeah didn’t mean you for the non-recruitment bits and tactics, meant generally. So fair enough, but still, a lot of the players in your bad list is wrong for sure, like Anderson, Hargreaves, Lindegaard, May etc. Fergie was the type of manager to identify a good player (notice he never talks about fitting someone into his system because he had so many), and then extract the absolute best out of him. Hence why imo he had so few bad signings.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Les Sealey was also a success story and helped us win the FA Cup final in 1990 after Fergie had dropped Jim Leighton. The following season he suffered a injury in the league cup final and according to Clayton Blackmore his knee was in such a mess that his bone was showing but he refused to come off the pitch. 3 weeks later he miraculous declared himself fit for the Cup winners Cup final where United defeated Barcelona 3-1. He was offered a new contract but he decided to leave the club not long after.

Sadly he died in 2001.

can’t believe that was 20 years ago.

I’m not having anyone calling Sealey a flop. Free transfer, helps us win the cup and is our first team keeper for a season.

 

[esmufc07]

What an odd thread!

 

[Vooon]

This quote about Phil Jones being compared to Duncan Edwards made me think that I've seen quite a few posts here talking about how good Fergie's transfer record was and how he rarely bought a dud. (Sorry I don't mean to pick on you @redmanx, your post just sparked the thought)

Everyone remembers the famous duds, Bebe, Veron etc but when you start looking through his transfers, there are far more that failed than succeeded. To be fair on SAF apart from Veron, the really expensive transfers pretty much all worked out really well, I'm thinking Ferdinand, Rooney, etc

So what think the caf?

Spoiler: Fergie's transfers rated good or bad

GOOD	cost	BAD	cost
Brian McClair	850,000	Viv Anderson	250,000
Mark Hughes	1.8M	Jim Leighton	500,000
Lee Sharpe	200,000	Mal Donaghy	650,000
Gary Pallister	2.3M	Ralph Milne	170,000
Paul Ince	1M	Giunliano Maiorana	30,000
Denis Irwin	625,000	Mike Phelan	750,000
Andrei Kanchelskis	650,000	Neil Webb	1.5M
Peter Schmeichel	500,000	Danny Wallace	1.2M
Paul Parker	2M	Les Sealey	Free
Eric Cantona	1.2M	Neil Whitworth	45,000
Roy Keane	3.7M	Pat McGibbon	10,000
Andy Cole	7M	Dion Dublin	1M
Raimond van der Gouw	Free	Graeme Tomlinson	100,000
Ronny Johnsen	1.2M	David May	1.4M
Ole	1.5M	Nick Culkin	250,000
Teddy Sheringham	3.5M	William Prunier	Free
Henning Berg	5M	Tony Coton	500,000
Jaap Stam	10.7M	Karel Poborsky	3.5M
Dwight Yorke	12.6M	Jordi Cruyff	1.3M
Mikael Silvestre	4M	Erik Nevland	Undisclosed
RVN	19M	Jonathan Greening	500,000
Laurent Blanc	Free	Jesper Blomqvist	4.4M
Rio Ferdinand	27M	Mark Bosnich	Free
C.Ronaldo	12.3M	Quinton Fortune	1.5M
Louis Saha	12.8M	Massimo Taibi	4.5M
Wayne Rooney	25.6M	Bojan Djordjic	1.5M
Nemanja Vidic	7M	Fabien Barthez	7.8M
Patrice Evra	5.5M	Juan Veron	28M
Edwin van der Sar	2M	Roy Carroll	2.5M
Park Ji-Sung	4M	Kieron Richardson	Free
Michael Carrick	18.6M	Diego Forlan	6.9M
Nani	21M	Luke Steele	500,000
Carlos Tevez	20M	Ricardo Lopez	1.5M
Rafael		David Bellion	2M
Dimitar Berbatov	30.75M	Eric Djembax2	3.5M
Antonio Valencia	16M	Tim Howard	2.3M
Chris Smalling	10M	Kleberson	6.5M
Chicarito		Lee Martin	200,000
Ashley Young	17M	Dong	500,000
DDG	19M	Alan Smith	7M
RVP	24M	Gabriel Heinze	6.9M
		Liam Miller	Free
		Ben Foster	1M
		Owen Hargreaves	17M
		Anderson	20M
		Thomas Kuszczak	4.3M
		Manucho	1M
		Fabio	3M
		Rodrigo Possebon	3.5M
		Zoran Tosic	6M
		Ritchie De Laet	200,000
		Michael Owen	Free
		Gabriel Obertan	3.5M
		Mame Diouf	4.0M
		Bebe	7.4M
		Anders Lindegaard	3.5M
		Phil Jones	16.5M
		Nick Powell	6M
		Shinji Kagawa	12M
		Angelo Henriquez	5M
		Alexander Buttner	4.5M
		Wilfred Zaha	15M

I've probably missed out a few and have tried to focus on players bought expecting first team action rather than just pure youth, which is why Pogba doesn't make the list for example. The good/bad columns are also subjective and are just my rough ratings.

tl:dr Was SAF's transfer record really as good as many now seem to think it was?

I think your list is way too black and white. It doesn't consider things like near career ending injuries: Dublin and Smith. I would also question how you can consider a player signed for free a bad transfer. Sure, those guys might not live up to expectations, but they don't really compare to a record signing like Veron.

There are also a few odd names on the list. I don't understand why a decent enough talent like Nevland is doing on there, you would have to add hundreds of youngsters to the list if you want to justify his addition. I'd also say that a guys like May, Carroll and Lindegaard were decent enough squad players.

As for Zaha I would keep him out of a SAF list since he never was his manager. If he could make a guy like Anderson look good, just imagine what he potentially could have done with Zaha. Speculation I know, but just look at how Moyes failed to get anything out of a lot good players who had just won the league.

Anyway, the guys in bold in you original table are players I think you'd be unfair to consider bad signing compared to the obvious shitty ones.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

You're being harsh on some of the 'bad' players. Some gave us a good couple of years before falling away, and some were cheap punts that went on to be good squad players.

I wouldn't really class Kieran Richardson as a buy either - he'd only just turned 17 when he joined us and was obviously just a youth transfer. I'd actually forgotten he hadn't completely come through the ranks.

a young player, who breaks through into the first team, plays for England and makes a valuable contributions as a squad player, who we sell for a decent fee is now considered a dud!

come on.