Idiotic Sales Post Fergie

[mariachi-19]

Was watching this video and brings to attention, some of the shear dumb arse decision making at United regarding former players.

Off the top of my head:

Rafael
Evans
Nani
Hernandez (although admittedly he wanted more full time football)
Blind

All of them would be hitting 30 odd now, but should be the backbone of this United squad. Instead, they were replaced by inferior players and only now that we seemingly have a manager with an actual long term fecking plan, have their omissions been somewhat less glaring.

Some will look at their form after United, but while they were here, they certainly looked closer to world class than mediocre.

 

[Utdstar01]

Selling Nani for £4.25 million has to be one of the worst pieces of business I've seen

 

[Class of 63]

I'd have kept Blind for his versatility if he'd have accepted just getting into the matchday 18 rather than being a guaranteed starter, but the rest it was the right time to move them on.

 

[Bebestation]

For me Jose has had a history of selling players without caring about adapting footballing tactics at multiple clubs and I personally regret 2 Dutch players most.

1 is Daley Blind, a left footed ball playing LCB which we do not have, experienced, artistic and plays in midfield and fullback.

2 is Memphis. I know the lad struggled here but I don't exactly think he had a chance once Rashford broke through & considering Jose saw none of Rashford, Memphis nor Martial as strikers (maybe not even as LW), then it's no surprise he left.

I'm just disappointed because with Martial playing as a false 9 now and Rashford out on the left, Memphis and Martial could and in my opinion would have been competing with each other if given a bit more time in what Memphis would regard to be his right spot.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I don't think any sale post Fergie is idiotic.

 

[432JuanMata]

I don't think any sale post Fergie is idiotic.

Agree. The buying is a different story

 

[stevoc]

I don't think any sale post Fergie is idiotic.

Selling Rafael for £2-3m and replacing him with a much poorer player in Darmian for £16m was pretty idiotic in my opinion.

 

[Jericho]

Selling Rafael for £2-3m and replacing him with a much poorer player in Darmian for £16m was pretty idiotic in my opinion.

Darmian was very highly rated at that time, nobody expected it to turn out how it did with him.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Selling Rafael for £2-3m and replacing him with a much poorer player in Darmian for £16m was pretty idiotic in my opinion.

Rafael was damaged goods once we sold him IMO.

Selling him wasn't the wrong move. Buying Darmian is though.

Our sales post Fergie have been all of players that were past their best/not good enough. Our buys are a different story.

 

[Mr Smith]

Johnny Evans springs to mind. Had one ordinary season in 14 15 and Van Gaal shipped him out. The two seasons prior he'd probably been our best defender.

 

[stevoc]

Rafael was damaged goods once we sold him IMO.

Selling him wasn't the wrong move. Buying Darmian is though.

Our sales post Fergie have been all of players that were past their best/not good enough. Our buys are a different story.

Can't say i agree with that, he had the best season of his career 2012/13. Wasn't great under Moyes granted but who was?

LVG barely gave him 10 games before freezing him out and then selling him. His problem was he tried too many risky dribbles and crosses for Van Gaal's liking, part of his crazy thinking in actually trying to create goals.

It was easy to see why Louis much preferred Mr stop, turn and pass back at RB. Then he thought Darmian would be a good RB for Man Utd which says it all, don't think i've seen a worse fullback at United in almost 30 years.

 

[stevoc]

Darmian was very highly rated at that time, nobody expected it to turn out how it did with him.

After about 10 games i did.

 

[hungrywing]

Selling Nani for £4.25 million has to be one of the worst pieces of business I've seen

All those listed in the OP were bad, but this was the worst by some distance. Peak Woodward. (tbf he's been on a plateau rather than a single peak)

 

[NinjaZombie]

Selling Rafael for £2-3m and replacing him with a much poorer player in Darmian for £16m was pretty idiotic in my opinion.

This. In terms of playing style and attitude, Rafael was a much better fit for United.

If Ole had to choose between Rafael and Darmian, who would he have chosen? I'd say Rafael.

 

[POF]

I see Jonny Evans mentioned regularly but it really wasn't a mistake. He looked good next to Vidic who was basically a one man defence but always in a "promising kid being carried" kind of way.

He was poor playing with anyone else and when both Rio and Vidic left, he was the most senior defender at the club. That was his moment to step up and be a leader and he didn't have it in him. He was the worst defender at the club that season and selling Michael Keane seemed a bigger mistake initially.

Rafael was a mistake but his injury record since leaving means he hasn't really excelled elsewhere.

The 2 most bizarre sales were Nani and Zaha. Both pushed out as they didn't fit in LVG's 3-5-2 and within a few months he was lamenting the lack of wingers in his squad.

The sales haven't been the problem. The complete absence of any type of plan has. That has changed under the current regime and it seems to be reaping benefits.

 

[Reditus]

I think not enough patience was offered Depay.

Blind would certainly be useful

And IMO Evans is and always has been a better defender than Lindelof

 

[Bondi77]

Not giving Zaha a chance was a major blunder as was getting rid of Michael Keane.

 

[Reditus]

Not giving Zaha a chance was a major blunder as was getting rid of Michael Keane.

Agree very much about zaha That’s is actually the best answer in the thread.

Fergies last signing too

 

[el3mel]

Pretty much every one of these deserved to go. People really need to move on. What did Rafael, Nani or Chicharito do after leaving United? Absolutely nothing. They were sold because they were past it.

I feel like I see a similar thread once or twice each year.

 

[Bondi77]

I remember seeing Darmian have an excellent game against England without knowing too much about him.
He looked to have a decent attacking game and he was Italian so historically that meant he knew how to defend and at 15mil I thought it was good business.
He really had no attacking game in England and I do not know if that was how he as instructed to play but he really offered very little to the team.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Definitely Zaha. We sold him for 3m without giving him any chances. He is now valued at 80m.
Evans too, we've spend 80m on Maguire, but Evans is better than him.

So, these 2 alone is nearly 160m wasted.

 

[Carl S Bridge]

I see Jonny Evans mentioned regularly but it really wasn't a mistake. He looked good next to Vidic who was basically a one man defence but always in a "promising kid being carried" kind of way.

He was poor playing with anyone else and when both Rio and Vidic left, he was the most senior defender at the club. That was his moment to step up and be a leader and he didn't have it in him. He was the worst defender at the club that season and selling Michael Keane seemed a bigger mistake initially.

Rafael was a mistake but his injury record since leaving means he hasn't really excelled elsewhere.

The 2 most bizarre sales were Nani and Zaha. Both pushed out as they didn't fit in LVG's 3-5-2 and within a few months he was lamenting the lack of wingers in his squad.

The sales haven't been the problem. The complete absence of any type of plan has. That has changed under the current regime and it seems to be reaping benefits.

Personally I disagree, he was a solid ball playing CB with two good feet. It was a baffling transfer as he fitted LVG "philosophy" perfectly with playing out from the back and defenders being comfortable on the ball. Hes now playing as the dominant CB in a team 3rd in PL. He's a good CB and i would have him back over lindelof, bailly, smalling, jones or tuanzebe. Furthermore we sold him for a pittance. £8million I think. How much would he cost now?

 

[Striker10]

zaha, nani and rafael for me. I think Hernandez was going to leave but the money we bought in was pathetic

 

[Shiva87]

I watched the 8-2 game yesterday, and I must say - Fergie has a way of making average players play great football. That United team had a midfield of Nani (great that season), Anderson, Cleverly, and Young, and a defense of Smalling (at RB!), Jones, Evans and Evra. Yet they were moving the ball around (one touch) like a peak United team!

Magic touch. I would say any player at United in 2012 would have done much better if Fergie had not retired. No way we can pick a few names here and there.

RVP may have won 4-5 titles for all you know!

 

[Nickelodeon]

In my opinion, The problem was less from a who was sold perspective and more from a how they were sold. Once the manager, LVG or Jose decided that they wanted to get rid of a player, we were willing to let them go for any price. While our rivals were selling their shite at a premium.

Nani, for example, before being sold for 4 odd million, had also spent a season on loan at Sporting when we were paying his wages. Rafael and Evans too were sold for a pittance. These were players who had played a significant part in title winning squads. Even if we didn’t want them, we should have at least tried to get good value for them. Not only did we fail to do that, but it also set a precedent for us (and Woodward), that we are stupid with money and hence were regularly quoted higher fees for any players we were interested in.

That I believe has been the biggest damage which the sales of players mentioned in the OP caused.

PS: the only sale where the player went to be a superstar was Di Maria. I wish he had managed him better rather than blindly following LVG’s ego.

 

[thepolice123]

Pretty much every one of these deserved to go. People really need to move on. What did Rafael, Nani or Chicharito do after leaving United? Absolutely nothing. They were sold because they were past it.

I feel like I see a similar thread once or twice each year.

Exactly. These were the usual deadwood back in the days but now its a mistake to sell them.

 

[Champagne Football]

Jose is the only true king of idiotic sales and was utterly desperate to sell Martial, in return for a grandad Spurs defender who had only 6 good months left in him at the top.
There's no doubt If given full control of transfers, Jose would have sold Fred and Shaw for peanuts also, and possibly even Rashford too.

Van Gaal is nowhere near as idiotic as Jose, but he's still a complete buffoon and the selling of Zaha and Evans shows how unbelievably out of touch the man was with the modern game. A total clown.

 

[buckooo1978]

Replacing Hernandez with Depay

Replacing Rafael with Darmian

Replacing Evans with Rojo

Replacing Nani with no-one

Not giving Zaha a chance

all players who loved United with the exception of Zaha sold for a pittance

god even someone like Anderson was better than Schneiderlein!

when so many players are under performing we should have looked more closely at the management/coaching - Van Gaal's regime was an absolute disaster transfer-wise

Jose not much better in fairness but he didnt shed us of talent the way Louis did. Had Mourinho stayed I think Rashford would be gone now

 

[Yagami]

Only player we were wrong to sell was Blind, imo.

From a personal biased pov, i didn't like us selling Januzaj, and i still wish we had kept him, but it's hard to argue against the decision to sell when you hear about his attitude. Plus the fact that he hasn't done too well since leaving.

Zaha, whilst i was never a big fan, was a weird one. He would've been a better option than most of our wingers post Fergie but never got a chance. Not that i miss him or wish we had kept him. It was just strange to sell him so soon, without playing him despite our poor depth of wide players, and for so cheap, too. Fergie's last ever signing.

 

[Pexbo]

Phelan, Meulensteen and Steele were our worst releases since Fergie left.

 

[Snafu17]

I don't think people remember how bad Evans was in his final season. He's a decent player but he desperately needed to leave, just as much for his sake as United's.

 

[Albin Johansson]

Nani, Rafael and blind.

 

[Woodzy]

I don't think people remember how bad Evans was in his final season. He's a decent player but he desperately needed to leave, just as much for his sake as United's.

I’m usually terrible at remembering games we have played over the years, but that MK Dons game still gives me nightmares.

 

[SirAnderson]

For me Jose has had a history of selling players without caring about adapting footballing tactics at multiple clubs and I personally regret 2 Dutch players most.

1 is Daley Blind, a left footed ball playing LCB which we do not have, experienced, artistic and plays in midfield and fullback.

2 is Memphis. I know the lad struggled here but I don't exactly think he had a chance once Rashford broke through & considering Jose saw none of Rashford, Memphis nor Martial as strikers (maybe not even as LW), then it's no surprise he left.

I'm just disappointed because with Martial playing as a false 9 now and Rashford out on the left, Memphis and Martial could and in my opinion would have been competing with each other if given a bit more time in what Memphis would regard to be his right spot.

DELETED

 

[JJ12]

I would've kept Evans and Blind. Jones shouldn't have survived either.

The price we sold Nani for was ridiculous but it was the right time.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I remember reading at the time that Blind wanted to go home, he had offers from around Europe but wanted to go back to Ajax, so not a poor sale given the circumstances, and we have a habit of selling low. To get what we paid for him thereabouts was decent.

Zaha didn't get a fair crack of the whip. He probably didn't help himself early on either, but we gave up on him too quickly.

The fee we got for Nani was laughable but I don't think it was wrong to sell him. He was on the decline and his post-United career illustrated that.

Evans is looking good these days, but he really wasn't all that good for us towards the end. I don't think he really kicked on after breaking through. He's certainly having a resurgence, and I'd have him over Lindelof right now. I'd have Blind over either of them.

Smalling out on loan when we had the useless Rojo and Jones in the squad and Bailly out long term, that was a bizarre decision.

 

[RayK47]

Kagawaa

 

[BazzaBear]

We might have made a mistake with Zaha related to value - but I certainly still wouldn't want him here now as a player.

 

[Chicharo]

RVP, Chicharito and Kagawa. We still have no finisher as RVP and Chicharito were while playing for us
Maybe Ighalo will prove himself to be on the longer distance, but, those two had to stay for couple more years

 

[Sandikan]

Darmian was very highly rated at that time, nobody expected it to turn out how it did with him.

I remember the week we bought him a journalist saying did anyone truly think he'd be a regular in two years and he wasn't the right quality.

And outside a good first month he was bang on