Manchester United over the decade #3 - Worst incoming transfer

[Wumminator]

Hello all, after yesterday it feels apt that this thread is not exactly the most optimistic poll.

You are voting for United's worst transfer in since 2010. Players such as Fellaini, Phil Jones and Lukaku narrowly missed out on this list. All fees are from transfermarkt.com.

1. Alexis Sanchez

Cost: £30.60m
Played: 45 games
Scored: 5 goals

2. Bastian Schweinsteiger

Cost: £8.10m
Played: 35 games
Scored: 2 goals

3. Angel di Maria

Cost: £67.50m
Played: 32 games
Scored: 4 goals

4. Morgan Schneiderlin

Cost: £31.50m
Played: 47 games
Scored: 1 goal

5. Falcao

Cost: Loan fee: £6.84m
Played: 29 games
Scored: 4 goals

6. Bebe

Cost: £7.92m
Played: 7 games
Scored: 2 goals

7. Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Cost: £37.80m
Played: 63 games
Scored: 13 goals

8. Matteo Darmian

Cost: £16.20m
Played: 92 games
Scored: 1 goal

9. Memphis Depay

Cost: £30.60m
Played: 53 games
Scored: 8 goals

10. Eric Bailly

Cost: £34.20m
Played: 74 games
Scored: 1 goal

 

[roonster09]

Sanchez should win this without much competition.

 

[Wumminator]

Sanchez should win this without much competition.

I mean, yeah he probably will. But there's a lot of competition there

 

[roonster09]

I mean, yeah he probably will. But there's a lot of competition there

Yeah we have made some shit signings and Sanchez is the crown jewel for that. He really messed up not only 1 transfer but the contract renewals for other players too.

Poll should have been public btw.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Went with Di Maria because of the transfer fee. Sanchez was a swap deal for another crap player.

 

[RamblingRebel]

How come Pogba isn't on there?

*Runs off before the lynching*

 

[mu4c_20le]

If we're talking about expectations then it's obviously Sanchez. But if it's about performance on the pitch then it's between Bebe and Schneiderlin.

 

[meamth]

Nothing beats the fiasco that is Sanchez.

He had his piano video, that alone made it so much worse imo.

 

[Nickosaur]

Sanchez for me.

 

[pacifictheme]

Who is voting for Mkhitaryan? He wasn't great but to think hes worse than most of that list is bizarre. He was quite a big factor in us winning the europa league.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Worst transfer will be Sanchez without a doubt.

Would have added Lukuku, Rojo and Fred into the mix.

The actual cost of Rojo when you factor in that we gave them Nani (who was still a very good player) on loan at no cost, and we paid his wages was astonishing.

 

[Isotope]

Monetary wise and being totally useless, Alexis takes the cake. But in terms of expectation (at least, by me), it's di Maria. Here we signed one of the best player in the world at his prime age, and just won CL as one of the best player. Can play anywhere in midfield or attack, could cross, could dribble, with incredible work-rate.
Cock out 24/7 when he signed for us

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Sanchez for sure.

 

[izec]

Mkhitaryan wasnt that bad, seriously.

Alexis wins it with ease. Schneiderlin, Memphis, Di Maria we got good fees in. Falcao and Schweinsteiger were pointless and didnt hurt much.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

It's Sanchez by a mile.

 

[Wumminator]

I genuinely thought this could be close!

 

[svn]

It's Sanchez for me. Bringing him in and dropping Martial feels like it was the beginning of the end for Mourinho, looking back.

 

[Wumminator]

For those interested, the total outlay (without wages) in the OP is roughly 275 million pounds.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

Worst transfer will be Sanchez without a doubt.

Would have added Lukuku, Rojo and Fred into the mix.

The actual cost of Rojo when you factor in that we gave them Nani (who was still a very good player) on loan at no cost, and we paid his wages was astonishing.

Romelu Lukaku should be nowhere near that list! Hit the ground running and was flying (until that song...) and has shown since that he's a proper striker.

 

[harms]

Such a brutal list.

Alexis Sanchez. I had so much expectations from him and it looked like Woody finally pulled out a great piece of business (to be fair, I think that in this particular case he gets a little too much stick in hindsight. If I was in his place, I would've signed him too). He was supposed to be a top experienced player to led out young side to victories by example... but he lost all the fire after the first few games (when he ran as a madman and actually tried to do things) and ended up as a depressed and overpaid nothing that spoils the atmosphere in the dressing room with his attitude & unreal wages.

Angel Di Maria. I don't remember the last time when I was as excited about a signing as I was about Di Maria. It was probably the summer of 2004 when we've signed Wayne Rooney. We were signing arguably the third best player in the world in the current form (MotM performance in the CL final, an incredible club season and breathtaking form in the internationals; his performance against Germany was out of this world)... and he started off so good, scoring and assisting for fun. And then he (rightfully) loses his place to Ashley fecking Young Can't put him as the worst one — we've recouped most of the money and he performed decently for us in one period. But it was the most disappointing one — such a talented player that was too frightened to act as the main star of the team. He had no motivation to fight for his place at United, gave up after the first tough spell and asked to move to Paris, where he could hide behind Ibra, Neymar etc.

Falcao. For some reason I had very little expectations of him, and it was a loan, so he gets a pass here. Bad piece of business, but not the worst one of the decade.

Bastian Schweinsteiger. I wanted this transfer to happen for so long! And it looked like he had just now marked Messi out of the World Cup final. Proven record of leadership, tons of experience to share with the youth... but there was nothing. His career at United was just that — not even a disappointment, simply nothing. In my mind he retired in 2015.

The rest can't compete with those four. I'd reserve a special mention for Marouane Fellaini though, never had I hated a United player before, and he was, quite fittingly, the first signing of our endless horrorshow.

Overall, Sanchez takes the cake — especially since we still haven't managed to get rid of him.

 

[harms]

The actual cost of Rojo when you factor in that we gave them Nani (who was still a very good player) on loan at no cost, and we paid his wages was astonishing.

That's a good shout, but sometimes I just forget that he's even here. A player who never had the talent to even be considered as a signing, yet he was signed in 2014 and we still pay his wages!

 

[LInkash]

Alexis by a country mile. I didn't really have as high expectations for di Maria as he was a Real Madrid reject, whereas Sanchez was someone we had to proactively get from Arsenal, just like with RvP, one of the best players in the league.

 

[led_scholes]

There are about 10 candidates here, I wonder if we could find 10 for the Best transfer! I can only think of DDG, RVP and Chicharito! Perhaps, Smalling, Herrera and Romero could be there.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Di Maria for me.

Coming off the back of a great season, the massive outlay to bring him in plus the optimism of who we believed - at the time - was a good manager to get us back on track. The expectation was huge, and he didn't deliver, at all. In less than a year, he was gone.

Sanchez was a catastrophe as well. But we got shot of a player who didn't fit us in the process, though I was still wary of Sanchez, as he wasn't great for Arsenal that season prior to arriving.

The disparity between the expectation and the end result for Di Maria is by far the biggest of any recent transfer IMO. It felt like we were signing one of the best players in the world, whereas Sanchez never felt like that.

 

[MackRobinson]

Sanchez

 

[Sentient Meat]

At least Di Maria had a few good games before his house got robbed and then he never was the same after that.

Sanchez went from being a force at Arsenal to virtually nothing within the course of a year. I'm shocked that he even had five goals because it felt like he never did anything after his first game.

 

[manutddjw]

Went with Bebe.

Problem with alot of these transfers is they're poor in hindsight, but the thought behind them is what we should be doing. Sanchez is a great example. If I had asked everyone on the caf to make a list of the 10 best in the Premier League at the time we signed Sanchez, I guarantee his name would be on nearly everyone's list. Swapping an under performing Mkhitaryan for him, was better than we could've ever imagined. It definitely hasn't worked out, but we should strive to sign the best players. No point in signing "solid premier league players" like Ashley Young and then complaining he's not good enough one year later or the more optimistic claim of "he's a good squad player".

As for Bebe, he was our Ali Dia moment. Our own manager admitted to not seeing him play and we signed him off the rumor that Real Madrid wanted him too. To me it was made worse because we complained about not spending enough, yet we pissed away money on punts like Bebe, Manucho, Diouf and Obertan (Hernandez worked out though). You add up all their fees and it's over 20 Million which would've been better spent on decent players or at least paying Hazard's agent.

 

[jem]

Went with Bebe.

Problem with alot of these transfers is they're poor in hindsight, but the thought behind them is what we should be doing. Sanchez is a great example. If I had asked everyone on the caf to make a list of the 10 best in the Premier League at the time we signed Sanchez, I guarantee his name would be on nearly everyone's list. Swapping an under performing Mkhitaryan for him, was better than we could've ever imagined. It definitely hasn't worked out, but we should strive to sign the best players. No point in signing "solid premier league players" like Ashley Young and then complaining he's not good enough one year later or the more optimistic claim of "he's a good squad player".

As for Bebe, he was our Ali Dia moment. Our own manager admitted to not seeing him play and we signed him off the rumor that Real Madrid wanted him too. To me it was made worse because we complained about not spending enough, yet we pissed away money on punts like Bebe, Manucho, Diouf and Obertan (Hernandez worked out though). You add up all their fees and it's over 20 Million which would've been better spent on decent players or at least paying Hazard's agent.

Excellent post.

 

[Canagel]

Schweinsteiger and Sanchez

 

[stevoc]

Given the money involved it's probably Sanchez, but i voted for Darmian as it didn't sit well with me that no one had voted for him yet.

Matteo is as poor a fullback/player as i've seen at United in nearly 30 years of watching just an awful/terrible player.

They could have made a documentary on him the last few years he's been sitting on his arse not playing. Can't defend, won't attack. The Matteo Darmian story.

 

[Toad]

Had to go with Bebe with a huge gap to second.

 

[hobbers]

Harsh putting Bailly and Bebe up in the same bracket as a lot of these. Bebe was just a punt on a youth player at the end of the day. Absolutely no difference to Mame Biram Diouf or Tosic or any of the other multitude of duds.

Obviously Sanchez is the worst because it's all burned money. At least with Falcao it was a short contract. With Di Maria and a lot of the others we recouped a lot of the transfer fees.

 

[harms]

As for Bebe, he was our Ali Dia moment.

It was a low-risk operation that didn't work out. I never got the outrage, you buy young players with a hope that they'll develop in great players but it doesn't really happen that often.. We also got 4 mil back (Benfica + Besiktas) out of his original 8 mil valuation. More of a funny anecdote than a transfer disaster of Sanchez' scale.

 

[montpelier]

I hated the Sanchez transfer due to him being a complete bellend. I wasn't surprised it didn't work out either, it had a chance though.

I went for Schweinsteiger due to it not having any chance because he was obviously terminally crocked and gone when he arrived.

What a list, though. No wonder some people thought feckin Depay was half decent.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Harsh putting Bailly and Bebe up in the same bracket as a lot of these. Bebe was just a punt on a youth player at the end of the day. Absolutely no difference to Mame Biram Diouf or Tosic or any of the other multitude of duds.

Dong fangzhou was a punt on a youth player. Bebe was daylight fecking robbery from a certain agent. 7m is not just a punt, it was a pay off.

 

[SER19]

Voted di Maria, insane money for what we thought was a classic United player of pace and excitement. We recouped a fair bit which softened the blow but he really was one of the biggest shite bags to play for United. Clear from the start he never wanted to be here and the whole post burglary meltdown was embarrassing.

Signings like bebe don't bother me. Dreadful player but small fees and sometimes end up worth the gamble.

Sanchez will take top spot if not properly offloaded soon.

 

[manutddjw]

It was a low-risk operation that didn't work out. I never got the outrage, you buy young players with a hope that they'll develop in great players but it doesn't really happen that often.. We also got 4 mil back (Benfica + Besiktas) out of his original 8 mil valuation. More of a funny anecdote than a transfer disaster of Sanchez' scale.

My outrage from this transfer and all the other duds we took a punt on; Tosic, Obertan, Diouf, Manucho, Bebe, De Laet and whoever else stems from the fact that we were somewhat skint because of the debt and instead of using that money to bring quality into the squad we wasted on punts we actually didn’t need.

7 million may seem like peanuts, but at that time that’s what Juventus paid for prime Vidal who wasn’t an unknown from the Bundesliga at a time we were crying for a midfielder.

 

[Mibabalou]

I don't really think it's just fault but Sanchez was finished by the time we got him.

Crazy thing is everyone was buzzing when we got him and I like him more than say di Maria who should get wanker of the decade.

 

[peridigm]

This was an easy one. I was crying for us to sign him the previous summer as I thought he was what we needed. Myself and millions of others was dead wrong.

 

[Tom Cato]

This is Angel Di Maria by some distance for me.