Our 4 best transfers post Fergie and what we can learn from them

[Scandi Red]

This is of course just my opinion but I think that our 4 best transfers since Fergie retired have been: Shaw, Herrera, Bruno and Martinez.

So what can we learn from these transfers? Is there any pattern?

Luke Shaw
- 19 years old
- 39 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in the Premier League (60 apps for Southampton)

Ander Herrera
- 25 years old
- 38 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in La Liga (94 apps for Athletic Bilbao)

Bruno Fernandes
- 25 years old
- 83 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in Primeira Liga (83 apps for Sporting CP)
- Captain for Sporting CP
- Already called up by a strong national team

Lisandro Martinez
- 24 years old
- 53 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in Eredivisie (74 apps for Ajax).
- Already called up by a strong national team

---

There seems to be a clear pattern to me. Typically: mid-twenties or younger, 40-50* million price tag and well-settled in a top 6 league**.

* Bruno cost significantly more than the other 3, but he was also signed mid-season when we panicked, which definitely drove up the price. Inflation has also been wild in the meantime.
** Martinez did not play in a top 6 league, but the manager knew him well and he had already been called up by the national team. And if we're being fair the Eredivisie is probably the 7th best league so it's not too far off.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Whilst they may be our best, they are/were hardly success stories for the club.

You’d can argue Mount, Mata, Wan-Bissaka fits to the profile you mentioned too, but they haven’t done so much, it’s so broad of a criteria.

 

[Scandi Red]

Whilst they may be our best, they are/were hardly success stories for the club.

I would say that they are given the circumstances. They would probably have been more appreciated with a proper manager in charge leading us to titles.

You’d can argue Mount, Wan-Bissaka fits to the profile you mentioned too, it’s so broad.

It's too early to make any conclusions about Mount. AWB is neither a success nor a failure. Something in between.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Honestly Martinez is probably the exception to the rule, whatever the rule is, because EtH signed him because he played under him before, and every other time we've let the manager sign a player who played under him before, it's been a fecking disaster.

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

For Shaw, Herrera and Fernandes at least, isn't the common demonimator that they were long-term targets identified by club scouts, with a view to long-term squad management? Broadly speaking that would be the way to go, though even then it's not a surefire thing.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

For Shaw, Herrera and Fernandes at least, isn't the common demonimator that they were long-term targets identified by club scouts, with a view to long-term squad management? Broadly speaking that would be the way to go, though even then it's not a surefire thing.

Sancho also fits into this criteria.

The matter at hand is we can’t trust our recruitment team with its current structure.

 

[Scandi Red]

though even then it's not a surefire thing.

For sure! Even the best run clubs only seem to have a 50% hit rate. And that is excluding youth transfers, stop gaps and loan deals.

Much better than our 5-10% hit rate though

 

[Plant0x84]

A shout for Dan James. He was a cheap enough purchase, had a flying start and yes he tailed off a bit but overall was a useful player to have in the squad and a good bench option. We then sold him on for a good price. Making a tidy profit in the process. That’s the definition of a successful transfer.

 

[Zed 101]

I would argue that Garnacho should be in the list, I would also include Eriksen as he was free, stamina aside is very influential

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

As other's have said, Mata, AWB, Antony, Mount, Sancho and so many others, there is no special argument.

The place we are failing is to identify a team and a style and recruiting that position rather than just signing a "Good player", we need to recruit a mold of player and then do more extensive work on their background.

 

[Leftback99]

Too early on Martinez to say. Shaw and Herrera just had to be signed off on by LVG rather than being his own picks, he vetoed signing Kroos though.

 

[Scandi Red]

As other's have said, Mata, AWB, Antony, Mount, Sancho and so many others, there is no special argument.

Antony doesn't count in my opinion. He was both expensive and from the Eredivsie. I think this matters. Mount doesn't count (heh) either because it's too soon to say. Mata is an interesting one. While he's not a success, he is still one of the better signings we've made post Fergie. Definitely top 10 (out of 40 or something). AWB is pretty much in the middle as far as our signings go. Neither a failure nor a success. Sancho is a failure for sure.

I think it's worth re-mentioning that it's impossible to come up with a transfer strategy system with a 100% success rate. If you can bring it down to a coin-flip, then you have more or less succeeded. You can't do much better than that.

 

[Revaulx]

A shout for Dan James. He was a cheap enough purchase, had a flying start and yes he tailed off a bit but overall was a useful player to have in the squad and a good bench option. We then sold him on for a good price. Making a tidy profit in the process. That’s the definition of a successful transfer.

His work off the ball was something of a revelation!

I think it was clear from early on that he wasn’t good enough, but having a player that was like him but better on the ball would have been really useful. Instead we sold him for Ronaldo…

 

[acnumber9]

Ander Herrera continues to be the most overrated player to have played for this club in the last ten years. I thought the passion merchant stuff may have worn off when he left for more money.

 

[Borys]

Fred was a good transfer for 5 years of service IMO, not sure if Herrera has done more than him (he was also injured quite a lot?) to be on that list.

 

[quiet_united]

What we learn is even what we called the best transfer is not good enough

 

[Scandi Red]

I do think that Herrera is the weakest out of the 4 mentioned, but then again the standard of our signings have been so low that he just about made the cut for me personally. He didn't do anything spectacular, but he was hardworking, stable and made few errors.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Are they even great successes? More like, bought at a good age and had a long(ish) career with us bar Licha who is newer.

I think Shaw is a good example that if you go after and pay big money for extremely highly rated younger players, it is a much better strategy mid to long term. The amount of players we sign, a couple will always not work out but at least when they are younger you can sell them for big money still. In hindsight the fee wasn't that expensive and whilst I do think he's been overrated a bit (he's had two really good seasons in my eyes), he has effectively been a high level first choice LB for a long time.

 

[Scandi Red]

What we learn is even what we called the best transfer is not good enough

So you think that literally 0 out of 40-50 signings have been good enough? I think it's almost impossible to miss that much.

While we have been very poor in the transfer market over the last 10 years, our hit-rate obviously is not 0%.

 

[Jeppers7]

This is of course just my opinion but I think that our 4 best transfers since Fergie retired have been: Shaw, Herrera, Bruno and Martinez.

So what can we learn from these transfers? Is there any pattern?

Luke Shaw
- 19 years old
- 39 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in the Premier League (60 apps for Southampton)

Ander Herrera
- 25 years old
- 38 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in La Liga (94 apps for Athletic Bilbao)

Bruno Fernandes
- 25 years old
- 83 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in Primeira Liga (83 apps for Sporting CP)
- Captain for Sporting CP
- Already called up by a strong national team

Lisandro Martinez
- 24 years old
- 53 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in Eredivisie (74 apps for Ajax).
- Already called up by a strong national team

---

There seems to be a clear pattern to me. Typically: mid-twenties or younger, 40-50* million price tag and well-settled in a top 6 league**.

* Bruno cost significantly more than the other 3, but he was also signed mid-season when we panicked, which definitely drove up the price. Inflation has also been wild in the meantime.
** Martinez did not play in a top 6 league, but the manager knew him well and he had already been called up by the national team. And if we're being fair the Eredivisie is probably the 7th best league so it's not too far off.

This assertion is based on regard rather than reality. Herrera is nowhere near, in his time at united at United he spent the equivalent of 2/3rds of a season sat on the bench as an unused sub. Martinez will go on to deserve to be on the list, he’s my favourite player, injuries permitting but can’t be on it now….what are you basing that on? Luke Shaw undoubtedly and I’d have Bruno on the list merely because of the lack of alternatives, he’s been poor outside of his first 12 months and we’ve been less successful since signing him, and struggled as a team for balance, took more heavy beatings….than at any other point in the past 35 years.

 

[Jeppers7]

Just on Herrera this was something I posted in another thread where people were comparing him very favourably to Pogba….based on regard not performance or value:-


I liked Herrera, I used to often be frustrated by multiple managers not trusting him. But I wondered if my memory was hazy and that in fact he’d been a first pick for us. I also then wondered if I was mistaken and he had played at a much higher level than Pogba.

So I looked back at their time here :

Herrera PL

Squad Start Subbed not used
25 16 6 3
32 19 7 6
34 27 4 3
32 17 10 5
33 13 13 7
———————————————
156 92 40 24
59% 26%. 15%

Apps. Goals. Asst. mins per
189 20 27 266 mins


Pogba PL

Squad Start Subbed Not used
31 29 1 1
27 25 2 0
37 34 1 2
16 13 3 0
29 21 5 3
———————————————
140 122 12 6
87% 9% 4%

Apps. Goals. Asst. mins per
233 49 54 171

I remember also looking back twelve months ago at MOTM ratings on CAF (which hated Pogba) and he was second only to Martial for MOTM awards per games played in his time here.

Herrera was a decent player for us but it’s not true he was a better player for us than Pogba. Multiple managers refused to play him for 40% of his time here and he spent the equivalent of 2/3rds of a season not even getting off the bench.

Ridiculous revisionism based on feelings rather than fact.

 

[Reapersoul20]

Pogba was shite and played more because he was expensive. Herrera was shite too, but ran around a bit.

Both were shite.

 

[UpWithRivers]

Martinez doesnt count as he has only been here a year. Zlatan should be on the list. Free transfer. 28 goals/10 assists and Europa/League cup double. Ok we came 6th. But what more do you want from a free transfer

 

[Oranges038]

Personally I never saw it with Herrera.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Luke Shaw
- 19 years old
- 39 million pounds (roughly adjusted for inflation)
- Well-settled in the Premier League (60 apps for Southampton)

The pattern with this is look for no upgrade or competition and give multiple contract extensions as we wait and wait for a player to become injury free and show the talents they showed in their teenage. Eventually it may work and we get Luke Shaw 22/23.

 

[Red the Bear]

Shaw would go for a lot more in today's market.

 

[FrantikChicken]

Ander Herrera continues to be the most overrated player to have played for this club in the last ten years. I thought the passion merchant stuff may have worn off when he left for more money.

Agreed! I honestly never liked him. Average at best and I hated his cheating cnut attitude in the pitch

 

[Jed I. Knight]

Ander Herrera continues to be the most overrated player to have played for this club in the last ten years. I thought the passion merchant stuff may have worn off when he left for more money.

No idea how he's featuring in a top 4 list of our best transfers. No better than someone like Fred. And, like someone mentioned already, Zlatan had far more impact.

 

[Irwin99]

I'm always surprised how much stick Herrera gets when he was one of our better signings. Not world class by any means but better than most of the shite we've signed, our POTY in 16/17, MOTM in the Europa League final, a couple of brilliant performances at Anfield, a pretty legendary man marking job on Hazard, some good FA cup semi final performances with goals and assists in both, and part of our best midfield combination post SAF in the trio of Matic, Pogba and himself. Jose ditched him because he wanted a more traditional DM in Matic to partner Pogba but overall a good signing in a bad period for the club.

 

[Shakesy]

Mata > Herrera

 

[el3mel]

Martinez ? He only played one season and so far has been injured for most of the 2nd one. He did well but it's way too early to call him one of our post signings in last 11 years.

Mata, Fellaini or Zlatan currently deserve this spot more than him.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

The legend of Herrera is maddening.

 

[Offside]

The best in terms of delivery well as a good player: Mata, Zlatan, Fernandes, Ronaldo.

The best in terms of actually working out how we’d hoped and being part of our success are: n/a

 

[Jeppers7]

Pogba was shite and played more because he was expensive. Herrera was shite too, but ran around a bit.

Both were shite.

Hilarious

 

[Andycoleno9]

People keep throwing Lisandro as good transfer. Yeah, he is a good player but so far he missed half of games. And he also had some bad spells in form.
Lets wait on him before saying how great signing he was.

 

[Reapersoul20]

Hilarious

Sometimes the truth is funny

 

[Jeppers7]

Sometimes the truth is funny

Not as funny as utter bollocks though

 

[The Firestarter]

Hilarious

I assume its a weak ass wum attempt

 

[Andycoleno9]

Casemiro. Since RVP, no player had that impact to a team as he did last season. Bruno maybe under Ole but we won nothing then.

I forgot Zlatan. Yeah, he was also top signing.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Pogba was shite and played more because he was expensive. Herrera was shite too, but ran around a bit.

Both were shite.

Harsh but fair. I don't really agree with Herrera being up there, i get he was a fan favourite and pashun merch but wasn't good enough like the rest. His contributions arguably on par with Fellaini.