Not at United for long and perhaps we didn’t see the best of him in English football, but what a player. Made it look so easy.
When will we see players like him again?
When will we see players like him again?
Players of the past: Juan Veron
- Thread starter golden_blunder
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Did my Year 6 report on him. Had to do a writing project (around 250 words a week) and I chose to write about our new signing. I had him man of the match every game.
Thought he looked great.
Thought he looked great.
Did you PASS?
I don’t even know how it was fecking graded ya know. I remember it being in a folder with plastic wallets I had to add in each week.
I know you’re making a joke but I genuinely don’t know what the point of it was.
Anyway - Veron was class as was my writing style.
He was cack.
Easily, the most disappointing signing I've seen in my thirty-odd years following us.
By no means the worst player, he just did not suit us at all and broke up our midfield and attack simultaneously. When dropped, we recovered and overtook Arsenal.
I reiterate: a quality player bot one we really did not need and should not have signed.
By no means the worst player, he just did not suit us at all and broke up our midfield and attack simultaneously. When dropped, we recovered and overtook Arsenal.
I reiterate: a quality player bot one we really did not need and should not have signed.
I enjoyed watching him play. He had a bald head.
He also only looked like he was comfortable in the champions league. Then he joined Chelsea which automatically makes him evil
He also only looked like he was comfortable in the champions league. Then he joined Chelsea which automatically makes him evil
Immense player put in a team where the cog didn't fit.
How spoiled we were that a player like him was considered a flop.
That pass against Deportivo though.Cor.
Honestly the midfield trio of Keane-Veron-Scholes could have worked if we had one or two proper goalscoring wide forwards. We didn't have the right personnel. It was a good setup for Ruud up top and Scholes as a #10 ws great, but it didnt suit Becks or Giggs. What was supposed to be a 4231 of sorts just became a 4411.
Overall I don't think Veron played poorly individually, it was the team as a whole.
Overall I don't think Veron played poorly individually, it was the team as a whole.
It seemed like he wasn't suited to the pace of the Premier League, as he would often take too many touches of the ball. He was class in Europe, though.
I said it at the time and I stick by that we signed the wrong player from Lazio. Should have signed Nedved, who went to Juventus,instead. Veron could only play centre-mid so broke the Keane-Scholes axis and didn’t really offer much flexibility, whereas Nedved could have covered any of Beckham, Scholes, Giggs or played as a 10 behind RVN.
Yeah nice player. One of those 90s/00s with excellent technique who may not have been exceptional but had a lot of great moments across various clubs. He gave us an extra edge but he was never dislodging Scholes or Keane in a midfield 2. Obviously attempts to use a 3 back then didn't have the same effect today with wingers evolving into inside forwards.
Possibly also helped that a lot of fans (like me) would have seen him more in the CL because it was on terrestrial telly back then, where he did seem to play his best games.
PS Geebs this would make a nice series.
Possibly also helped that a lot of fans (like me) would have seen him more in the CL because it was on terrestrial telly back then, where he did seem to play his best games.
PS Geebs this would make a nice series.
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Thanks yeah, I was thinking about that
Re Veron, Scholes thought he was a brilliant player, so much so that he thought that he’d have to leave.
We could have pushed Scholes up alongside Ruud and still played 442, but because we had Blanc at the back I think he used an extra midfielder to try and not expose him at the back. Had it been Stam instead of Blanc think it would have been much better
SAF said he was class but would not play in any position he was told to.
What a player he was. Veron was a great player, just didn't suit him at Utd, like Forlan, it's a shame it didn't work out.
He was another passing oriented mid, that was also the leader of his previous team, falling into an already assembly team with already at least three players more or less of his type that all of them call the shots in their zones, creating an unbalanced midfield that never had the time to adjust all of them in their best roles and that DIDN'T need another similar type at all.
Things got worse, when that Veron from that particular period, already started his more lazy, organizative stroller alike sort of "10" /never a true 10 in my book) fella roaming the field instead of that younger Veron classic argie number 8 going back and forth like in his days of Estudiantes, Boca, Sampdoria, Parma and his first season in Lazio. He already bought too much on his own hype and his idea that he was a 10.
United should have gone for him when he was younger, if they do not had the ammount of mids they actually had and if adding anyone there, should have been someone with a more dinamic 10 profile, a dribbler with pace to compliment a team with quite an overbook of CMs, DMs with good feet and launchers.
Veron as a true old guard number 8 in WC98:
And this a quite cool vid with mixed periods:
Things got worse, when that Veron from that particular period, already started his more lazy, organizative stroller alike sort of "10" /never a true 10 in my book) fella roaming the field instead of that younger Veron classic argie number 8 going back and forth like in his days of Estudiantes, Boca, Sampdoria, Parma and his first season in Lazio. He already bought too much on his own hype and his idea that he was a 10.
United should have gone for him when he was younger, if they do not had the ammount of mids they actually had and if adding anyone there, should have been someone with a more dinamic 10 profile, a dribbler with pace to compliment a team with quite an overbook of CMs, DMs with good feet and launchers.
Veron as a true old guard number 8 in WC98:
And this a quite cool vid with mixed periods:
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A classic case of signing a world class player but not really having an idea of how to use him in what was then a pretty settled team, or certainly a settled midfield.
Would love to have a prime Veron now though!
Would love to have a prime Veron now though!
My bad luck with jerseys stretched through him. Had 'Stam 6' the summer he went to Lazio, then got 'Veron 4' followed by 'Saha 9'. Never get names any more for the safety of the club!
He seemed to have different ways of kicking the ball
I remember one that went low and flat, seemed to swerve two ways round defenders, then just skid to a stop at Solsjaer's feet
I remember one that went low and flat, seemed to swerve two ways round defenders, then just skid to a stop at Solsjaer's feet
I was a huge fan of him in his Italian years, so I was really excited when he signed for us. What a disappointing career he had with us, it's a real shame it didn't work out at Utd.
I always thought he was at his best for United in the rare occasions when Roy Keane didn’t play. Without Keane he could control the game, with Keane doing his thing ‘seba looked redundant.
Picking one from the two was only ever going to have one answer.
Picking one from the two was only ever going to have one answer.
Big Seba fan, I always tried to copy his playing style with poor effect. His outside of the boot passing was unreal. Just sad he didn't work out for us
That pass he did against Chelsea which set up Forlan. Class.
That pass he did against Chelsea which set up Forlan. Class.
Should have stayed for another year.
Fergie was changing formation after Beckham left and it might have worked out for him. Certainly a better option than Kleberson and Djemba x2 anyway.
Fergie was changing formation after Beckham left and it might have worked out for him. Certainly a better option than Kleberson and Djemba x2 anyway.
He was way ahead of his time in England. If he was playing today, everyone would be absolutely purring about him playing in central midfield. There’s a reason all his best work was in Europe, English football was still transitioning away from break neck, kick and run.
We were right to let him go though, he was a bit of a crock after he left us and, if I’m not mistaken, didn’t play much at Chelsea or Inter before returning to Argentina where he was Player/President at Estudiantes aged 42 in 2016
We were right to let him go though, he was a bit of a crock after he left us and, if I’m not mistaken, didn’t play much at Chelsea or Inter before returning to Argentina where he was Player/President at Estudiantes aged 42 in 2016
In hindsight yes, if he'd waited another couple of years things might've been different. We lost Scholes to his eye thing around this time, Keane got the sack and we basically rebuilt the entire midfield and changed from wide midfielders to wingers.
Can imagine we'd have built that new midfield around veron and our lean 2004-06 years might've looked very different. But as it was it didn't turn out badly anyway.
I'll always say this, as his spell with Chelsea didn't work, but went back to Italy (if I remember correctly) before going back to Argentina and being excellent to the end. I will add that I think Sancho falls into this category of not suiting the Premier League
Veron though, even if he didn't play his best in the PL, you could see the class, he had some very good games and more of them in Europe.
I was watching a compilation of Forlan’s goals for us last night for some random reason. Memory is a bit sketchy now but I recall thinking we should not have sold him, that he was just about coming to terms with the pace of the league. But was all excited over Rooney joining so didn’t really lose much sleep over it.
This.
Every week you hoped it was just going to click but he only really seemed to thrive v the ok to good teams in the CL.
City away, Anfield and Highbury in his first season he was absolutely woeful.
Wouldn’t be anywhere near our top 10 worst post Fergie signings though. English football is just didn’t suit his skills.
It has to be said though, one of the most exciting signings in our history when it happened, a player with a world class reputation leaving Serie A in their prime for us just wasn’t the norm.
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The second date with my wife was spent in an internet cafe as news about us signing Veron flooded the media. I couldn't believe we were signing such a high profile player. Unfortunately for him he was up against the most productive AM of his era ie Paul Scholes. In my opinion no one, not even Zidane, was as constantly good as Paul Scholes
I think it's funny how the compilation you chose to include in your OP begins with a series of absolutely awful challenges
I remember Veron being largely a disappointment with some nice highlights. We didn't play particularly well with him in the team (by our standards at the time), finishing 3rd in his first season.
I don't recall him doing much at Chelsea afterwards. Talented but relatively ineffectual player
I remember my father and I were pinching ourselves when the story first broke that he was on the way, but in retrospect we were thinking about the earlier version of Veron and the one we saw in highlights and the odd full broadcast of a big game.
I suppose he was already becoming one of those Serie A luxury players before he arrived in England (as a Lazio-supporting friend pointed out to me, which I scoffed at at the time), and he really did not fit in well. As has already been said, coming into such a settled team as an opportunistic big-name buy must have been very difficult.
His performance in that 3–0 against Chelsea gave us a demonstration of what might have been, but that is about the only time he played as well as I'd hoped (let's face it, as a United fan at the time: expected).
I suppose he was already becoming one of those Serie A luxury players before he arrived in England (as a Lazio-supporting friend pointed out to me, which I scoffed at at the time), and he really did not fit in well. As has already been said, coming into such a settled team as an opportunistic big-name buy must have been very difficult.
His performance in that 3–0 against Chelsea gave us a demonstration of what might have been, but that is about the only time he played as well as I'd hoped (let's face it, as a United fan at the time: expected).
The interesting part was, SAF kept protecting him in the media but then sold him at the first opportunity rather than holding onto him, knowing he'll never make it. Chelsea were suckers to get him for £16m, which they then wrote off.
I vaguely remember the links and the eventual transfer and it was seen as a genuinely exciting buy as it was seen as United winning a transfer war against the money-laden Italian teams and the allure of the Spanish teams. He was essentially seen as a player that would help United win the Champions League more frequently.
He was much better in European games than domestic ones. He had obvious talent but he had Scholes and Keane in front of him.
Possibly a player who was ahead of his time and maybe if you hypothetically put him in the side in the past decade, he’d have been a bigger success because of the way the English game has evolved.
He was much better in European games than domestic ones. He had obvious talent but he had Scholes and Keane in front of him.
Possibly a player who was ahead of his time and maybe if you hypothetically put him in the side in the past decade, he’d have been a bigger success because of the way the English game has evolved.
Oh absolutely. He was a fantastic player who just wasn't the right fit at the time.
For us? He certainly didn't meet expectations.
But he wasn't a cack player, at all.
Underappreciated. The right player at the wrong time. Signing made all the sense but he came into a united era that was still 4-4-2 in the managers mind and the players mind (yes, even you Roy Keane).
Never worked with him and Beckham in the same line-up. Noticed when Beckham wasn't on the field he could dominate the play.