Replacing Peter Schmeichel with Mark Bosnich

[Bastian]

Couldn't understand it then and now, looking back, it seems to be on a similar level of consciousness to think Moyes could take over from SAF. What on earth were we thinking having just won the treble and getting in Mark Bosnich on a free from Villa?

It took us 6 years to find a suitable GK following that catastrophe...

Who recommended him? Were we not linked with actual top class keepers at the time? Must have been a downer in the dressing room, high on winning the treble and you see your club replace Schmeichel with the Villa keeper. Who then turned out to have a career mired in personal issues and was labelled a terrible professional by SAF. And also, a shite keeper.

 

[Raoul]

Couldn't understand it then and now, looking back, it seems to be on a similar level of consciousness to think Moyes could take over from SAF. What on earth were we thinking having just won the treble and getting in Mark Bosnich on a free from Villa?

It took us 6 years to find a suitable GK following that catastrophe...

Who recommended him? Were we not linked with actual top class keepers at the time? Must have been a downer in the dressing room, high on winning the treble and you see your club replace Schmeichel with the Villa keeper. Who then turned out to have a career mired in personal issues and was labelled a terrible professional by SAF.

Its not really thought of us a catastrophe given that we continued winning.

 

[Bastian]

Its not really thought of us a catastrophe given that we continued winning.

Yeah, that's probably why it goes more unnoticed. Remember reading Keane's book and he was gutted that we didn't improve the squad from a position of strength after winning the treble. And we were quite irrelevant in Europe for quite some time after '99. The standard of the league wasn't as good as the late 90s until Chelsea bought a 100 players and installed Mourinho, so we didn't really have great rivals.

 

[United58]

You could also say 'Replacing Cristiano Ronaldo with Antonio Valencia' (though Valencia was a great player in his first few years for us, we needed far more).

Bosnich was strange cause at the time we weren't as tight on things in the market, were we?

 

[Crashoutcassius]

We muddled around for years until VDS. Never rated Barthez personally

 

[Raoul]

Yeah, that's probably why it goes more unnoticed. Remember reading Keane's book and he was gutted that we didn't improve the squad from a position of strength after winning the treble. And we were quite irrelevant in Europe for quite some time after '99. The standard of the league wasn't as good as the late 90s until Chelsea bought a 100 players and installed Mourinho, so we didn't really have great rivals.

Also, going from someone of Schmeichel's quality to anyone else would've appeared as a significant downgrade - which is precisely what all the stopgap keepers from Bosnich to Howard were.

 

[lsd]

The season before Bosnich was the best keeper in the premiership and a great talent . Thd problem was he was dropped by Villa because they knew he was joining us and then turned up for pre season training overweight and never really got back into his best shape .

Spending the night before he signed in prison probably didn't help either.

At the time it was a a good move especially on a free and he did have some good games . The world club final in particular but ultimately a lack if futness and discipline cost him and us .

Still better than Carroll and Foster etc

 

[Sylar]

Didn't we want vds but he had agreed with Juve?

I seem to remember van der gouw playing CL games for us the season after Pete left too

 

[Annihilate Now!]

The season before Bosnich was the best keeper in the premiership and a great talent . Thd problem was he was dropped by Villa because they knew he was joining us and then turned up for pre season training overweight and never really got back into his best shape .

Spending the night before he signed in prison probably didn't help either.

At the time it was a a good move especially on a free and he did have some good games . The world club final in particular but ultimately a lack if futness and discipline cost him and us .

Still better than Carroll and Foster etc

Always thought Carroll was out worst "regular" keeper... And by a distance too.

 

[Bastian]

You could also say 'Replacing Cristiano Ronaldo with Antonio Valencia' (though Valencia was a great player in his first few years for us, we needed far more).

Bosnich was strange cause at the time we weren't as tight on things in the market, were we?

What makes it doubly strange is that we were the best team in Europe at the time and knew for a long time that Schmeichel was leaving. Van der Sar went to Juve in '99, not sure if we actually tried to go for him, but he was quite obviously a million times better than Bosnich. With Ronaldo, he was replaced in a money-saving exercise. That could also be true for '99, but I think there was some romance about Bosnich "coming back" because he'd been here as a youth player.

I just find it staggering. Such an important role. A leader has left and he's replaced by a keeper playing slightly above expectations at a midtable club, when there were surely top class keepers who would have been interested in joining the CL champions.

 

[Gopher Brown]

It was a really weird one. SAF said in his book that Martin Edwards had essentially sorted the transfer without SAF’s approval. SAF wanted van der Sar, but by the time he got round to it he had already agreed to move to Juventus.

Bosnich was not Ferguson’s cup of tea either - he was a big fan of Thatcher.

 

[rcoobc]

Wasn't he only first choice for the 1999-2000 season. A season where we stormed the league, didn't even take part in the FA Cup and went out to Madrid in the Champions League

Pretty sure he was a good keeper for Villa too

 

[Bubz27]

Its not really thought of us a catastrophe given that we continued winning.

But we could've done so much more. A young team full of talent and were the best team in the world that year. If we'd adequately built we could've done more than win the premier league 2 more years in a row.

 

[acnumber9]

Bosnich was a very good keeper before he signed for United. It was a downward spiral from that point on though.

 

[rcoobc]

We got Bartez a year later. I was never a huge fan of Bartez

 

[Bastian]

Bosnich was a very good keeper before he signed for United. It was a downward spiral from that point on though.

I think everyone in the world would at that point in time have said VDS is the sure bet, whereas Bosnich wasn't. But I can't remember if we were linked to others.

It was a really weird one. SAF said in his book that Martin Edwards had essentially sorted the transfer without SAF’s approval. SAF wanted van der Sar, but by the time he got round to it he had already agreed to move to Juventus.

Bosnich was not Ferguson’s cup of tea either - he was a big fan of Thatcher.

That's extraordinary. So a cost-saving exercise in effect, behind the manager's back, after delivering 3 trophies. Criminal.

 

[duffer]

At least Bosnich was free. We went from Courtois to Kepa.

 

[lsd]

I think everyone in the world would at that point in time have said VDS is the sure bet, whereas Bosnich wasn't. But I can't remember if we were linked to others.



That's extraordinary. So a cost-saving exercise in effect, behind the manager's back, after delivering 3 trophies. Criminal.

VDS went to Fulham though so obviously there were doubts over him and other teams were reluctant on him .

It's weird though out of Schmeichel, De Gea and Van De Saar i prefer Van De Saar i have to wonder just what he was doing at Fulham . I think he said he lost motivation at the time

 

[Pexbo]

Bosnich was not Ferguson’s cup of tea either - he was a big fan of Thatcher.

God I love that man so damn much.

 

[Scarecrow]

The Athletic had a good article recently called "Peter Schmeichel to Edwin van der Sar – the wilderness years in United’s goal". It's behind a paywall, so I don't think I can post the whole thing without potentially getting Nial in trouble but I can share some of the interesting bits about Bosnich in particular.

Here are some choice quotes:

"Bozzo thought he was the fastest at the club over six yards and used to challenge everyone at the club to a six-yard race for as much money as you wanted,” former defender David May tells The Athletic. "

“When we trained with Big Pete, we’d have 20-30 shots at him before he’d say: ‘Now, Raimond, go in goal’,” says May. “Bozza would take six shots and then have a two-minute break because he’d be knackered. He’d say ‘Fak that guys’ in his Aussie accent. He came in with big bags of energy gels and energy powder mixes and spent the afternoon in the gym building himself up. He asked me how I kicked a football because he thought that I drove the ball forward. He wasn’t good at kicking the ball unless it was out of his hands.

“It can’t have been easy for him coming into the tough environment of a highly successful team with lots of well-established relationships.”

It wasn’t. “Bozza was a good goalkeeper and a fantastic shot-stopper, but between being at United the first time in 1989 and returning, football had changed,” says May. “The back-pass was abolished and you were relying on your goalkeeper to build up play.”

“There were complaints from Alex about his weight and general fitness,” said Edwards. The season wasn’t yet out of August, but Ferguson had already lost patience and said: “Mark Bosnich was, in my opinion, a terrible professional, which we should have known.”

Link to the full article:
https://theathletic.com/1901913/202...n-van-der-sar-david-de-gea-manchester-united/

 

[Class of 63]

Bosnich was one of the best keepers around at the time and he knew the club having been at Old Trafford as a kid so it was a understandable signing, and lets be honest whoever followed Big Pete was always on a hiding to nothing so it wasn't any real surprise when it didn't work out, that and his love for food, and more food ....

 

[Sandikan]

Chatted with Bosnich for a bit when he played for Villa in a friendly v Wycombe.

Nice guy. Wondered why i was wearing a big coat on a hot evening.

Fancy remembering that over 20 years on!

 

[Chief123]

Couldn't understand it then and now, looking back, it seems to be on a similar level of consciousness to think Moyes could take over from SAF. What on earth were we thinking having just won the treble and getting in Mark Bosnich on a free from Villa?

It took us 6 years to find a suitable GK following that catastrophe...

Who recommended him? Were we not linked with actual top class keepers at the time? Must have been a downer in the dressing room, high on winning the treble and you see your club replace Schmeichel with the Villa keeper. Who then turned out to have a career mired in personal issues and was labelled a terrible professional by SAF. And also, a shite keeper.

It didn’t seem too bad a decision at the time. Schmeichel was always going to be hard to replace and we were never going to get as good as him as he was arguably the best goalkeeper in the world at the time. Peruzzi, Kahn and Pagliuca his rivals to that throne.

Bosnich was one of the best keepers around at the time. He was an excellent shot stopper. However when he came I honestly believe the pressure of Utd was too big for him.

What I didn’t realise until he came to Utd was how bad his ability to kick the ball was. He was absolutely atrocious at dealing with pass backs. It got so bad at one point our defenders had to avoid kicking the ball back to him. I couldn’t believe how bad he was at kicking.

 

[Scarecrow]

That's extraordinary. So a cost-saving exercise in effect, behind the manager's back, after delivering 3 trophies. Criminal.

Edwards has a different version though:

Ferguson identified Bosnich and chairman Martin Edwards recounts how they went to see him in Birmingham in November 1998 and agreed on a deal. But Ferguson later had second thoughts, based on “bad reports received on Bosnich” and enquired about Van der Sar at Ajax.

“How do we get out of it (Bosnich)?” he asked Edwards. “We can’t get out of it,” was the reply. “We’ve both agreed a deal with him, Alex. We’ve shaken his hand.”

 

[2cents]

Remember reading Keane's book and he was gutted that we didn't improve the squad from a position of strength after winning the treble

Seems spoiled to complain about pretty much anything during an unparalleled 20 year run of success - especially given our current predicament - but not building on our European successes of 99 and 08 is quite disappointing in hindsight.

 

[FujiVice]

We were never in for anyone other than Mark Bosnich. When Martin Edwards knew he was available for free, he wasnt spending a penny on another goalkeeper.

 

[Tiber]

I read somewhere recently that Fergie changed his mind at the last moment (I believe he wanted VDS) but Edwards refused to pull out of the deal because he had already shaken hands.

Think it was in The Athletic.

 

[MancunianAngels]

We signed Taibi a few weeks later

 

[padzilla]

Remember we replaced Fergie with Moyes?

 

[Sky1981]

Bosnich was the best and logical choice st that time. Young, potential, rising, and on the free. What's wrong with that decision?

It's easy to think it's mindboggling looking back but not everyone has a time machine.

Van der sar was waning abit as i recall, he seems to not have enough stardom and cause very little buzz i was shocked he signed for fulham as if his career is finished and he's half retired.

Let's be honest. Van der sar was seen as poor signing at that time. He's deeemd past it, old, and a stop gap solution at best. The rest is history but it wasnt a clear shot. He hardly rock the league at fulham too i recall.

So it wasnt such a clear mistake like what we did with moyes.

Taibi, bosnich, howard... united stardom broke their career.

Vander gouw was an excellent loyal number 2. Ditto Caroll. Cant hold it against them for not being schemeichel

 

[SATA]

He was a very good goalkeeper, great shot stopper but he couldn’t kick the ball. That was his downfall

 

[Irwin99]

Not as bad as the Carol/Howard years but it was a bit of meh signing. Had a good game against Real Madrid once, that's basically all I remember from his time here.

 

[fergies coat]

He was one of the best keepers in the league at the time.

I remember when we signed Howard. I thought we uncovered a gem there. In the end he wasn't good enough. He still had a decent career though.

 

[RedTiger]

Mark bosnich was considered a top 3 keeper in the Premier league back then, plus we tried to sign him when he first came over from Australia but he couldn't get the work permit. Most united fans were happy when we signed him, how were we to know he'd turn into a coked up fat slob.

 

[Zlatattack]

The dumbest thing about it was that Buffon was brilliant at Parma at the time. There was also Toldo at Fiorentina, Peruzzi and Pagiluca.

Italy had some fabulously talented keepers at the time.

There were decent English keepers around too, Martyn at Leeds. The premier league had Given, Matt Poom at Derby.

Never rated Bosnich.

 

[friendlytramp]

Bosnich was highly rated and had already been at the club before joining villa. Incredible talent just a lazy bastard

 

[Chief123]

The more shocking goal keeping choice was Mousa Taibi. What an absolute M25 car crash he was. After having a pretty decent debut at anfield, the rest is something you would want to format off your memory hard drive.

 

[SER19]

Bosnich did fine for us. In fact it was the replacements after him that were more confusing.

 

[BootsyCollins]

In hindsight, read that thread title out loud to yourself. Its bonkers.

 

[RedTiger]

The more shocking goal keeping choice was Mousa Taibi. What an absolute M25 car crash he was. After having a pretty decent debut at anfield, the rest is something you would want to format off your memory hard drive.

Massimo