What does have to do with it? Maradona would cover every inch of pitch and he's now fat. That means nothing.
Berba was lazy and he was extremely overrated
SAF's worst signings
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What does have to do with it? Maradona would cover every inch of pitch and he's now fat. That means nothing.
Berba was lazy and he was extremely overrated
Agree with this pretty much. I would move Jim Leighton down a notch or two.
Djemba Djemba and Kleberson are up there with the worst. Fergie earmarked them as long term options for the midfield.
Miller, Bellion, Dong, Tosic, Obertan etc were seen as cheap punts that didn't work out.
Bebe was just well erm... (I look forward to the truth behind that one coming out).
Veron and Berba were world class at times, just didn't work out tactically. Nowhere near the worst.
Miller, Bellion, Dong, Tosic, Obertan etc were seen as cheap punts that didn't work out.
Bebe was just well erm... (I look forward to the truth behind that one coming out).
Veron and Berba were world class at times, just didn't work out tactically. Nowhere near the worst.
Don't agree with many of these.
Bebe, Taibi, Obertan, Kleberson, Djemba, McGibbon, Whitworth, Manucho, Obertan were all terrible signings but didn't cost a lot of money.
Miller should be added to this group...probably the worst of the lot.
Veron was class and we didn't play to his strengths. I don't think he was a bad signing at all.
Dong, Tosic, Bellion were young players but clearly turned out to be nowhere good enough.
Milne was bought in 1987 as a stop-gap and although he had some poor games he also had good games too. There were others at that time who were equally poor but didn't get the same criticism. He was just ok.
Poborsky, Bosnich, Forlan, Hargreaves and Anderson all had previous pedigree but for one reason or another couldn't get going. You might want to add Cruyff to that list too.
Prunier was a loan not a purchase...and even then he has a MOM performance v QPR and was part of bad performance at Spurs. He was made the scapegoat when the whole team was terrible that day. He was nowhere near as bad as people make out...a real urban myth.
Zaha was a really good player and on his day a game changer...maybe wrong time for him...maybe club too big.
I reckon Fergie made 10-15 really poor buys in his 26 years as manager. One every two seasons or so. That's a pretty terrific record if you think about it. And of those 10-15 none really cost us a lot of money.
1996/97, 2003/04, 2004/05 were particular poor but again...not bad over 26 years.
Did United bid for Hazard back in 2010?? I cant recall. I am not saying it was not a bad transfer. It was for sure and there is something fishy in the transfer indeed. SAF had many bad transfers, after all he was almost for 30 years in charge. But to compare Bebe, or even Obertan, to Ali Dia its riduculous for me. I m sure there are people here that are/were better footballers than Ali Dia.
What I remember from the Champions League winning season, is being annoyed whenever Hargreaces was picked in midfield, because he'd play instead of Carrick and it'd result in the entire team putting in a poorer performance, due to Hargreaes being far too slow to read the game, and really poor positionally.
On here though the whole season there were people claiming he was Roy Keane like...even after SAF resorted to picking him as a fullback. We lost at City near the start of the season and people were raving about him. All he did the whole game was pick up the ball and run pointlessly about with it, then whenever City got it they were immediately in behind our midfield. He did have a really good right foot and was full of running (when his legs actually worked), which is probably why he could do a decent job at fullback. He got better towards the end of that season in general, but I'd still never have hm near our midfield when Carrickk and Scholes were at the club. Anderson was also better that season when he played, and Fletcher if he was fit was a better player too.
It's farce all round.
Making some big "stand" and costing us the likes of an obvious top class player like Hazard, while consistently shelling out fees at the times of £5-8ms on absolute no marks like Dong, Manucho, Diouf and a fair few others who were never going to make it as even squad players. Bebe heading the top of that list, and having a pure stink about it, having not seen him play, having been available for buttons just before, and all clearly wracked up in some sort of favours with middle men.
What makes the whole skimping on the top players worse, is we've over the last few years started wantonly lashing money all around
sorry but Leighton was never up there even close to being a PL goalkeeper. He was a mistake waiting to happen.. and happen it did at regular intervals. For me, Barthez was never anything but a clown.
In terms of the fact they were bought to replace :-
1. Valencia for Ronaldo
2. Bosnich for Schmeichel
3. Blanc for Stam
Each of those set us back in quality massively and shouldn't have been signed as replacements, although Valencia has gone on to be a decent player in his own right.
1. Valencia for Ronaldo
2. Bosnich for Schmeichel
3. Blanc for Stam
Each of those set us back in quality massively and shouldn't have been signed as replacements, although Valencia has gone on to be a decent player in his own right.
Agree on all part unfortunately, that's why I don't care if we recently spent so much because we invest too little in SAF's last couple of years
Don't think Hargreaves was one of his worst. He was exactly what we needed when we signed him. Ultra reliable penalty taker also.
Trouble is, after he became injury prone, he also became a bit of a whiny kid.
Trouble is, after he became injury prone, he also became a bit of a whiny kid.
Is it a bad signing if the player turns out to be actually good later on, but it somehow didn't work out for utd because of reasons out of the manager's control?
Or if the player is injured like Hargreaves?
Shouldn't be judged on their psychic ability. A bad signing for me is something like Caroll to Liverpool, Chygrynskiy to Barca or the Bebe transfer.
Or if the player is injured like Hargreaves?
Shouldn't be judged on their psychic ability. A bad signing for me is something like Caroll to Liverpool, Chygrynskiy to Barca or the Bebe transfer.
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Did Michael Owen ever had a good game for United ? I don't mean scoring a crucial goal here and there, but did he ever produced a good all-around performance ? For all the expectation that Owen has always carried throught his career, his time here was arguably worse than Di Maria.
Hat-trick vs Wolfsburg
Players like Kleberson, Barthez etc were very good players who had won the World Cup. You do not play regularly for a WC winning side if you are that terrible a player. The fact that they did not make a big success at United has got nothing to do with their ability but also a lot to do with the style of play and formation we played at United.
Bebe is by far the worst player I've seen playing in Premier league.
He was a poacher, a type of striker that seems to have died away a lot now, in these days of 1 up front and needing to offer more.
He wasn't the type who'd be having good all round performances, but for a free transfer, and a perfect pro who you could tell was delighted to be here, he did enough for us.
Just from that City goal, the league cup final, and the Wolfsburg hatrick. He scored a good amount in the first season, the rest was pure bit part action.
The Blanc for Stam one was the worst for me, as we'd chosen to replace an incredible defender with a guy miles past his best as some sort of almost romantic vanity act. Weak talk about how Stam's "performance had dropped", when clearly the truth was somewhere in between him releasing his book, and the suspicion that something was already known about the drugs test he failed not a million years later.
Schmeichel and Ronaldo both chose to leave for different reasons, and neither of their replacements cost us in the same way as Blanc did.
We still came 2nd in the league and won it with Valencia instead of Ronaldo, and Bosnich was quickly ushered out of being first choice too.
Fergie's worst signings were the ones he didn't make. See failing to strengthen the midfield and wide attacking options around 2009-2012.
In terms of signings that didn't have the intended effect, you can't look far beyond J.S. Veron and Berbatov. Not only did neither live up to lofty expectations, but rightly or wrongly they will be associated with making strong United teams suddenly look a bit dysfunctional.
In terms of signings that didn't have the intended effect, you can't look far beyond J.S. Veron and Berbatov. Not only did neither live up to lofty expectations, but rightly or wrongly they will be associated with making strong United teams suddenly look a bit dysfunctional.
The bold bit is why he was a bad signing
Berba didn't live up to the expectations but he was still a good signing and had his very bright moments with us. Don't think he deserves to be put here.
Bebe has to be the worst by far. The whole situation stunk. Paying 7 million for a player that he never seen play? I remember SAF explaining the rigorous process they go through before buying a player. What type of personality do they have? Do they fit into the ethos of Manchester United? He even specifically mentioned talking to the parents to get an insight into the player.
Yeah, remember we played Newcastle just after we signed Blanc and some of their players gave interviews saying they fancied that They would give Blanc a tough game. Turned out that way. Think they beat us 4-3 ? Seemed to give the whole league a lift when SAF decided to sell Stam and replace him with Blanc.
The Ronaldo one was a sheer drop in quality. Ok you might not be able to get a player as brilliant but I'd have gone for the best possible replacement
He's lying.Bebe said in an interview with maisfutebol.iol.pt:[B said:
Trying to protect his ego pretending that it was a case of lack of interest and effort and not that he failed because was not good enough.
Larry White was always just going to be a stop-gap till we could get Rio from Leeds United, it was hardly like for like
And after a shaky start he did well for us anyway
Fair point. Somewhat of a lesser version of RVN right ? I just remembered that at the very beggining of Owen's career he was really explosive and could dribble past alot of players.
Hazard went to Chelsea by personal choice not because we did not bid enough
We bid the same amount as Chelsea, but refused to pay the £7 million odd agent fee didn’t we?
It was £6m, and City refused to pay it as well
Would not put Veron in this category at all, he was genuine world class but as others on here have alluded to we did not play to his strengths,some of his performances I remember were absolutely stunning,especially his first few games and was instrumental in the 5-3 win at Spurs coming from 3 down!!
Same as Berbatov for me, both good players yet proved poor singings because Fergie couldn't get the team to play to their strengths.
Veron, like Berbatov, is one of those players a top club shouldn't be aiming to build a team around. They either adapt or they don't, no team built around Veron was every going to win the Champions League.
It'll forever remain a mystery as to how/why SAF couldn't get that front six(which on paper looks scary)to work, if only
Beckham
Veron
Keane
Scholes
Giggs
v.Nistelrooy
Wonder how many of that six would get into our team now ?
What I begin to realise is it is a real balancing act to get a team to the top and keep them there. You certainly need several world class players and recall this chap mentioning to win the w/c you need at least three world class players -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Araújo
If I look at CFC last season we had Kante, Courtois and Hazard, perhaps a couple others were close to.
For me Utd currently have De Gea, and I see many others being close to W/C status notably Pogba yet not quite there yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Araújo
If I look at CFC last season we had Kante, Courtois and Hazard, perhaps a couple others were close to.
For me Utd currently have De Gea, and I see many others being close to W/C status notably Pogba yet not quite there yet.
It'll forever remain a mystery as to how/why SAF couldn't get that front six(which on paper looks scary)to work, if only
Beckham
Veron
Keane
Scholes
Giggs
v.Nistelrooy
Wonder how many of that six would get into our team now ?
He did try by putting Scholes behind RVN and it failed. Scholes got very upset and SAF even dropped him from the side because he refused to play in a Cup game at Arsenal I think it was.
Keane did not like Veron as they were both kind of playing deep and hence SAF decided that he would sell Veron. I saw Veron destroy Juventus I think it was in the tour game in the USA just a week before he was sold. I think SAF was forced to sell him. He was a brilliant player who had the technique, vision and the skills. He could shoot from long range too. He was another player who played at his own pace.
I must be the only one who kinda liked Tosic.
Amen to that.
I've nothing to back it up, but I always felt Beckham resented Veron being there, think David felt his range of passing would've been more suitable playing centrally, it probably would've been in certain games, but the rest of his game wasn't up to him being in the middle, plus United would've lost his crossing abilities of which he had no equal at the time.