The poor post-United careers of recent departures

Grylte

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Pereira seems to be doing alright. I don't watch Fulham, but when i check scores, i feel like he's always had an assist.
 

Red Regista

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Early days, but Donny van de Beek is absolutely shocking for Frankfurt. They didn't even register him for Europe, the manager was quoted as having said: ' Donny needs time to adjust to the rest of the team and Bundesliga football, at the moment he is just not there, that is why we have decided to exclude him from the Conference League squad.'

Christ on a bike, he can't even play in the Bundesliga and the Conference League!
We're paying this guy over £ 10 million a year....
 

Redlyn

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Bailly is still the same chaotic meme we all remember after getting apparently "cursed" by an ex agent, so having his contract ripped up at Besiktas. Now at Villarreal scored an own goal in his last match Vs Barca and headbutt the opponent and hasn't been seen since. Some things never change.
 

JediSith

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There has also been some good ones too. A few that come to mind, although some have fallen off since or just aged.

Smalling
Young
Lukaku won the league with Inter.
Zlatan won the league with Ac Milan since leaving us, despite his age.

De Gea I agree is odd. Still a very good goalkeeper, still not old and should be in his prime. Could easily get signed by a top 5 team in one of the top 4 leagues. Maybe he just became available at a time when no team needed a keeper. I can see him being a very shrewd signing. Maybe whoever Mourinho manages next.
 

100

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It’s exactly as you’d expect when you look at the past approach to transfers and contract renewals.

Players are on a pedestal due to the protracted negotiations, high fees and wages. Player power inevitably runs rampant with lack of accountability. We double down on this by trying to hold on to players for far too long as the high wages make them difficult to shift

no surprise that some of our best returns are when we buck the trend and let players go (elanga, james)
 

frostbite

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But this actually means that our management is decent!

How could their post-United careers be better? Do you expect them to go to City or Real and win the treble? We don't have world-class players who can do this, but even if we did:

1. Our managers are not stupid, there is no reason to sell our world-class players.
2. We are a very rich club. Naturally, we offer better wages, and most players want to join us, not leave us.

Currently, we are not among the best teams in the world in footballing terms, however we are still one of the richest clubs. There is no reason for a really good player to leave us. Usually, they leave because we don't want them. It is expected that they will not win the Ballor D'Or.

If we had players who left us and went on to great things afterwards, it would mean that our management is useless!
 

horsechoker

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But this actually means that our management is decent!

How could their post-United careers be better? Do you expect them to go to City or Real and win the treble? We don't have world-class players who can do this, but even if we did:

1. Our managers are not stupid, there is no reason to sell our world-class players.
2. We are a very rich club. Naturally, we offer better wages, and most players want to join us, not leave us.

Currently, we are not among the best teams in the world in footballing terms, however we are still one of the richest clubs. There is no reason for a really good player to leave us. Usually, they leave because we don't want them. It is expected that they will not win the Ballor D'Or.

If we had players who left us and went on to great things afterwards, it would mean that our management is useless!
You missed the point of the op, the examples given are either unemployed, hardly played or banned.

Elanga going to Forest isn't a poor career move, being unemployed since July is. There's a lot between good and bad.
 

Jordi Cruyff 99

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The players simply aren’t very good; the same happened to Martial, and will happen again when he leaves for good. Has it been nine years since he signed? Incredible that this lazy twonk has lasted so long.

Mediocrity awaits Rashford, Maguire, McTomminay, Shaw, and the rest.
 

Theonas

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There has also been some good ones too. A few that come to mind, although some have fallen off since or just aged.

Smalling
Young
Lukaku won the league with Inter.
Zlatan won the league with Ac Milan since leaving us, despite his age.

De Gea I agree is odd. Still a very good goalkeeper, still not old and should be in his prime. Could easily get signed by a top 5 team in one of the top 4 leagues. Maybe he just became available at a time when no team needed a keeper. I can see him being a very shrewd signing. Maybe whoever Mourinho manages next.
Some have indeed also went on to either do well themselves or be part of teams that did very well. In addition to the names you mentioned, we can add Herrera, Blind, Darmian, Mkhitaryan and Di Maria who won titles or been to CL finals long after they were deemed not good enough for us.

De Gea on the other hand is no surprise at all for me. The man couldn't even be in the Spain squad since 2018 and was behind the likes of Kepa and Simon under several managers. His reputation was enhanced for us as backhanded compliment. The best way to say a team played badly is to praise their goalkeeper. De Gea was a brilliant shot stopper in particular for a couple seasons few years ago. The narrative stuck then that we were so bad and if it wasn't for him, we'd be relegated. Nowhere outside here or among British football fans who used it to slag off United was considered among the elite. Real, Bayern, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Inter were all looking for a GK this season and no one went for him, tells you everything you need to know.
 

frostbite

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You missed the point of the op, the examples given are either unemployed, hardly played or banned.

Elanga going to Forest isn't a poor career move, being unemployed since July is. There's a lot between good and bad.
For a young player like Elanga, who never made good money, going to Forest is certainly great.

For a 33 year old player like De Gea, who made tons of money (and his wife is also independently rich), doesn't make any sense to go to Forest. De Gea can wait for a contract he likes, and if that doesn't come, he can retire and just play golf and enjoy life, no pressure on him. Cantona retired 30 years old. Different people have different goals in life. No mystery here.
 

MiceOnMeth

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Who was out most successful departure post-utd in the Fergie era not including Ronaldo

Beckham? but IMO never reached same heights. Maybe Stam.

Loads didnt do amazing. Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Yorke, Park etc...
Ruud was la liga top scorer with Madrid after leaving us
 

Jordi Cruyff 99

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Who was out most successful departure post-utd in the Fergie era not including Ronaldo

Beckham? but IMO never reached same heights. Maybe Stam.

Loads didnt do amazing. Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Yorke, Park etc...
Yorke and Park were older. You can’t throw them in the same boat as others.
 

devilish

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Credit to Chris Smalling, he let his twin Mike go to Roma and he's been smashing it.
Mourinho said: “Smalling isn’t capable of playing through pain. He holds something back. His specific issue is a real challenge. It’s really frustrating for me because his position – centre back – is where we’re most desperate for players."
 

Red Regista

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Pereira seems to be doing alright. I don't watch Fulham, but when i check scores, i feel like he's always had an assist.
I never thought that he would ever play for Brazil, but he did!
Had two very solid games for them this week.
 

devilish

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I think this is mainly because of the contracts we give (long contracts on silly salaries). Financial wise players it's worth for players to stay with us rather then leave. That means that by the time they become free agents no one would want them
 

RedDevil@84

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3 pages and no mention of the Mourinho rant on quality of United players
"Go and check players who have left United. Find out how they are playing, where they are playing... IF.. they are playing"
 

Todd

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Who was out most successful departure post-utd in the Fergie era not including Ronaldo

Beckham? but IMO never reached same heights. Maybe Stam.

Loads didnt do amazing. Sharpe, Kanchelskis, Yorke, Park etc...
I mean, if we wanna be technical, when Pogba left the first time he became a world beater at Juventus
 

AshRK

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3 pages and no mention of the Mourinho rant on quality of United players
"Go and check players who have left United. Find out how they are playing, where they are playing... IF.. they are playing"
Yes, that was the first thing that came to my mind as well.
 

MadDogg

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Mourinho said: “Smalling isn’t capable of playing through pain. He holds something back. His specific issue is a real challenge. It’s really frustrating for me because his position – centre back – is where we’re most desperate for players."
I remember when he said the same thing when they were at Utd and pressured Smalling into playing injured. Chris went on to have literally the worst the worst match of his career (to the extent that people still bring up that Chelsea match to criticise him almost a decade later) and was out for a couple of months afterwards to heal from his toe being broken in multiple places.

Hard to take Mourinho seriously after that.
 

thisisnottaken1

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I remember when he said the same thing when they were at Utd and pressured Smalling into playing injured. Chris went on to have literally the worst the worst match of his career (to the extent that people still bring up that Chelsea match to criticise him almost a decade later) and was out for a couple of months afterwards to heal from his toe being broken in multiple places.

Hard to take Mourinho seriously after that.
What Chelsea match was that?
 

Rozay

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‘How they play. Where they play. IF they play’.