And a year later he rectified that situation and replaced Blanc with Rio. Financially he night not have been able to do that deal had he not brought in the money from selling Stam.
Swings and roundabouts.
Was selling Jaap Stam Fergie's biggest mistake?
- Thread starter padzilla
- Start date
Swings and roundabouts.
Indeed.
The narrow focus of United’s scouting towards the end, rightly called out by both Moyes and LvG, did prevent him from being able to identify (relative) bargains from outside the PL though. Many of the players that gave City many years of transformational service (e. g. David Silva) weren’t hugely expensive.
Moyes was/is his biggest mistake.
Yes letting City buy those guys while using the "there's no value in the market" excuse was a huge mistake. They all proved their worth many times over since they were signed and cost us a few titles.
He also clearly thought (as he has subsequently confirmed) that Moyes was going to retain the backroom staff.
The whole process seems to have been carried out in a pretty shambolic manner, with lazy assumptions and a lack of attention to detail. I don’t think it was SAF’s job to manage the process, and it’s very unfair to blame him for any of it, even if some of the advice he gave may not have been sound.
Those plays playing were more a reflection of how awful the alternatives were than anything else. De Gea was the only top player that was left behind from that squad.
Everyone else was either mediocre or fell of a cliff. That 2013 team was still hugely reliant on Evra, Rio, Vidic, Carrick, Giggs, Rooney and RVP - These players were all pretty much done with 2-3 years and well past their prime even by the time Moyes had arrived. The squad needed a rebuild but the title victory meant expectations were as high as ever. Moyes never stood a chance.
Not strengthening from a position of power when he knew he was retiring and picking Moyes to take over when no one could win the league with what we had in that squad other than Sir Alex was the biggest mistake, as bad as Jose turned out for us in the end that was when he should have taken over and he and Sir Alex should have been working behind the scenes on bringing top players in that summer.
From being appointed in 86 until around 2000 SAF had to live with pretty strict financial restrictions in terms of what he could spend and what sort of salaries he could offer players. So working on a budget was nothing new to him.
Yeah I think there's probably a very good reason/s he didn't try too hard to keep Tevez.
Yeah totally agree. In fairness after so long and so much success (not to mention total control) at the club there was likely a pressure on Sir Alex to give his verdict on who should take over.
Looking back the club should have stepped in and took over the process. Perhaps letting sir Alex help identify a DOF before the club doing the job of appointing the manager (as it should have been.)
The problem with the total control SAF had meant we were, and to a large extent still are, totally rudderless without him.
Cant really blame him for Nani and Anderson, could maybe for Berbatov as he never really fit our style of play.
However, one of the mistakes was not signing Tevez after his first season.
Being so determined to get rid of Beckham which led to us selling him well under his true value considering how much Zidane went for at his age. We did Real a huge favour in their galatico build while that snake Perez has been trying to nail us every chance he has got.
Didn't Fergie get wind Tevez was prepared to talk to City, while still playing for us?
I think this was all Fergie needed to realise he wasn't the type of character he wanted at the club, unfortunately that type of character is the norm in the PL now.
I'm not sure it cost us much besides the 2001-2002 league title. It was a mistake insomuch that Staam was still a top player, but we bought Rio within 2 seasons and that cannot be classified as a mistake.
Having Stam there in 2002 would have made it less likely that we broke the bank for Rio, because it was our defensive fragility that necessitated the big expenditure.
Having Stam there in 2002 would have made it less likely that we broke the bank for Rio, because it was our defensive fragility that necessitated the big expenditure.
Absolutely not. His biggest mistake was letting the likes of Hazard, Aguero, Silva, Toure and others go to rival clubs when we could have easily gotten them and instead signed the likes of Jones, Valencia, Young and Bebe.
If he had signed the ones mentioned he would have won a lot more titles before his retirement.
If he had signed the ones mentioned he would have won a lot more titles before his retirement.
Don't buy this "we sold him for financial reasons".
We signed Forlan for £10m and Carroll for £3m that very same summer. Stam went for £23m with very, very generous payment schedule IIRC.
We were at the height of our powers, £10m wasn't an insurmountable fee.
We signed Forlan for £10m and Carroll for £3m that very same summer. Stam went for £23m with very, very generous payment schedule IIRC.
We were at the height of our powers, £10m wasn't an insurmountable fee.
I believe his agent was shopping him around Europe and that put us off. He was a troublemaker and Fergie didn't think it was worth the hassle.
Thought it was because of Stam's book?
Yeah. I wonder what David Gill’s role was in all of it.
I think he had announced that he was going anyway, so I don’t think it’s fair to assume he just slunk away when he realised it was all bound to go tits up. It was obvious that SAF was going at some point though, and he (Gill) can’t be totally absolved from the lack of forward planning.
Not a massive mistake but I can remember being a bit disappointed the club didn't go big again in the market after the treble... Bosnich and Silvestre, meh
We'll never hear the true stories of what was going on behind the scenes but I highly doubt Fergie, Gill and others at the club were happy with the lack of investment in the first team and youth academy. If he was 10 years younger I'm sure Fergie would've put his foot down and pointed out things that had to change (like he had done before) but he knew he was retiring soon and he focused on doing his job which was to wrestle the title away from City.
Tevez's camp knew the writing was on the wall after the Berbatov signing, which all things considered was a terrible move.
If we had Rooney/Tevez up front from 2010 through 2015 we'd have won a lot more. They played so well together too.
Yes, this is what I'd say was his biggest mistake. He underestimated how little other clubs cared for agent fees and were happy to line the pockets of the people SAF despised, I think he and Gill hoped to curb the superagents before they got out of hand but just look at the state of transfers now, it's horrendous how much money changes hands.
I really doubt Gill gave a shit and was quite happy to be part of the money making operation.
I agree on Ferguson. People find it sacrilegious to criticise him for anything on here but he could have done a lot more for the club towards the end.
Yes he did. Plenty of people would have moaned if he’d finished fourth, but plenty more would have realised he had a major rebuild on his hands and would have been happy (at least grudgingly) to give him more time.
Not making top four was totally unacceptable.
That’s what happens when you give someone total control.
Still, it should have been obvious after the Moyes debacle that the Fergie Way was only sustainable with the Great Man in place.
True. Was it SAF that was complacent, or the PLC board though?
Not getting him a proper CB partner and a left back after 99 was one issue that prevented us from winning another European cup. Damn Glazers 
Yeah exactly, you can imagine SAF felt the world of pressure on his shoulders to hand over the club to a safe pair of hands and that he rubber stamp it.
That's an unfair situation really because you can't really be held responsible for the performances or decision making of the man that replaces you. Which is why the club should have taken the decision themselves.
Of course he made mistakes and fair criticism is fine but the way some people talk about him on here you would think you were reading RAWK or Bluemoon. The man rebuilt United from scratch and made us into one of the biggest clubs in the world. He didn't owe the club anything in the end, he could've walked away on a lot of different occasions but he stayed to manage into his 70's because he loved United. He couldn't hold our hand forever, there had to come a time when people upstairs started to think about the future but that never happened.
Such nonsense - you've actually made my point.
No one has said any such things about him. He made mistakes towards the end and the business conducted in that time was a significant factor in the decline of the club. Even if it was entirely his own creation that is unquestionable. Some just can't hear a bad word said about him and it's like hearing a cult defend the leader. It's ridiculous.
At the end of the day, Sir Alex and Sir Bobby and other key figures at United were fans of Moyes. They put his name forward and the Glazers and the rest of the board went for it because he was viewed as another man that will stay long term and the Glazers could continue to be hands off. It was a club decision and it's unfair to blame one man for it but I guess that's the price the club and Fergie have to pay for all the PR nonsense surrounding Moyes' appointment.
Agree with this completely, to take a squad that had won the league by double figures the previous season to seventh place was nothing short of shocking.
Yeah it's a collective responsibility but the club should have foreseen the struggles there would be after Sir Alex stepped down and they basically just followed blindly whatever Sir Alex suggested, which is a real strange one because in no other industry would the outgoing Manager select the replacement. They wouldn't even be consulted.
I think SAF thought Pep would jump at the chance here and when they didn't transpire Moyes was what he thought would be a 'safe' choice.
I've said it for years. The squad obviously needed investment but there was too much quality and experience in there to be finishing fecking 7th. The problem is Moyes dithered all summer chasing unrealistic targets such as Fabregas and trying to do a double deal for Baines/Fellaini. Not to mention Woodward's incompetence. Then of course we spent a shit load under LvG the following summer but we didn't spend it wisely.
This
I agree. We held together as a club by one man. Nobody at ownership level or board level wanted to think about planning for when he retired. It's laughable they thought it would just be business as usual.
Dead right!
No. Recommending Moyes was clearly
Fergies biggest mistake was allowing the Midfield to just become poor and never finding suitable replacements, which is still costing us today
No,
He spoke to Pep without revealing he was retiring in a year or so & said to Pep, give me a call if you ever want to leave Barca.
Pep never called, had no idea Fergie was going to retire and signed with Munich.
no it didn't
the club was living in the dark ages and was over-reliant on Fergie, and needed a complete overhaul to bring it into the 21st century
that's what created this mess