Who is the worst signing of the post-Ferguson era?

[michelleOntaRio-Rio]

Our team went to shit when he arrived, people mocked how easy it was to build up as he just stood there, we went from a fast counter attacking team to nothing, the team collapsed, manager sacked within a few months while he was paid massive wages specifically to bring United to the next level. He ‘singled handedly’ dragged us from 6th to 6th in lost of fairly meaningless games after going missing in the key part of the season. Club went from 2nd to 6th, then he caused a circus second season and got sacked, left for free, never got close to winning anything. Disastrous signing.

I mean I think this just proves the point I made first time around. Your entire response attributes the entirety of the seasons collective failures to one man.

Then attempts to diminishes completely his individual achievements. Some big games and big goals against top teams.

Can I ask for a name, one player from the roster, in each of the following cases that was individually responsible for the downturn in our finishes these seasons;

2013 1st
2014 7th

Which player caused this?

2018 2nd
2019 6th

Which player caused this?

2023 3rd
2024 8th

Which player caused this?

2024 8th
2025 15th

Which player caused this?

As for the bolded, firstly Ronaldo was the player we signed before we signed him. He did exactly what any buying club should expect. If we wanted something else we should have bought someone else. But he did what everyone should have expected, as effectively as anyone else has done what they should be expected to do, during a season. Secondly if United bought that version of Ronaldo, a 37 year old goal getter, to specifically bring them to the next level…that’s on the club.


To claim otherwise and to blame one player when actually yo-yoing between 3rd and 6th has been the norm for 13 years is not really anything more than emotive.

He belongs nowhere near a list containing Sancho, Sanchez, VDB, Mount, Antony, Schneiderlin etc. These players were signed to do something and did nothing. Although I wouldn’t attribute the entirety of any collective failure in any given season to one of them.

You weigh up their contribution. Anything else has no validity.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

I mean I think this just proves the point I made first time around. Your entire response attributes the entirety of the seasons collective failures to one man.

Then attempts to diminishes completely his individual achievements. Some big games and big goals against top teams.

Can I ask for a name, one player from the roster, in each of the following cases that was individually responsible for the downturn in our finishes these seasons;

2013 1st
2014 7th

Which player caused this?

2018 2nd
2019 6th

Which player caused this?

2023 3rd
2024 8th

Which player caused this?

2024 8th
2025 15th

Which player caused this?

As for the bolded, firstly Ronaldo was the player we signed before we signed him. He did exactly what any buying club should expect. If we wanted something else we should have bought someone else. But he did what everyone should have expected, as effectively as anyone else has done what they should be expected to do, during a season. Secondly if United bought that version of Ronaldo, a 37 year old goal getter, to specifically bring them to the next level…that’s on the club.


To claim otherwise and to blame one player when actually yo-yoing between 3rd and 6th has been the norm for 13 years is not really anything more than emotive.

He belongs nowhere near a list containing Sancho, Sanchez, VDB, Mount, Antony, Schneiderlin etc. These players were signed to do something and did nothing. Although I wouldn’t attribute the entirety of any collective failure in any given season to one of them.

You weigh up their contribution. Anything else has no validity.

Some of those players were squad or rotation players, it doesn't really matter that much if they make a massive impact of not. Sancho and Sanchez yes, they were brought to be stars and flopped badly. Ronaldo was bought to transform United and has far, far higher expectations to achieve. This is demonstrated in his £515k a week wages - Schneiderlin was on £100k by comparison.

"Secondly if United bought that version of Ronaldo, a 37 year old goal getter, to specifically bring them to the next level…that’s on the club." - exactly, the question is about the worst signing of the post-Ferguson era, not the worst player. Ronaldo wasn't the worst player, but he wasn't a good signing at all.

 

[michelleOntaRio-Rio]

Some of those players were squad or rotation players, it doesn't really matter that much if they make a massive impact of not. Sancho and Sanchez yes, they were brought to be stars and flopped badly. Ronaldo was bought to transform United and has far, far higher expectations to achieve. This is demonstrated in his £515k a week wages - Schneiderlin was on £100k by comparison.

"Secondly if United bought that version of Ronaldo, a 37 year old goal getter, to specifically bring them to the next level…that’s on the club." - exactly, the question is about the worst signing of the post-Ferguson era, not the worst player. Ronaldo wasn't the worst player, but he wasn't a good signing at all.

Ok so if we set the metric that the club bought Ronaldo, to take us to the next level…at 37. If that was the clubs plan. We are signing Ronaldo to win us the league. Then under those terms from a club perspective it was a terrible idea that anyone would question.

It’s hardly fair to put that on Ronaldo though. He doesn’t determine why he was signed.

515k a week? Nobody knows what he was earning, but even if that were true he was our best performer individually that season. His overall cost including wages would have been around what we paid in total for/to DVB.

My take was we stepped in to prevent his move to City, out of sentiment. Not because we thought he would/should take us to the next level. But we did need more goals and believed he would deliver that.

I never really felt we should have resigned him at the age he was. He would obviously come with deficiencies that would need to be covered. But this thread is taking signings and looking at what they delivered personally and weighing it up against what was paid etc. He has no reason to be in this vote unless we change discussion to what we believe the clubs beliefs were around the impact each player would have.

You didn’t answer my questions…Where the club has fallen from the previous season in the other seasons, which individual player was solely to blame?

 

[Witchking]

Onana, brought in the hype of United finally playing in from the back, keeping the ball. A complete change in style instead of the usual kick and run counter against City, Liverpool with 25% possession.

Pep spoke about him having a great final. De Gea giving 7 goals at Anfield back in 2023 Feb.

New season and then seeing how shite this guy was, broke something in me.

The jackass opened it mouth unnecessarily coupled with the fact that he was the primary reason we got kicked out of the champions league.

Unlike Sancho who we could bench, we could not even do that with his guy.

United's run from 2021 to 2025 was a nightmare with the highest peak of frustration coming with this guy in goal.

 

[McLvnsMuse]

Onana by a mile. Eth could have signed him for free when he first joined then proceeded to sanction a crazy transfer fee.

Onana himself proceeded to put in performances so diabolical, I'm sure there’s going to be a Netflix doc on his match fixing in the next few years.

 

[UTD_Since_1978]

Ronaldo should be on the list, but Sanchez is the one for me. He was supposed to bring us to the next level and he scored 3 league goals, pathetic. Wasn't even good from general player either. Difficult behind the scenes and on ridiculous wages. At no point did he even play well for United. Sancho would be up there too, but he even had rare moments in the first two seasons.

What an utterly stupid take part 1.

Ronaldo was our best player in his first season back.

Our team went to shit when he arrived, people mocked how easy it was to build up as he just stood there, we went from a fast counter attacking team to nothing, the team collapsed, manager sacked within a few months while he was paid massive wages specifically to bring United to the next level. He ‘singled handedly’ dragged us from 6th to 6th in lost of fairly meaningless games after going missing in the key part of the season. Club went from 2nd to 6th, then he caused a circus second season and got sacked, left for free, never got close to winning anything. Disastrous signing.

What an utterly stupid take part 2.

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best players ever to play the game, to write such nonsense about him is utterly disrespectful especially written by a Man Utd fan after everything he did in a UTD shirt.

Would probably be interesting to do a thread on the 2nd best player signed post SAF.

I take it Bruno is number 1, right?

 

[Massive Spanner]

Would probably be interesting to do a thread on the 2nd best player signed post SAF.

Has to be Shaw. I know injuries have stifled him and he didn't reach the heights we expected but he's been one of the best LBs in the league at various periods, didn't cost a fortune, and was important in most of our best post-Fergie teams.

Other than that, yeesh, I dunno, maybe Ibra on a free, Casemiro, or Herrera.

 

[Bastian]

Has to be Shaw. I know injuries have stifled him and he didn't reach the heights we expected but he's been one of the best LBs in the league at various periods, didn't cost a fortune, and was important in most of our best post-Fergie teams.

Other than that, yeesh, I dunno, maybe Ibra on a free, Casemiro, or Herrera.

Yeah, for some reason I didn't even think of him. But he's surely the 2nd best post SAF. It's maybe a closer competition for third place, Ibra, Casemiro, Varane, Martinez, De Ligt, Ander, quite a few.

 

[Fenômeno]

Easily Sancho then followed by Mount.

 

[Trigestis]

Easily Sancho then followed by Mount.

Mount before a £87m Antony, no chance

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

What an utterly stupid take part 1.

Ronaldo was our best player in his first season back.



What an utterly stupid take part 2.

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best players ever to play the game, to write such nonsense about him is utterly disrespectful especially written by a Man Utd fan after everything he did in a UTD shirt.



I take it Bruno is number 1, right?

Ronaldo disrespected the club plenty in how he finished things the second time around, I wouldn't be too sorry for him. He also was in a rush to leave United the first time for Real Madrid and spend nearly his whole peak there too. Do you really think he had a successful time at United the second time around? I find that point of view utterly stupid myself. Solskjaer said Ronaldo's signing 'felt right but was wrong'. Ronaldo apparently said himself the move was a 'disaster'. Jamie Carragher said Ronaldo made United worse. Jonathan Wilson said he was United's biggest problem. Richard Jolly 'a transfer that failed on every level' etc

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Ok so if we set the metric that the club bought Ronaldo, to take us to the next level…at 37. If that was the clubs plan. We are signing Ronaldo to win us the league. Then under those terms from a club perspective it was a terrible idea that anyone would question.

It’s hardly fair to put that on Ronaldo though. He doesn’t determine why he was signed.

515k a week? Nobody knows what he was earning, but even if that were true he was our best performer individually that season. His overall cost including wages would have been around what we paid in total for/to DVB.

My take was we stepped in to prevent his move to City, out of sentiment. Not because we thought he would/should take us to the next level. But we did need more goals and believed he would deliver that.

I never really felt we should have resigned him at the age he was. He would obviously come with deficiencies that would need to be covered. But this thread is taking signings and looking at what they delivered personally and weighing it up against what was paid etc. He has no reason to be in this vote unless we change discussion to what we believe the clubs beliefs were around the impact each player would have.

You didn’t answer my questions…Where the club has fallen from the previous season in the other seasons, which individual player was solely to blame?

No individual is solely to blame but the top players take a lot of the flak, Ronaldo can't be treated like a normal player because he was a circus to be brought to every match, I would say he was actually bigger than the club, that was his level of fame and it affected everything. His reaction to be being substituted and the toxicity of it didn't help either, nor the refusal to follow any instructions from managers to press.

I wouldn't count Ronaldo as part of 2023, it should be that United immediately improved to 3rd from 6th after he left from 2022 to 2023.

2013-14, Moyes/Ferguson was the main figure for the decline, we lost Ferguson after 27 years and the team collapsed. 2018/19 - Mourinho and to a lesser extent Sanchez. But Mourinho began his descent into toxic madness with the football heritage stuff and falling out with Pogba, Shaw and others and it only got worse until he got sacked. 8th to 15th from 2024 to 2025 - Amorim and his suffer ball if I had to pick one individual.

 

[Grande]

Ed Woodward, quite evidently.

 

[michelleOntaRio-Rio]

No individual is solely to blame but the top players take a lot of the flak, Ronaldo can't be treated like a normal player because he was a circus to be brought to every match, I would say he was actually bigger than the club, that was his level of fame and it affected everything. His reaction to be being substituted and the toxicity of it didn't help either, nor the refusal to follow any instructions from managers to press.

I wouldn't count Ronaldo as part of 2023, it should be that United immediately improved to 3rd from 6th after he left from 2022 to 2023.

2013-14, Moyes/Ferguson was the main figure for the decline, we lost Ferguson after 27 years and the team collapsed. 2018/19 - Mourinho and to a lesser extent Sanchez. But Mourinho began his descent into toxic madness with the football heritage stuff and falling out with Pogba, Shaw and others and it only got worse until he got sacked. 8th to 15th from 2024 to 2025 - Amorim and his suffer ball if I had to pick one individual.

So Ronaldo solely in 21/22.

Every other drop off is collective and mainly on the managers.

 

[Jasong]

Worst signing is Ruben Amorim!

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

So Ronaldo solely in 21/22.

Every other drop off is collective and mainly on the managers.

No, he was not the sole reason, there is never a sole reason, but he was a big reason. Like Sanchez, Sancho, Onana and other bad signings that contributed to United's downfalls in their own ways.

 

[Duffman2]

In hindsight, Sancho - but the signing of Anthony was just so odd. Had no excitement for a massive signing and besides a good first few months he was clearly not good enough. The others I can at least see the logic in, Anthony was just silly.

 

[GazTheLegend]

Picked Sancho. Out of interest, cos there's been a LOT of games I've felt out first 11 is atrocious by our standards, but which games stick out to you the most as thinking "yea this season's a write off and this lot are mid table at best"? Getting done by Brighton 3-1 at home in September 2023 (and completely outplayed with it) under Ten Hag and realising that literally every signing he made had and played he let go had somehow made us worse that summer was sobering for me. Also remember under Solskjaer away at Southampton in 2019 realising that Lingard was our equivalent of Firmino and de Bruyne but he couldn't play a simple pass without giving the ball away, and literally disappeared that entire match and thinking the Wire style "look how far we done fell"

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Worst signing is Ruben Amorim!

ETH did far more damage. At least we didn’t let Amorim near the checkbook.

Amorim is a far worse manager, but we are still dealing with the aftermath of ETH.

 

[fallengt]

The irony here.

Ronaldo came in and did his job effectively to the extent that he scored 24 goals and won our player of the year. The dude won us many matches against top teams, sometimes single handedly,

The second season it was known in pre season ETH didn’t want him. He should have been allowed to leave that summer. What transpired was disrespect towards a legend of the game who then disrespected a giant of a club to force a move.

He’s no place whatsoever in that list. But as with Pogba fan sentiment separates performance from logic.

But how? United did not try to keep him. Dozens of clubs publicly denied the rumor, and he only wanted to play for top clubs.
Even when he was a free agent, only camel clubs wanted him.

 

[lex talionis]

Lots of worthy candidates here, but the two who rise above all others are Onana and Sancho, both highly gifted of shovelers of cash into the furnace. But only Onana cost us games and dropped out us of the CL.

Worse, whereas Sancho in their addressed a need, Onana was worse than the keeper we already had at his position.

 

[Orange Tree]

The top 3 is pretty much correct. Mine is just in different order.

I genuinely think Sanchez never had a match where he justified his wage. 3 goals and 6 assists over two seasons for a forward is abysmal, let alone for the wage he was on.

Followed by Onana and then Sancho. Still baffling to me why we didn't just put Heaton in after realizing how much of a clown he is

 

[michelleOntaRio-Rio]

But how? United did not try to keep him. Dozens of clubs publicly denied the rumor, and he only wanted to play for top clubs.
Even when he was a free agent, only camel clubs wanted him.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article/man-united-manager-erik-ten-hag-ronaldo-not-for-sale/

 

[Mmm-Qatarian]

Ronaldo should be on the list, but Sanchez is the one for me. He was supposed to bring us to the next level and he scored 3 league goals, pathetic. Wasn't even good from general player either. Difficult behind the scenes and on ridiculous wages. At no point did he even play well for United. Sancho would be up there too, but he even had rare moments in the first two seasons.

I feel that Ronaldo is a strong shout for stupidest transfer we've made post-Ferguson rather than necessarily the worst.

I'll get ahead of the inevitable accusations about disrespect by quite openly stating that I don't like the man. Putting my personal feelings to one side, though, I think it'd be harsh to label him as the "worst" signing we've made post-Ferguson, and I can see you basically agree with this too.

That being said, the transfer was just so patently daft that I think it's a strong contender for being the most daft that we made. The justification for signing him a the time basically boiled down to "Oh feck, City are interested - we can't be having that!" which is ridiculous. We didn't even need a striker at the time - Cavani was doing great and was also much better suited to what Ole was building than Ronaldo.

I think the distinction between "bad in hindsight" and "outright stupid" transfers is actually a important one. Onana, for example, was a transfer that was spectacularly bad in hindsight but not particularly stupid. He was a Champions League finalist the season prior and it was genuinely hard to foresee just how far he'd drop off when he joined. Antony, by contrast, is another that I'd label "outright stupid" because there was no justification for his fee to be even nearly as high as we paid.

My overall vote for worst transfer went to Sancho but he probably wouldn't be in the top five for the stupidest ones we've made post-Ferguson, again because I think it was quite difficult to foresee that he'd turn out just as bad as he did.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

In hindsight, Sancho - but the signing of Anthony was just so odd. Had no excitement for a massive signing and besides a good first few months he was clearly not good enough. The others I can at least see the logic in, Anthony was just silly.

There's something to be said for immediately knowing a player you just bought was a huge overpay. Especially for someone who was "pretty good" at Ajax but hardly some shining star ripping up that league.

Him and Mount were the two most illogical transfers we've made in the past 10 years for me.

 

[U-N-I-T-E-D]

The Onana/Mount/Hojlund summer has to be the worst I remember.

We got rid of De Gea, who albeit had dipped in form from the multiple player of the year form he had but was nowhere near as bad as the absolute clown we got. We signed Mount for a number 10 position. A position we only had one of in the team and was held by our captain that never seemed to miss a game. Utterly pointless.

We were in dire need of a centre forward and was what was supposed to be the missing piece to an otherwise decent team so we go out and buy a fake Haaland that had scored 18 goals in 69 appearances in the Danish, Austrian and Italian leagues for £64m in the summer that Kane went for £82m.

I know Levy would have had our pants round our ankles for him and we'd have likely ended up spending £120m+ for him but I do wonder what we could have done if we'd spent the Hojlund money and the majority of the other two needless signings money on Kane.

 

[Mike Smalling]

The Onana/Mount/Hojlund summer has to be the worst I remember.

We got rid of De Gea, who albeit had dipped in form from the multiple player of the year form he had but was nowhere near as bad as the absolute clown we got. We signed Mount for a number 10 position. A position we only had one of in the team and was held by our captain that never seemed to miss a game. Utterly pointless.

We were in dire need of a centre forward and was what was supposed to be the missing piece to an otherwise decent team so we go out and buy a fake Haaland that had scored 18 goals in 69 appearances in the Danish, Austrian and Italian leagues for £64m in the summer that Kane went for £82m.

I know Levy would have had our pants round our ankles for him and we'd have likely ended up spending £120m+ for him but I do wonder what we could have done if we'd spent the Hojlund money and the majority of the other two needless signings money on Kane.

That was a devastating summer. It set the team back by miles and cost a fortune. We even got rid of Fred, and even though he wasn't good enough, he could still have contributed and do some things well. ETH really was an idiot.

 

[thisisnottaken1]

That was a devastating summer. It set the team back by miles and cost a fortune. We even got rid of Fred, and even though he wasn't good enough, he could still have contributed and do some things well. ETH really was an idiot.

I’d go as far as saying that it’s the worst ever summer transfer window of any team.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

I feel that Ronaldo is a strong shout for stupidest transfer we've made post-Ferguson rather than necessarily the worst.

I'll get ahead of the inevitable accusations about disrespect by quite openly stating that I don't like the man. Putting my personal feelings to one side, though, I think it'd be harsh to label him as the "worst" signing we've made post-Ferguson, and I can see you basically agree with this too.

That being said, the transfer was just so patently daft that I think it's a strong contender for being the most daft that we made. The justification for signing him a the time basically boiled down to "Oh feck, City are interested - we can't be having that!" which is ridiculous. We didn't even need a striker at the time - Cavani was doing great and was also much better suited to what Ole was building than Ronaldo.

I think the distinction between "bad in hindsight" and "outright stupid" transfers is actually a important one. Onana, for example, was a transfer that was spectacularly bad in hindsight but not particularly stupid. He was a Champions League finalist the season prior and it was genuinely hard to foresee just how far he'd drop off when he joined. Antony, by contrast, is another that I'd label "outright stupid" because there was no justification for his fee to be even nearly as high as we paid.

My overall vote for worst transfer went to Sancho but he probably wouldn't be in the top five for the stupidest ones we've made post-Ferguson, again because I think it was quite difficult to foresee that he'd turn out just as bad as he did.

Well said, I think Onana was a smart signing at the time, he had just played in the CL final and played well in the latter stages, he was at the right age and he was good with the ball at his feet at Ajax and other places. He just horrendously flopped.

Same with Sancho, I think Ronaldo can't be separated from that signing too as we'd made him our number one target and the future of the club for about 2 years, then we buy him for big money, but sign Ronaldo on top of him and put him on the bench. Sancho has proven he is a sensitive soul and he might have found another thing to be aggrieved about, but it didn't help him settle in. You're right about Cavani, they took the 7 shirt off him after he had a brilliant end to the previous season. All this stuff adds up, a hat-trick against Norwich when we were distant 6th doesn't cover it up. You could see possible issues with Ronaldo before he arrived.

 

[Mmm-Qatarian]

Well said, I think Onana was a smart signing at the time, he had just played in the CL final and played well in the latter stages, he was at the right age and he was good with the ball at his feet at Ajax and other places. He just horrendously flopped.

Same with Sancho, I think Ronaldo can't be separated from that signing too as we'd made him our number one target and the future of the club for about 2 years, then we buy him for big money, but sign Ronaldo on top of him and put him on the bench. Sancho has proven he is a sensitive soul and he might have found another thing to be aggrieved about, but it didn't help him settle in. You're right about Cavani, they took the 7 shirt off him after he had a brilliant end to the previous season. All this stuff adds up, a hat-trick against Norwich when we were distant 6th doesn't cover it up. You could see possible issues with Ronaldo before he arrived.

Yep. It's fairly obvious to me that signing Ronaldo was never part of the plan that summer. The higher ups panicked when they thought he might be City-bound and shot themselves in the foot big time.

When the entire purpose behind making a signing boils down to "we don't want him to go to our rivals instead", it's highly unlikely in my mind that the signing is going to work out.

As you say, from a pure footballing standpoint Ronaldo just did not work in the team Ole was building. Individually his performances were impressive enough, especially given his age, but he just totally fecked up the cohesion for the team. And that's before we even mention any non-footballing problems.

 

[michelleOntaRio-Rio]

Well said, I think Onana was a smart signing at the time, he had just played in the CL final and played well in the latter stages, he was at the right age and he was good with the ball at his feet at Ajax and other places. He just horrendously flopped.

Same with Sancho, I think Ronaldo can't be separated from that signing too as we'd made him our number one target and the future of the club for about 2 years, then we buy him for big money, but sign Ronaldo on top of him and put him on the bench. Sancho has proven he is a sensitive soul and he might have found another thing to be aggrieved about, but it didn't help him settle in. You're right about Cavani, they took the 7 shirt off him after he had a brilliant end to the previous season. All this stuff adds up, a hat-trick against Norwich when we were distant 6th doesn't cover it up. You could see possible issues with Ronaldo before he arrived.

Dude…you don’t help yourself at all.

Re Cavani and his brilliant end to the previous season. He scored 4 goals in his last 10 games. Then as for the snide remark about opposition. Jeez you’ve really shot yourself in the boot here. Here’s the list of opponents each scored against.

Cavani

Everton

Southampton

Fulham

Southampton

Everton

Tottenham

Burnley

Villa

Fulham




Ronaldo

Newcastle

West ham

Tottenham

Arsenal

Norwich

Burnley

Brighton

Tottenham

Norwich

Arsenal

Chelsea

Brentford



Cavani was the definition of flat track bully, oh and on End of season form, Ronaldo…10 goals in his last 10 games

The best bit is Sancho. Not only was Ronaldo single handedly responsible for our demise from 2nd to 6th in a way no other player has been. He’s now responsible for hurting poor Jadon’s little feelings.

Sancho was on the bench 2 of 3 game before Ronaldo even signed. He Started Ronaldo’s debut. Was in the starting 11 twenty times. The season after was the same and the season after we gave him back to Dortmund.

You’ve lost the plot on that. It’s utterly irrational.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Dude…you don’t help yourself at all.

Re Cavani and his brilliant end to the previous season. He scored 4 goals in his last 10 games. Then as for the snide remark about opposition. Jeez you’ve really shot yourself in the boot here. Here’s the list of opponents each scored against.

Cavani

Everton

Southampton

Fulham

Southampton

Everton

Tottenham

Burnley

Villa

Fulham




Ronaldo

Newcastle

West ham

Tottenham

Arsenal

Norwich

Burnley

Brighton

Tottenham

Norwich

Arsenal

Chelsea

Brentford



Cavani was the definition of flat track bully, oh and on End of season form, Ronaldo…10 goals in his last 10 games

The best bit is Sancho. Not only was Ronaldo single handedly responsible for our demise from 2nd to 6th in a way no other player has been. He’s now responsible for hurting poor Jadon’s little feelings.

Sancho was on the bench 2 of 3 game before Ronaldo even signed. He Started Ronaldo’s debut. Was in the starting 11 twenty times. The season after was the same and the season after we gave him back to Dortmund.

You’ve lost the plot on that. It’s utterly irrational.

Cavani was much better from general play and played a big role in United finishing 2nd, I wonder did you watch those games or do you just watch stat charts? Cavani was a great team player. His reward was last minute to barely get a game and get his jersey taken off them. This moment summed them up at the time:

 

[Betson]

In hindsight, Sancho - but the signing of Anthony was just so odd. Had no excitement for a massive signing and besides a good first few months he was clearly not good enough. The others I can at least see the logic in, Anthony was just silly.

I can see where you are coming form on this , at the time most observers outside the club and those who had watched a good bit of the Dutch league thought we were crazy to agree to such a high fee for such an unproven player with obvious weaknesses , even Ajax were stunned we agreed to pay it.

To be fair I think it was reported at the time that even our own scouting team were against the signing.

It was a manager led signing , by a manager who had worked with the player previously.

But he got it spectacularly wrong , and I think this is the one signing more than most that has convinced the club that you should never unconditionally trust the manager when it comes to buying players from now on. Never again will a manager have such power when it comes to transfers.

The player himself did his best and had a good attitude and worked hard , just was not good enough.

Unlike say Sancho who came in with a horrible attitude from day one.

 

[fallengt]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article/man-united-manager-erik-ten-hag-ronaldo-not-for-sale/

TenHag said Sancho was not for sale too.
You seriously believe that, when the only offer Ronaldo got as a free agent was from Al Nassir?
If European clubs didn't want to sign him for free, why would they ever pay for him?

 

[Eyepopper]

Its Sancho and, despite some of the turkeys we've signed in the last 14 years, its not even close.

£73m transfer fee; 5 year contract on £250k a week, guaranteed for 5 years, during which time he played more games on loan at other clubs than he did for Utd, none of which showed any interest in signing him permanently, & then left but has since had no interest from any club prepared to take him on a free.

It proves 2 things:

1: Its probably not a great idea to give 21 year olds 5 year deals, guaranteed @ £250k a week.
2. Sancho had zero shame.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Pogba was obviously not as bad as others on the list but what makes his transfer look bad is that we lost him for free to Juventus, brought him back for 89m pounds (probably like 150m today) and then lost him for free to Juventus again I don't think he'd be on this list if it wasn't such a big fee as he had great games but was just so inconsistent.

 

[2 man midfield]

Went for Sancho, but only just. Onana wasn't far behind.

 

[KStandBarmyArmy1993]

Pogba was obviously not as bad as others on the list but what makes his transfer look bad is that we lost him for free to Juventus, brought him back for 89m pounds (probably like 150m today) and then lost him for free to Juventus again I don't think he'd be on this list if it wasn't such a big fee as he had great games but was just so inconsistent.

I think the issue with Pogba was he probably stayed too long.

If he'd left in the summer of 2021, we'd all look more favourably on him.

 

[BorisManUtd]

I think the issue with Pogba was he probably stayed too long.

If he'd left in the summer of 2021, we'd all look more favourably on him.

That too. He was linked with Real Madrid in 2020 and I was hoping it would happen but it never did. He's not the only one we lost for free. Herrera, Matić, Mata, de Gea, Sancho, Martial... Will probably be the same with Shaw and/or Martinez, Onana, Mount.

 

[KStandBarmyArmy1993]

That too. He was linked with Real Madrid in 2020 and I was hoping it would happen but it never did. He's not the only one we lost for free. Herrera, Matić, Mata, de Gea, Sancho, Martial... Will probably be the same with Shaw and/or Martinez, Onana, Mount.

I get why we didn't sell him in 2020 tbf. Such a weird time with it being the pandemic.

I think by 2021, we should have tried to sign Rice.