Five worst Manchester United signings since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement

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April 28 2024, 07:30 PM

ATK Mohun Bagan

Odisha

Five worst Manchester United signings since Sir Alex Fergusons retirement

Bengaluru, Sep 1: It's not that over his 27-year-long career, Sir Alex Ferguson has not had a bad example of horrendous transfers at Manchester United. From Djemba Djemba to Kleberson to Veron, there are several big names who failed to make the cut in the Old Trafford history. However, the overall situation must not have been so bad as compared to his post-retirement era.

CEO Ed Woodward, along with three managers David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho completed around 23 transfers in these seven years (keeping out Solskjaer's deal as they are too early to judge), all with varying degrees of success.

Some have flourished, some have divided opinion. Precisely there have been a fair few 50/50s and others flopped completely. We look at five names from the list who have had the worst time in the Manchester United shirt since Scott's exit:

Alexis Sanchez

Most iconic shirt, number 7 wearers in the last seven year ironically has had the most number of flops. And surely it is topped by a certain Chilean who arrived from Arsenal in 2018 January.

Sanchez was supposed to be United's saviour after the club beat Manchester City in the race for his signature but it did cost them £30 million and £505,000-per-week with a total five goals in his name.

He was offloaded this Summer to Inter in a loan deal just to subsidise a part of his salary.

Angel Di Maria

The Argentine was the first big marquee signing since Ferguson's departure and expectations were almost sky-high from him that the winger could help transform United's fortunes following their struggles.

He started brightly in the Premier League, starring in the opening weeks of the new season but his form soon drastically dipped.

Later, a fall out with Van Gaal saw the Red Devils offloading the record £57 million signings to PSG after just one season and three goals in the Premier League.

Memphis Depay

After Di Maria's exit, Van Gaal put faith on budding younger talent and the Dutch winger arrived with a high reputation after helping PSV Eindhoven to the Eredivisie title in 2015, finishing as the division's top scorer with 22 goals.

In early season, he showed promise by scoring in all the first three Champions League games. But he too soon started to struggle. He scored just two Premier League goals in his first season at the club and his game time became limited after the arrival of Jose Mourinho next season.

Just four league appearances next season was sold to French side Lyon for an initial £16m in January 2017.

Radamel Falcao

The Colombian arrived in England to much fanfare, having enjoyed relative success with former clubs Atletico Madrid and AS Monaco. United agreed to sign Falcao on a loan deal worth £6 million with a high wage but with only four goals in 26 appearances in all competitions for United, the Red Devils did not make the move permanent.

Bastian Schweinsteiger

With Van Gaal looking for an influx of leadership and experience in midfield the Red Devils made their first-ever signing of German player that too Bayern legend Schweinsteiger. He relatively came for a mere transfer fee but with a high wage which eventually backfired. He was injury-prone, too slow and ineffective whenever he played. After Val Gaal's exit, Mourinho did not provide him with many opportunities and just after one and half year he was released from the side.