It’s silly season and while Manchester United fans get on edge regarding the club’s transfer activity, we have compiled a list of six terrible signings to grace the Old Trafford turf. In no particular order…
Juan Sebastian Veron
A controversial one perhaps, because he did put in a few good performances at United after his arrival in 2001, but despite his talent, the Argentine midfielder never lived up to the whopping £28 million price tag. After two seasons Sir Alex Ferguson said enough was enough and accepted a £15 million offer from Chelsea.
Bebe
Fergie admitted he had never seen Bebe play live before his arrival, so we can only guess the former United manager was convinced the player had something special after watching a series of YouTube videos, only showing the winger’s promise, and not his faults, or an amazing sales pitch from super agent Jorge Mendes.
Can you imagine the reaction from former club Vitoria de Guimaraes when Mendes delivered the news that United were not only interested in Bebe, they were willing to splash out £7.5million. At the time, fans did some digging and all they gathered was evidence that he played at the European Street Football Festival in 2009.
Bebe’s cameo against Wolves can be found on You Tube. If only David Beckham crossed a ball with such accuracy.
Massimo Taibi
Four games played, 11 goals conceded, and a poor attempt to make jogging pants fashionable. Taibi has become the benchmark of poor goalkeepers which is some feat given the standard of goalies we’ve seen in the Premier League ever since.
Taibi signed from Venezia for £4.5m as Fergie began a difficult quest to replace the irreplaceable Peter Schmeichel. It only took a few months for the Italian goalkeeper to be offloaded to Reggina in January.
Angel Di Maria
Signed from Real Madrid for £60 million after winning La Decima in 2014, Angel Di Maria, or Dobbie from Harry Potter as some know him, was a Louis van Gaal signing. One the Dutchman undoubtedly regrets.
Di Maria epitomises the word ‘flop’ at Old Trafford after an unconvincing year in the Premier League. He not only appeared too light to hack the physicality in a demanding league, the Argentine was unwilling to improve, therefore incapable of making a difference when given game time.
United have had their fair share of frustrating players; some with all the talent in the world and Di Maria, who currently plays for PSG, tops that list.
Eric Djemba-Djemba
Fans joked that Djemba-Djemba was so bad, they named him twice. The former Cameroon international joined United for £3.5 million from Nantes in 2003 and was embarrassingly dubbed the ‘new Roy Keane’. After making 39 appearances, in 2005, he moved to Aston Villa.
Dong Fangzhou
Prior to Park Ji-sung’s successful stint with United, the club had another Asian player named Fangzhuo, who joined from Chinese side Dalian Shide for an initial fee of £500,000 back in 2004.
Dong then spent two years on loan at Royal Antwerp because he couldn’t immediately get a work permit. Belgium’s relaxed laws allow non-European youngsters the opportunity to play without the need for such paperwork.
In December 2006, Dong was finally granted his work permit to play in England. He had finished as the top goalscorer in the Belgian second division and previous season and scored for United in the 2006-07 pre-season tour.
But there was only one real highlight from Dong’s questionable time at United. That was when the royal blue stood in marked contrast to United’s bright red. Lined either side of the pitch by the entrance of the tunnel stood John Terry, Michael Essien, and Claude Makelele, amongst others. Dong strolled on the pitch with the rest of the team, acknowledging the travelling support, before United played their first game as champions, having gone since 2003 since winning the league.
Dong Fangzhou. Saluted as a champion by Chelsea greats.
- Additional candidates (apologies to those I’ve completely forgotten about): Ralph Milne, Zoran Tosic, Wilfried Zaha, Kleberson, Garry Birtles, Mark Bosnich, Liam Miller, Roy Carroll, William Prunier, Karel Poborsky, David Bellion, Jordi Cruyff, Memphis Depay, Gabriel Obertan.
