5 awful signings made by Sir Alex

Andy Cole, Andrie Kanchelskis, Dwight Yorke, Mark Hughes, Nemanja Vidic, Teddy Sheringham, Japp Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, Peter Schmeichel andSteve Bruce amongst many others were some of the finest and the foremost signings. Some of them were inducted into the hall of fame while the others remained popular figures among the United ranks.

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

Sir Alex and Manchester United exemplify this quote. Signing young talents and inculcating belief and developing them into top notch quality players is surely a trait of Sir Alex’s reign at Old Trafford. Nevertheless, if one counts out these signings, Sir Alex hasn’t always got it right when splashing cash on some of the transfers. As humans, everybody makes mistakes and Ferguson can’t solely be handed out the blame because of these transfer dealings, as his presence at United has been greatly beneficial to the team. Some of these transfers can be described as “wrong club at the wrong time” or because their style of play is different to the one followed at United and hence, they struggled to scale the peak at Old Trafford.

As Sir Alex takes charge of his 1000th Premier League game, let’s contemplate and introspect some of the worst signings under the master’s reign:

Massimo Taibi

This goalkeeper, hastily signed for £4.5 million, was a big flop at Manchester United. With respect to his error prone performances, a newspaper had dubbed him ‘The blind Venetian’. Taibi committed blunders to no end, and after making just four league appearances for the club, he was sold off immediately demonstrating how Sir Alex finally realized the erroneous transfer decision that he made previously.

Eric Djemba Djemba

Bought as a direct replacement for Roy Keane, this particular signing turned out to be a miserable one. Djemba made 20 appearances in 18 months with the club, and turned out to be a major embarrassment in the United colors.

He met with ridicule and banter with his displays on-field and was eventually sold to Aston Villa with a 2 million loss. Eric Djemba-Djemba consistently carried out his rubbish displays at Aston Villa which eventually led to his downfall.

Juan Sebastian Veron

Breaking the British transfer fee record then, Veron was not a success at Old Trafford considering his price tag and reputation. He turned out to be an overrated signing who couldn’t excel at United. He never got used to the style of play at United and was habitually disappointing, getting exposed in a midfield partnership due to his lack of work rate. People might have mixed opinions about him, but surely, he was an expensive flop!

Kleberson

Woefully out of form at Manchester United, he showed us that not all Brazilians are magical footballers.

Making 30 appearances and scoring only twice, the midfielder was offloaded afterwards. The signing of Kleberson is regarded as one of the most awful mistakes under Sir Alex’s tenure.

Ralph Milner

Ferguson himself had stated that the midfielder was the worst buy of his tenure at United. So poor was the Bristol city man, he just managed 23 appearances being unpopular amongst the United faithful as well.

Sir Alex had stated: “I only paid £170,000 but still get condemned for it.”

Other notable mentions who defamed themselves at Old Trafford include -

Gabriel Obertan, Liam Miller, Owen Hargreaves, Diego Forlan and William Prunier to name a few.

Some of these players could have been outstanding purchases for Manchester United, but sadly, could not be.

Will the likes of Bebe and Anderson make this list?

You never know!