5 costly mistakes by Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement

Manchester United Football club has never been the same since their legendary former manager retired in 2013. Having been the benchmark for Premier League consistency under Ferguson, the club has struggled for an identity since the Scot retired.

The modern Manchester United is a business behemoth, rated as the 2nd most valuable sports club in the world by Forbes magazine. They have millions of twitter followers and facebook likes. Their modern-day superstars such as the affable "JLingz" and the recent World Cup winner, Paul Pogba enthral people on social media with their sheer enjoyment of life.

However, the trophies and goals seem to have dried up. Managers have ranged from the haunted (David Moyes) to the philosophical (Van Gaal) to the pragmatic (Mourinho), but somehow the club has failed to shine on the field. Money has been spent in truckloads, superstars have been signed, but none of it has succeeded in igniting the old Manchester United back to life.

Many would argue that the crazy scattergun spending, at least till Jose Mourinho became the manager, is partly responsible for the mess created at United. In this article, we look at 5 of the costliest errors, after Sir Alex's retirement, that have led to United falling behind their rivals, not only in the Premier League, but also to the likes of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Barcelona.

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#1 Allowing David Gill to leave at the same time as Sir Alex

David Gill's departure in the same season as Ferguson was a blunder

Sir Alex Ferguson was the heart of Manchester United football club for 26 long years. His influence at all levels of the club was immense. The "Sir Alex Ferguson" stand at Old Trafford is a testament to his contribution. But we tend to forget another man, who served as Ferguson’s friend and confidant in the second half of Ferguson’s career.

David Gill - the erstwhile CEO of Manchester United with the experience of doing deals across Europe and with the network that a club of the stature of United deserved. Together, Gill and Ferguson planned and executed United’s football strategy over the years. Ferguson himself said that he and David Gill shared a relationship of equals.

Ferguson decided to retire at the end of the 2013 season. The first grave error from the club was to not convince David Gill to stay. It resulted in a sudden change at the club at both the football and the business level. United went from the experience of Ferguson and Gill to relative novices in David Moyes and Ed Woodward.

The club went for a sudden revolution when a gradual evolution was the need of the hour. The result: unentertaining football, and a colourful, yet ineffective transfer strategy (documented satirically here) which promised Bale and Ronaldo but delivered Fellaini.

#2 Allowing Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra to depart at the same time

Allowing Vidic, Ferdinand, and Evra to leave in the same year was a huge mistake by United

When Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge of the club, he always understood the value of old hands mentoring the young. Whether it was Bryan Robson in 1993-95 or even Ole Gunnar Solkjaer in the twilight of his career working with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, the great Scot liked to keep the long-serving servants around at the club and gradually phase them out.

Considering the aforementioned approach that the club was used to for 26 years, it was surprising to see Vidic, Ferdinand, and Evra departing at the same time. With the club going through such a seismic transition, it was a huge error to let all three stalwarts of the United defence depart at the same time at the end of the 2013-14 season. Vidic and Evra had served United for 8 years. Ferdinand was at United from 2002 to 2014.

All three of them deeply understood the ethos of the club. Culture and philosophy are the big words often thrown around by football managers and administrators. United lost three loyal servants at the same time who would have invaluable in transferring the United way and ethos to the coming generations.

#3 Giving Wayne Rooney a new deal in 2014

Wayne Rooney signed a lucrative new contract with Manchester United in 2014

Wayne Rooney’s relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson deteriorated in his last season at Manchester United. Ferguson considered him dispensable. Shinji Kagawa had been signed to play in Rooney’s number 10 position.

Needless to say, in a parallel universe, Ferguson would not have retired and Rooney would have been sent packing to a rival club where he may or may not have done well. However, David Moyes became the manager and the club, having lost Ferguson, did not want to lose their commercial face and on-field talisman, especially when Chelsea were hovering to sign him.

Rooney ended up with another lucrative contract. He led the club with all his heart and soul from 2013 till his departure in 2017. He became United’s record goalscorer while winning the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the Europa League. Rooney did well, but did he deserve to be amongst the highest paid players in the world between 2013 and 2015? Probably not.

Did the Rooney after Ferguson perform as well as the Rooney under Ferguson? No chance. Was it a big error to give him that contract? In this author’s opinion, no. Was it a costly error? Considering his wages, yes!

#4 Changing the transfer and youth policies

United had a very different transfer strategy before 2013

If we look at all the first team transfers in the 6 years preceding Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, we see a transfer strategy with clarity and a purpose. Robin Van Persie and Michael Owen were the only players above the age of 27 that were signed.

Owen on a free and Van Persie as a farewell gift for Ferguson. The rest, except perhaps Berbatov, were all signed based on their potential or on their ability to fit within the vision that the manager had for the club.

Since Ferguson’s retirement, and the inevitable subsequent downturn in on-pitch fortunes, the club has been desperately trying to get back to the top by splashing the cash on established superstars.

The result: United have been led on wild-goose chases by the likes of Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos while making some statement signings such as Alexis Sanchez, Paul Pogba, and Romelu Lukaku.

While the need to quickly get back to the top in the short-term is understandable, the club seems to have missed a trick in the medium to long-term by ignoring their old transfer policy of taking a punt on players with potential.

The youth system at the club has fallen behind local rivals Manchester City over the years. When United were conducting a root-and-branch review of their youth system, City had unveiled the Etihad campus and their youth team, alongside Chelsea's, is thriving in the FA Youth Cup.

The likes of Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford may still be keeping the United academy flag flying in the first team, but the emergence of talents such as Phil Foden and Brahmin Diaz is a subtle evidence of a changing of the guard.

Taking their eye off the ball with respect to the youth policy may turn out to be the most costly error of all for United.

#5 Backing Louis Van Gaal with exorbitant sums

Loius Van Gaal was not very successful with transfers at Manchester United

In retrospect, Manchester United regressed in the two years under Louis Van Gaal. The Dutchman’s philosophy resulted in football which wasn’t suited to the taste of most United fans. Under his watch, United spent more than 300 million pounds on players who either turned out to be average such as Morgan Schneiderlin or could not settle at United, such as Falcao and Angel Di Maria.

The end result has been a gargantuan mess that Jose has been cleaning up for the last two years. To put the cherry on top, Van Gaal also contributed hugely on the selling side of transfers. He shipped out trusted club men such as Danny Welbeck and Chicharito - players who Mourinho has gone on record to say that he would never have sold.