5 Manchester United flops who went on to succeed elsewhere

#5 Dion Dublin

Dion Dublin's Man United career was cut short due to his injuries

We have to go a long way back for this one, but Dion Dublin – now better known as a daytime TV presenter – was one of the first players to really flop at Old Trafford before going on to star elsewhere. Dublin was a prolific striker at Cambridge United during the early 1990’s as the club rose up from the basement of English football into the old Second Division – now the Championship.

After United missed out on signing Alan Shearer in the summer of 1992, manager Alex Ferguson instead turned to Dublin, who he signed for £1m – at that time a pretty large fee – and he was expected to lead the line in the inaugural 1992/93 Premier League season for United. Unfortunately, fate intervened – Dublin broke his leg in just his second match for United, and by the time he returned from the injury, Ferguson had signed Eric Cantona.

With the form of Cantona and Mark Hughes keeping Dublin way out of the first team, he was restricted to just a handful of appearances for United and then moved to Coventry City for £2m in September 1994. The move saw Dublin give his stalled career a much-need momentum as he established himself as one of the Premier League’s most prolific goalscorers, even at a struggling club, including winning the Golden Boot in 1997/98 with 18 goals.

His form at Coventry saw him break into the England set-up, as well as earn him a big money move to Aston Villa, where he continued to freely score goals in the Premier League until his career began to wind down in the mid-00s. He probably wouldn’t have succeeded as well as Cantona did at United, but Dion Dublin certainly stands out as a United flop who went onto plenty of success elsewhere.