14 Dec 2022 16:55:41
Who was the worst signing ever by MUFC?

My pick is not a player at all, but the one and only Ed Woodward. No one - as incompetent or as overhyped as they may have been - has had quite such a negative impact on virtually every aspect of the club. He ended his tenure in a parlous situation with an inferior squad, facilities in need of modernization, and the prospect of growing debt in a higher interest environment.

From The Athletic:

"One alarming detail is that United are very close to, or might be already exceeding, £1billion of debt. That is made up of approximately £580m in gross debt from the Glazers' leveraged buyout in 2005, plus £200m on the revolving credit facility (which was used to make signings in the last transfer window), and £250m net owed on transfers. Those figures do not take into account the strengthening of the pound against the dollar - the currency United use with US banks -"

When confronted with the various options to improve the facilities Joel and Avram were reportedly shocked. The reality is that any new owner would be looking at an extra £1bn or thereabouts in remedial work. A new stadium on adjacent land was discussed and the cost far exceeded that.

The Raine group, who have been hired on as advisers, have been touting a price of £6-£7bn. Market capitalization, which to some extent reflects what investors think the club will sell for now that it's on the block, suggests under £3bn. Chelsea sold for £2.5bn apparently. I don't see it being much more. The club simply isn't worth even that much on a financial basis at this point in time, so any buyer would have to look very long term.

I'm sure the rest of the family want out. The financial situation pretty much means the Glazers have extracted everything they can from the club. It's not viable any more without big investment. All that remains is the sale, and to whom. For the time being there's a wide gulf between what the club is actually worth and what the Raine group is saying it's worth. by a factor of about 2. Even then it's a stretch.

1.) 14 Dec 2022
14 Dec 2022 20:40:52
Hard not to agree with that tbh.

Playing staff though you can't get more disappointing then Alexis Sanchez.

2.) 14 Dec 2022
14 Dec 2022 23:16:30
Prunier or Jemba Jemba weren't exactly hits.

3.) 15 Dec 2022
14 Dec 2022 23:49:05
Kleberson, Jordi, Taibi, Phelan were a few belters I remember. A few from the LvG era were terrible - Falcao, Di Maria, Schweiny. But I think in terms of biggest hype vs lowest performance ratio, Bebe was baffling. One of Fergie’s stinkers.

4.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 09:55:23
Alexis Sanchez.

5.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 11:04:52
Worst signing ever is quite subjective.

For example are we just judging based on their performances?

Or do we take into consideration things like transfer fee, wages, reputation etc?

From a wages perspective Alexis Sanchez has to be one of the worst, came in on massive wages and never came close to justifying them. He was the catalyst to take wages to a whole new level at our club. With players like DDG (375k), Martial (250k), Rashford (200k) and Shaw (150k) all being given huge wage increase as a result, arguably more than they were worth.

There will be names like Djemba-Djemba, Tiabi, Prunier, Butter, and Bebe. Players signed who made little to no impact at all. Although given the fact they were all signed relatively cheaply and were not heralded prior to signing means that there wasn't a whole lot expected of them in the first place.
Without these sort of low cost low risk signings then maybe we would never have signed players like Vidic, Evra, Park or VDS. All signed for low fees at the time.

We also have the big fee players who flopped, or at the very least underperformed expectations, players like Veron, Di Maria, Pogba, Lukaku and Maguire. All signed for big fees, all considered key signings to change the fortunes of the club. None of them managed anything close to that.

The final group would be those signed with big reputations towards the end of their careers who didn't work out. Players like Blanc, Schweinsteiger, Falcao and maybe controversially Ronaldo. Who while he personally scored goals, the team as a result suffered there worst ever EPL season, it then ended very messily on top of him being paid 500k per week.

All in all 30m in wages, 13m transfer fee, won nothing, team played worst football and the club dragged through the mud with a messy exit. Certainly it won't go down as a successful transfer.

In truth any of the players I've mentioned could be the worst signing depending on your point of view. For me personally I'd probably say Maguire is our worse one.

6.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 11:29:52
Jon Obi-Mikel IMO was our worst signing, done nothing for us!

7.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 12:13:57
Maguire or Sanchez for me.

8.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 12:21:02
I'm going with the OP, Ed Woodward, absolutely shocking.

9.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 13:47:25
It may be recency bias and the circumstances since his signing haven't helped but I have to say Harry Maguire. The most overrated player we may have ever bought, buying a player for probably 4 or 5 times his value. He was made captain which almost made him undroppable for Solskjaer, despite horrendous performances at times.

I appreciate it is fairly easy to criticise Maguire but I think you could easy find 30 goals or more where Maguire has been at fault since he joined. He joined for a world record fee for a defender and his limitations make him a liability in many games. The fact people feel sorry for him now rather than criticise at times says it all.

10.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 16:13:48
I think Sancho is also looking to be a bit of a stinker. Doesn't look like he is a £70 million plus player.

11.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 20:14:38
Without a doubt its pogba for me, record fee and left on a free. Lukaku is up there but we got a decent fee for him.

12.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 20:51:02
Malcolm Glazer hands down.

13.) 15 Dec 2022
15 Dec 2022 21:00:02
Paul Pogba
£90 million wasted and how much In wages

Some of the worst I’ve seen going back to 80’s

John sievebeck
Graham Hogg
Ashley Grimes
Colin Gibson
Arthur Graham
Alan Brazil
Peter Davenport
Gary Birtles
Mal Donaghy
Ralph Milne.

14.) 16 Dec 2022
16 Dec 2022 05:51:25
David Moyes.