Ranking all 16 Man United player signings
It feels a little weird to be writing this a er Manchester United just clinched their second FA Cup nal appearance in as many years, but that’s the stage we’ve reached in the Erik ten Hag journey: Even the wins are starting to feel like losses, though technically, Sunday’s semi nal win wasn’t even a win -- it was a 3- 3 draw with Coventry City decided on penalties. e last time Manchester United failed to win a game they were leading by three goals was May 19, 2013. A er going up 3- 0 within 30 minutes, they conceded twice to West Bromwich Albion on both sides of hal ime, before re- establishing another three- goal lead, only to concede three goals in the nal 10 minutes. at game ended 5- 5 ... And it didn’t matter at all. It was Matchweek 38, and United still won the Premier League by 11 points.
As a tting point of comparison: It was also Sir Alex Ferguson’s nal match in charge. He’d helped push the club so far beyond everyone else that they could a ord to blow a three- goal lead multiple times in a single match.
Fast forward to today, and Manchester United are blowing three- goal leads in knockout games they need to win, against the eighth- place team in the second- division league. So pyrrhic was the victory Sunday that as Rasmus Hojlund wheeled around the back of the goal to celebrate scoring the winning penalty, no one else on the team even bothered to join in.
Unlikely results have masked the team’s poor level of play for a while now, but Sunday seemed to be the day when the whole world -- including the players themselves -- came to terms with the reality of the situation. Over the past two seasons, Man United have spent more on transfer fees than all but two other clubs in the world, Chelsea and Paris Saint- Germain. e end result? A team with a negative goal di erential with only six games le in the season.
So, let’s take a look back at United’s squadbuilding approach from the past two seasons and see how it all went wrong. We’ve ranked all 16 signings under manager Ten Hag, including the transfer fee paid and their age when signed. In addition to statistical analysis, we’re judging them by the thought process behind these moves -- which was too o en based on who Ten Hag happened to have coached previously.
16. Antony, 22, forward: € 95 million from Ajax
About a year ago, I wrote this about the process behind the decision to sign the Brazilian winger:
At Ajax, he averaged 0.58 non- penalty expected goals+ assists per 90 minutes in the Eredivisie. at would rank 14th in the Premier League this season, but Ajax have a massive talent and nancial advantage over the rest of the league, and the league itself tends to in ate attacking numbers of players before they move on to a bigger league.
To pay nearly € 100m for an Eredivisie attacker, you’d want his number to look more like Lionel Messi’s than Gabriel Martinelli’s.
Add in the fact that United were signing one of their new manager’s former players, and it’s really hard to think this was the kind of move any wellfunctioning club would ever make.
As for the outcome? It’s been even worse. Antony has scored zero goals in the Premier League this season, while adding just one assist. e only remaining question here is this: Will Antony go down as one of the worst signings in the history of the Premier League, or in the history of the sport?
15. Casemiro, 30, mid elder: € 70.65 million
from Real Madrid is is the kind of move that -- well, OK. It’s not the kind of move that you ever make. As I wrote last week, Real Madrid’s current era of success stems largely from the fact that they stopped spending lots of money on older players. A er spending a then- club- record fee on 28- year- old Eden Hazard, who went on to score four LaLiga goals in four seasons, they haven’t spent a single dollar of transfer fee money on any players over the age of 24. e reason you don’t invest a ton of transfer money in a 30- yearold is simply that most players get worse once they enter their third decade, and it’s di cult to predict the ones who won’t. So, more o en than not, a 24- year- old is going to give you both better immediate and long- term performance. Plus, for accounting purposes, younger players o er the potential of another transfer fee somewhere down the line. Due to all of this, younger players typically cost a lot more money. Yet somehow, United made
Casemiro the fourth- most expensive mid elder of all time at the time of his move. ey then also made him one of the highest- paid players in the Premier League. If United were on the verge of challenging for a title, you could at least squint and understand them making a win- now move and signing an aging star for something like € 30 million to put them over the edge. But they paid more than double that, to bolster the mid eld of a team that had just nished 35 points back of rst place. is one went about as well as these types of moves tend to go: Casemiro was frequently very good last year, and he’s spent most of this season either being injured or terrible.
14. Sofyan Amrabat, 27, mid elder: € 9 million loan from FiorentinaSix of the 16 signings