Not every signing can be as big a hit as new boy Bruno...
THE act of signing players is fraught with pitfalls. What can seem like a great deal in the moment can quickly turn sour.
Whether it’s a player not settling, the team, not able to accommodate them, clubs up and down the football pyramid struggle to get every deal right, and United are no different.
In some instances, the deal seems an odd one before the ink has even dried. Here’s a look at some of the more curious bits of business done at Old Trafford in recent years...
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No list could even begin without mention of Bebe. His story was like something from Hollywood. Here was a young player that had gone from homeless to professional footballer to joining one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Bebe moved to the Red Devils in 2010 for EUR9m but made just two first-team appearances. There were conflicting reports about how he ended up at Old Trafford, with initial reports suggesting Carlos
BEBE
Queiroz had recommended him.
The former assistant of Sir Alex Ferguson was quick to shoot this down.
“Bebe was not even part of our scouting files for the national team of Portugal,” Queiroz told FourFourTwo. “He didn’t exist in a system where nothing escaped us. So Bebe going to Man United took me by surprise. I called my coaches and asked them what was going on, why he didn’t exist. I knew nothing about him.”
He eventually left for Benfica and currently finds himself on the books of Spanish outfit Rayo Vallecano.
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The Dutch left-back joined United from Vitesse in 2012. He had previously been the subject of a bid from Southampton, but the deal fell apart over the distribution of the transfer fee.
To his credit, Buttner notched a goal and an assist on his Premier League debut, but he was unable to dislodge club stalwart Patrice Evra. What made his arrival odd was that he did not seem to be a highly regarded prospect. He had no real association with the Netherlands
ALEXANDER BUTTNER
youth national teams, and although he may have been seen just as a back-up, it was hard to pinpoint why he was signed.
He eventually left the club in 2014 to join Dynamo Moscow and currently plies his trade in MLS.
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The defender falls into the Bebe category of odd transfers, if only because he was signed from Salford City. The Football League club were at the time aspiring towards step six on the English pyramid, and while they have some United legends as owners, it was hard to understand what made El Fitouri so special.
A former youth player with City, he joined United in late January 2015 after a recommendation from Phil Neville.
“This minute I saw him, I thought ‘this kid can play,’” he explained on the Salford documentary. Unfortunately, just like Neville, Fitouri’s career eventually took him away from Old Trafford. He joined Chesterfield in 2017 but went awol after being given some time off for personal reasons. He was released and spent time in Romania and Sudan.
SADIQ EL FITOURI