5 players whose dream Man Utd transfer quickly became a nightmare
Manchester United is a massive club—that’s just a fact. Yes, by their own high standards, it’s not been great lately. They are the current FA Cup champions and they won the League Cup in the previous season, but the Red Devils haven’t won the Premier League in 11 years.
Many young footballers, especially those from countries with comparatively weak domestic leagues, grow up dreaming of playing for a foreign club. Often, that club is Real Madrid or Barcelona, but plenty of young ballers still dream of playing for Manchester United. Not all dreams are happy, though.
We’re taking a look at five ballers who earned a life-changing move to Old Trafford, but quickly ended up in footballing purgatory.
Donny van de Beek
The young Dutchman was an integral part of Ajax’s generational team that performed so brilliantly in the Champions League under Erik ten Hag. Inevitably, Ajax’s squad was scavenged and picked apart by wealthy clubs, and Frenkie de Jong’s midfield partner eventually found himself signing for the mighty Manchester United.
It did not go well. In his first season in England, van de Beek played 19 league games—only half of the available matches—and that’s as good as it got for him in the Prem. Loans at Everton and Eintracht Frankfurt followed, where he played even less regularly then did for Man United.
Donny van de Beek has now finally secured a way out of Manchester, signing permanently for La Liga upstarts (and Manchester City-affiliated) Girona.
Wilfried Zaha
At 20 years old, Wilf Zaha was one of the brightest talents in the Premier League. An exciting player to watch, with pace, power, end product, and sleeves full of tricks. Alex Ferguson himself spoke with the young winger in order to persuade him to pledge his allegiance to Man United.
Zaha is a Croydon boy, so we’re not going to pretend he grew up dreaming of playing in devil red, but a massive transfer like that for a 20-year-old young baller is a dream regardless of your background (unless you’re a Liverpool or a City fan).
By the time Zaha got to Manchester, Fergie was gone, and David Moyes did not fancy him at all. Rumours abound as to the nature of the apparent fall out between the two, but whatever happened, Wilf left Man United after only three competitive games, and never looked back.
Memphis Depay
After very much bursting onto the scene at PSV Eindhoven, Depay had clubs across Europe talking. He was a wanted man, with both PSG and Liverpool sniffing him out. According to reports, then Man United manager Louis van Gaal thought he probably needed another season in the Netherlands to develop, but the interest from other clubs forced him to snap his compatriot up in 2015.
Depay played regularly in his first season, all across the frontline, but he struggled for end product. The following season saw the Dutchman make just four appearances—all as a substitute—and he was subsequently sold to Lyon in the January transfer window.
Happily, Depay did manage to turn his career around and get back on track, eventually earning moves to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, and leading the line for his country at Euro 2024.
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Mark Bosnich
The only player Alex Ferguson signed twice. Which is weird, because the Scot referred to Bosnich as a ‘terrible professional’ in his autobiography.
Bosnich joined Man United’s youth set up from his native Australia, and made a handful of top division appearances in the 1990-91 season. The Aussie then went back to Sydney for a year, and then spent seven seasons at Aston Villa before Fergie brought him back on a free transfer to replace Peter Schmeichel.
Ginormous gloves to fill.
It lasted for about two thirds of a season, Bosnich spent a night in jail and spent a year or so looking a little bit like Brendan Fraser before Fabian Barthez arrived and effectively ended Bosnich’s Man United career.
Gabriel Obertan
Gabriel Obertan was signed as Cristiano Ronaldo’s replacement. Yeah… Think about that.
Obertan himself thought it was a joke, Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc was perplexed and so, in time, were the Manchester United fans. “He must overcome psychological and mental challenges so he can express his true value.” Is what Blanc had to say on the transfer. Whatever those challenges were, it doesn’t feel like Obertan managed to beat them.
He was very quick, Obertan, to be fair, but pace is about all he managed to show during his time in England. After joining Alan Pardew’s French revolution at Newcastle United, the winger went on a magical mystery tour of Eastern Europe before rocking up in North Carolina, where he’s still playing for Charlotte Independence.