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Manchester United's Juan Mata applauds the fans following the Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Picture date: Monday May 2, 2022.

Mason Mount next? The 7 players to play for Man Utd & Chelsea in the Premier League

Two titans of the Premier League, it’s rare that Manchester United and Chelsea will sell players to one another, with both clubs holding aspirations of competing for the same honours.

While not a traditional derby or rivalry as such – no matter how much Sky Sports try to portray it as one – the game is a big one and often comes with significant ramifications. In fact, one of the finest hours in United history came against Chelsea in 2008, on that rainy evening Moscow in the Champions League final.

Mason Mount is the latest name linked with making the move between the two clubs, following on from the seven players who have already made the switch from London to Manchester or vice-versa.

Mal Donaghy

After a bright start at United, Northern Ireland international Donaghy quickly found a regular spot in the first-team hard to come by.

He was left out of the squad as United won the 1991 League Cup and would move to Chelsea in 1992 for the inaugural Premier League season, spending two years with the Blues before retiring from football.

Mark Hughes

‘Sparky’ enjoyed two spells at United and saw success both before Sir Alex Ferguson’s arrival and during, playing a key role for the club both times. He returned to United in 1988 after a spell with Barcelona, coming good once again after the Red Devils paid a club-record fee to bring him back to Old Trafford.

They sold him to Chelsea in the summer of 1995, a year after he’d scored the winner in the FA Cup final against his new employers. Hughes showed his class down in the capital during a three-year stay, where his goals helped keep them on an upward trajectory. He found himself on the losing side in the 1995 FA Cup semi-final, though, as Chelsea were beaten by – you guessed it – United.

Mark Hughes playing a Premier League match for Southampton in September 1999, The Dell, Southampton

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Mark Bosnich

The only player that Ferguson would ever sign twice at United, Bosnich returned to United in 1999 with Ferguson eyeing a successor to the departing Peter Schmeichel. He failed to impress during his only season as first-choice, though, and signed for Chelsea on a free transfer in January 2001.

Getting injured during a Premier League tie against Everton that November would prove to be the Australian stopper’s final appearance for Chelsea, with a failed drug test and a nine-month football ban in September 2002 seeing him sacked by the Blues.

Juan Sebastian Veron

United paid a then-British record fee to sign Veron from Lazio in 2000, £28.1million proving enough to pry the Argentine away from Rome after emerging as one of the best defenders in the world.

A bright start quickly derailed, though, and despite looking more comfortable in European competition, injuries would then take their toll just as he began to find his feet at Old Trafford. Ferguson sold him to Chelsea in 2003, accepting a £15m fee for the defender who was quickly exiled following Jose Mourinho’s arrival in 2004.

Juan Mata

The first to make the switch the other way around in the Premier League era, Mata won Chelsea’s Player of the Season award two years in a row in 2012 and 2013, but was surprisingly allowed to join United halfway through the 2013-14 campaign with him out of favour under Jose Mourinho.

Mata cost United £37.1m, a club-record fee at the time, and spent eight years at the club where he became a fan-favourite for his obvious ability in a dark period for the Red Devils following Ferguson’s retirement. Many feel as though he never had a chance to truly hit the heights at United, but he left in 2022 having won an FA Cup, a League Cup, a Community Shield and a Europa League – oh, and there was of course ‘Juanfield’.

Di’Shon Bernard

A transfer at youth level, central defender Bernard ditched Chelsea aged 16 to sign for United in 2017.

Bernard would climb the youth ranks rather quickly at United and was given his senior debut against Astana in the Europa League in 2019 under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but unfortunately scored an own-goal in a 2-1 defeat. Now 22, he’s still on the books at United and has spent time on loan at Salford City, Hull City and most recently Portsmouth.

Nemanja Matic

During Mourinho’s second summer in charge of United, he signed Matic for a second time in a £40m deal, reuniting with the defensive midfielder after they won the Premier League together at Chelsea in 2014-15.

Immediately the Serbian became a key player at Old Trafford, winning Player of the Match on his Premier League debut and remaining one of United’s strongest midfield assets due to his press resistance, until his departure in 2022. He left without actually helping United to a major honour, joining Roma and again reuniting with Mourinho.


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