As he completed 25 years in charge
of Man United today, Sir Alex in the
bigger picture has always looked an
epitome of perfection, a Midas of
sorts. To the common man, most
of his buys were intelligent and
always paid dividends but even the
greatest make mistakes. So on this
day, we take a quick look at the 10
worst signings of the Fergie era (in
no particular order)
10. MARK BOSNICH
He was bought as a replacement for
Schmeichel, but boy what a flop he
was. He was worse than a leaky
roof and let everything that came to
him into the goal. Moreover the
man lacked the discipline to play
under Fergie (he was fat, slow and
was later caught doing coke). Our
keeper woes continued for us till
Van Der Sar was bought, by which
time we had series of jokers in
between the posts ranging from
Massimo Taibi, Fabien Barthez, Tim
Howard and Roy Carroll.
Sorry mate, i cant keep for nuts!
9. LIAM MILLER
The Irishman was bought from
Celtic as a replacement for Roy
Keane (there were many other failed
attempts to do this) he was so Un-
United that he was loaned out to
Leeds, where he wasn't great either.
In 2006 when United toured South
Africa he was a substitute in a
match when a bunch of reserves
took on the Orlando Pirates.
8. WILIAM PRUNIER
Fergie wanted a good defender who
could spread the ball to his mid and
in 1995-96 United signed Prunier on
a trial basis. When United faced a
defensive crisis, Prunier got a few
starts, but his presence was no
different and United felt like they
were playing with ten men. So the
Frenchman was sold to
Copenhagen where he lasted one
season!
Now you see him, now he is sold!
7. DAVID BELLION
In 2003 Fergie bought David Bellion,
who was touted to be the next
Thierry Henry (yup, another of
those false promises we have
grown up with). It was a
controversial buy as it had
allegations of player tapping
attached to it. Bellion started with a
boom as he scored his first goal
against rivals Leeds but then that
was that. He added a couple of
goals here and there till he broke his
fibula and never recovered. He was
then sold to Nice, not a very nice
United tenure for the man.
6. KAREL POBORSKY
This was probably more a case of
bad luck than bad signing itself.
After a brilliant Euro 96 campaign
where the trademark Poborsky lob
was born, he was signed to bring in
some creative flair to the mid. Sadly
his United career was as funny as
his hairdo, it just did not click. He set
off for Benfica in 1998 after lasting
just two years at OT.
5. ERIC DJEMBA-DJEMBA
Fergie was looking for another
replacement for Keane and he
stumbled upon Djemba-Djemba.
His United career did not last for
even the length of his name and he
was shipped out to Aston Villa,
from where he was promptly
shipped out as well.
4. KLEBERSON
A successful 2002 world cup made
Fergie buy this Brazilian as a
supposed Veron-replacement. But
he injured himself really badly only
after two starts, and never really
recovers. He played another twenty
times for United before being sold to
to Besiktas.
3. RALPH MILNE
Milne scored 30 goals for Bristol City
from the midfield and Sir Alex
bought him right away for 170,000
pounds. But in a United Jersey he
managed just 3 goals and he had to
fight for his spot once Lee Sharpe
started emerging. So the man who
made 22 appearences for the Reds
was shipped out to Sing Tao in
1991.
2. NEIL WEBB
Bought from Nottingham Forest for
1.5 million, the high scoring
midfielder was bought to bang in
those goals. Sadly after a good start
against Arsenal where he scored, he
went on to play in an international
against Sweden where he ripped his
Achilles. He did comeback, but he
was far too heavy and slow to play
for the reds again.
1. DIEGO FORLAN
Possibly the most confounding, and
controversial name on this list.
While chants of "Diego, Oh oh"
remain fresh in Anfield ears on the
back of his greatest game for
United, Forlan does remain, by
Fergie's standards, a bad signing. He
was bought from Independiente
and his United career had a slow
start when he scored his first goal
only after 29 games. Although he
did earn cult status after scoring
those two goals against rivals
Liverpool, he had to compete with
the goal machine Van Nistelrooy for
a place and simply could not match
the Dutchman's goal rate. Thus
ended Forlan's short, but
nonetheless dramatic stay at OT, as
he was shipped away to Villareal.