Manchester United’s record in the transfer market since Sir Alex Ferguson left as manager has been more misses than hits.
It is why United have spent more than a billion in the market since then and a distant second-place in the league is the best they have to show for it.
Much of it is down to a lack of planning in recruitment and lacking due diligence on the player and his tactical fit in the squad. Chasing superstar names without any long-term vision has also been the bane of the club.
Casemiro is a recent example of this phenomenon where he has become expendable after two seasons, only one of which was a success.
Still, his time at the club hasn’t been as bad as one marquee United signing who will arguably go down as one of the worst ill-judged moves in United’s transfer history.
Former player opens up on difficult time at Man United
The weight of the United shirt is extremely heavy as it is but when it is combined with factors like unfortunate off-the-pitch incidents, lack of trust in the head coach, and struggle to settle in the city, the player fights a losing battle.
One such player who found himself in those conditions and hence, left the battle after only one year, an inauspicious one at that, was Angel di Maria.
The Argentine has been open about his struggles in Manchester since he arrived as a marquee acquisition in Louis van Gaal’s first summer in charge and he has gone in at the club again.
In an interview with Lequipe, Di Maria minced no words as he looked back at his time at United, saying that it was such a difficult tenure that it sent him into a “negative spiral”.
He said: “It was a complicated year in Manchester where many on-pitch and off-pitch events occurred. I was in a negative spiral and Paris changed my life. I started to feel again like I felt in Madrid.”
Di Maria’s home infamously got broken into while he was at the club and his fallout with Van Gaal has been well-documented.
He started off well at Old Trafford but then his form tapered off completely and Ashley Young displaced him from the first XI. That was the final nail in his coffin at the club as he departed for Paris Saint-Germain after just one year.
The only saving grace of the transfer that prevents it from being one of the worst ever is that United did manage to extract a significant amount from his sale so it wasn’t a complete dud.
The importance of getting it right
No transfer is a guarantee of success but putting maximum due diligence and scouting can minimise the chance of failure as much as possible.
In the case of Di Maria, the warning signs were there from the beginning as he didn’t want to leave Real Madrid in the first place. Having been named Man of the Match in the Champions League final the previous season, he was forced out due to James Rodriguez’s arrival.
United pounced on a player who was already sour at how he was treated by Madrid while the weather and climate of Manchester has always been a problem for players from South America who prefer Spain as their first choice.
Most importantly, Louis van Gaal’s structured attacking setup was the antithesis to the free-spirited style of play of Di Maria, a fact that both parties soon realised once the initial euphoria of the move and new surroundings wore off.
Unfortunately, United didn’t really learn their lesson in the latter years either as they kept making big splashes in the market which were ill-advise.
The hope will be that with Ineos coming in and fixing Glazers’ mistakes, they will finally pivot towards a more promising profile of players with proper planning.