Plenty of Manchester United fans reacted to an article from The Athletic branding former player Juan Sebastian Veron as “the most brilliant flop English football ever saw.”
Sir Alex Ferguson signed Veron from Lazio in 2001 for a then-British transfer record fee worth £28.1m in 2001, and the centre-midfielder ended up scoring just 11 goals and registering 11 assists in over 80 appearances for the Red Devils, and after two unspectacular seasons, he moved to London and joined rivals, Chelsea.
Unfortunately for the Argentine, his arrival coincided with the peak of golden boys David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, and he struggled to make much of an impact.
It is fair to say Veron largely failed to live up to expectations, and his stint in English football never quite worked out, although he did lift the Premier League trophy in 2003.
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As expected, a large section of the Old Trafford faithful weighed in on the publication’s views, with one supporter noting “he was ahead of his time, would have been brilliant in the United 07/08/09 team.”
Have a read through some of the mixed reactions down below…
Everyone forgets a run of 7 or 8 games where, due to injury, him and Phil Neville played central midfield and they were absolutely exceptional. Granted, that's only 7 or 8 games….him and Becks warming up was worth the entry alone though.
— George Whalley (@GBWhalley) April 3, 2020
One of my happiest moments as a united fan, the morning he signed. Couldn’t believe it.
— Commodus (@HughOFarrell86) April 3, 2020
First 25 minutes against Deportivo at OT he was absolutely magnificent, as were the whole team. But defensive calamities cost us big time.
— One Love (@CM3_MUFC) April 3, 2020
He was good in the European games but a bit irrelevant in the league games. We already had Scholes.
— Mike Spilligan (@mikenstuff) April 3, 2020
He was ahead of his time, would have been brilliant in the United 07/08/09 team
— Phil Eames (@PhilEames3) April 3, 2020
In many ways the perfect midfield player but we bought him without a real plan of how to use him effectively. In previous teams he controlled everything from a deep lying position and we already had Keane and Scholes to do that. His link up with RVN was unbelievable…
— Zeeshan Siddique (@Zeeshan_Sidd1) April 3, 2020
Won a league title with United, but a bigger flop than the likes of World Cup winner Kleberson or Djemba Djemba?
Wind your necks in.
— Lawrence Alexander (@Lawrenc34672607) April 3, 2020
