Now this season certainly hasn’t been without its downs for Manchester United with Louis van Gaal’s side coming under more scrutiny than ever given an early Champions League exit and a style of football branded ‘boring’.
But while the likes of Memphis Depay, Marouane Fellaini and Matteo Darmian have received stick so far this season, some of our rival fans by the bar are telling our Red Devils supporters that there’s been worse players at Old Trafford down the years!
A conversation starts to break out about who exactly are the worst Manchester United players of all-time and one United fan makes a decent point that while Sir Alex Ferguson made a few boo boo’s in the transfer market – like any manager – many of the Red Devils’ biggest flops actually played in a successful era at the club.
Whereas now under Louis van Gaal, flops are more of a problem as United are still chasing silverware and such players are getting exposed even more!
Before our punters finally nail down their five worst Manchester United players of all-time, some punters by the pool table make a valid point that ‘worst signings’ and ‘worst players’ are two different thing.
The likes of Juan Sebastian Veron and Kleberson will forever go down as terrible United signings but whether they deserve a place in the ‘worst players’ category is open to scrutiny with the Argentine and Brazilian players having done better things outside their respective spells at Old Trafford.
With this in mind, here’s our five worst Manchester United players of all-time whose ability alone was downright poor for a club of this stature!
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Click on the image below to reveal the five worst Manchester United players of all-time – Agreed?
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Liam Miller
Remember him?
This former Republic of Ireland international was only at Manchester United for a spell of two years between 2004 and 2006 and after identifying him as one of the next bright new things in midfield with Roy Keane to depart in 2005, it just didn’t end up working out.
The alarming thing about Miller was how quickly Sir Alex Ferguson seemed to give up on his supposed talent with the former Celtic man swiftly loaned out to Leeds United ahead of his career trailing off into obscurity thereafter.
Ending up playing for Brisbane Roar and Melbourne City later on in his career, the 34-year-old currently plays for his hometown club Cork City in Ireland.
In 2009, Miller reflected on his United spell and claimed: “Looking back, God knows where I could be. Things happened, I suppose for a reason. Man Utd didn’t work out but I have no regrets about giving it a go.”
Dong Fangzhuo
Right now, we’ve seen an influx of high profile names make the switch to the emerging Chinese Super League with Ramires, Gervinho and Fredy Guarin having secured moves to the Far East in the past week.
But when it comes to Chinese players trying to make it in England, it’s been a sorry story and in Dong Fangzhuo, he’s undoubtedly one of the worst Manchester United players of all-time.
What’s laughable is that there was so much hype around Dong moving to Old Trafford given the fanatical support he received in his homeland but when it came to footballing ability, Sir Alex Ferguson clearly had no faith in the striker.
Making just ONE Premier League appearance for Manchester United – ironically in a big game against Chelsea – where the league title was already won, Sir Alex clearly had no faith in the player who looked for the world like a tactical signing.
Making everybody that bit more sceptical over clubs signing below-par players to shift shirts in thriving support-bases around the world, as a footballer, Dong was never going to get in United’s side with the calibre of forwards around at the time.
Massimo Taibi
The name ‘Massimo Taibi’ will forever be directly associated with Matt Le Tissier and that goal at Old Trafford back in September 1999.
The Italian stopper went on to be known as the ‘Blind Venetian’ in the press after an absolute goalkeeping howler in dropping a long range effort into his own net from the Southampton striker.
Playing just FOUR times for the Red Devils in the Premier League in total, again, United were playing in an era under Sir Alex Ferguson that if you made a mistake, you were out with these fear tactics used to the greatest effect by Sir Alex.
Can you see a pattern emerging?
Bebe
No Manchester United flops article is complete without a mention for this man, Bebe.
With Sir Alex Ferguson having got so many things right in his long-term association with Manchester United, it was particularly strange that he got the signing of Bebe so so wrong.
Sir Alex later admitted that he didn’t even have the chance to watch Bebe play on DVD before signing him in 2010 and this blind faith backfired in the most spectacular way possible.
Considering the club sanctioned a £7.4 million deal for a player the manager didn’t really have a clue about, all United were ever going to get was two Premier League appearances and a highly memorable appearance in a 1-0 home victory against Crawley Town in the FA Cup in the FA Cup in 2011.
Can you sense the sarcasm?
Eric Djemba-Djemba
Manchester United have never played the old Stoke City way of kicking ten bells out of the opponent – Roy Keane at times aside – so why they moved to sign Cameroonian midfielder Eric Djemba-Djemba in 2003 is anybody’s guess.
Welcoming himself straight into English football with a tackle on Sol Campbell branded ‘obscene’ by Arsene Wenger in the 2003 FA Community Shield, Djemba-Djemba went onto prove that he didn’t really have any footballing ability in 20 Premier League appearances for the Red Devils.
Considering he’s never scaled any sort of heights since his United nightmare with the defensive midfielder playing everywhere from St Mirren to the Indonesian Super League where he finds himself at the moment, it’s clear that United signed a misfit in Dejemba-Djemba’s case.
So bad they named him twice!
