Manchester United have made more transfer blunders than arguably any club since the turn of the decade, and that’s why they’ve been perennial underachievers in the Premier League.
So let’s take a look at the five worst big-name signings Manchester United brought to the club over the last five years and how and why they failed to make the appropriate impact.
Note: This isn’t a list of the worst transfer flops Manchester United made, but rather hyped up stars or established signings who didn’t pan out for the Red Devils. All transfer fees are taken from Transfermarkt and are in euros.
CM Mason Mount, 67.7M
Manchester United signing Mason Mount never made sense from the start, and only the most clueless of pundits and deluded of Man United fans thought this was a good signing/
Chelsea flat-out didn’t want Mount anymore because they realized he isn’t creative or skilled enough to make enough of a difference to play the 10 in the modern game, while he gets overrun as an 8.
But Manchester United signed him anyway despite having a much better No. 10 already entrenched in the lineup in Bruno Fernandes. Mount has struggled to stay healthy and has been poor when on the pitch.
CB Raphael Varane, 40M
Raphael Varane looked like a slam dunk signing, but after an injury-prone 2020/21, trophyless season, Real Madrid saw that Eder Militao had already usurped the previously world-class Frenchman.
The injuries continued for Varane at Manchester United, and he was an unmitigated disaster. He couldn’t stay healthy, and while he wasn’t the worst defender on the pitch for Manchester United, he was hardly worth his salary. Waste of money.
CM Christian Eriksen, Free
Although Christian Eriksen was a free agent on paper, nothing is free in football, and Manchester United signed him to a three-year deal worth nearly eight million pound per season, which was an absolutely blasphemous contract, even at the time.
Eriksen was 30 at the time of his arrival at Old Trafford after three nondescript seasons between Brentford and Inter Milan, and while he had eight assists in his first campaign with Man United, that’s literally all he did.
He couldn’t dribble or progress the ball, and his defensive work may have been the worst of any Premier League midfielder at the time. Eriksen was a stat-padder who quickly got exposed, fell off a cliff, and continued cashing checks at Manchester United’s expense.
LW Jadon Sancho, 85M
Jadon Sancho is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst of these signings. The former Borussia Dortmund star looked like one of the best players on the continent, but immediately after joining Manchester United, he turned out to be one of the worst.
That’s no exaggeration. Sancho made more headlines for clashing with the coach than anything he did on the pitch. He was listless, lethargic, and lacking any sort of creative or goal threat. He made Antony look competent in comparison.
Although Sancho played well on loan for Dortmund, he has done nothing to make Manchester United regret canning him on the bench. No player in recent memory has tarnished their own reputation on the pitch quite like the former England international.
DM Casemiro, 70.65M
Casemiro is the only competent player on Manchester United on this list, but there’s no way that one good season, one terrible season, and a whole lot of mediocrity around that is worth anywhere near 70 million euros.
It’s unclear if he’s even worth half that. Casemiro is still on the books at Manchester United but not someone who belongs anywhere near the starting lineup. Like Varane, he fell from grace immediately after Real Madrid wisely decided to move on, and Manchester United have been pretending that he belongs in their squad ever since an overhyped first season at Old Trafford.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2011. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has contributed to sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. Joe’s work has appeared in ESPN, Bleacher Report, and Sports Illustrated. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling, respectively.