Manchester United – the ones that got away

The modern-day game of football is survival of the fittest. One bad decision and the club could be paying for many years to follow.

Only the clubs that make transfer decisions successfully on two fronts – sporting and financial are able to maintain their stature and hard-earned respect over time.

Manchester United, since the turn of the century, have made some horrible transfer decisions. No doubt the club has done some fantastic business in the transfer market as well. Here is a list of 5 shocking transactions at the Carrington office –

Anthony Elanga

Elanga attracted eyeballs during his brief stint under Rangnick. However, Ten Hag was quick to arrive at conclusions and did not offer game time to the Swedish attacker.

United hastily offloaded Elanga for £15 million to Nottingham Forest, where he enjoyed an amazing spell before Newcastle United came knocking with a £55 million offer.

Alvaro Carreras

The attacking full-back was sold to Benfica for a measly fee of €6 million.

United reserved the right to buy back the player for €20 million, but they have not deemed it necessary to activate the release clause despite struggling at the full-back positions.

Shockingly enough, Real Madrid came all guns blazing and purchased the young defender for a fee north of €50 million.

Diego Forlan

The Uruguayan striker did impress for a period during his stint at Manchester but was eventually offloaded to La Liga side Villarreal (€3 million).

Forlan rediscovered himself there before securing a big-money move to Atletico Madrid, where his career peaked.

Villareal earned €20 million for this transfer and the forward became one of Europe’s top attackers.

Paul Pogba

Pogba decided to leave United after coming through the ranks at Carrington and joined Juventus for a free transfer after his contract ran out.

After 4 years, a long-running transfer saga, Pogba returned to England for a record British transfer fee set at £89 million.

The French World Cup Winner never truly delivered his best for any length of time at Old Trafford and will always go down as a bust given his undeniable talent.