The 5 Worst Signings Of The Ed Woodward Era At Man United
Ed Woodward replaced David Gill as Manchester United’s CEO in 2013, until his resignation in 2022.
It’s fair to say he oversaw a turbulent and unsuccessful period for the club.
One of the responsibilities in his role were transfer dealings, and he failed miserably; With around £1b spent in total, most of the signings during his reign at United were a failure.
Although there are many more we could speak about as flops, here are 5 of the worst transfers during Woodward’s era as Chief Executive at United:
5. Radamel Falcao
He wasn’t the worst signing during Ed Woodward’s reign as United Chief Executive, but Radamel Falcao’s expensive loan was definitely a resounding failure.
The club paid £6m to secure a loan of Falcao for the 2014/15 season, and after scoring just 4 goals all season, United effectively paid £1.5m per goal.
He had previously been one of Europe’s deadliest strikers, with a prolific goal-scoring record at Porto, Atlético Madrid and Monaco, but injury problems were hindering his career, which was apparent before his loan to Manchester United.
We had the option to make his move permanent for a further £43.5m, but unsurprisingly that didn’t happen.
4. Morgan Schneiderlin
In Woodward and co’s defence on this one, the signing of Morgan Schneiderlin seemed smart at the time, and was generally well-received.
He’d established himself as a good player for Southampton, where he spent 7 seasons, before United signed him for £25m in 2015.
However, after an inconsistent first season, he barely featured in his second season at the club, with fewer than 150 minutes of football played in all competitions combined.
It’s fair to say that Schneiderlin didn’t live up to expectations, and he was sold to Everton after just 2 seasons.
The only positive is that United managed to recoup most of his £25m fee.
3. Donny Van De Beek
Donny Van De Beek’s stock was high around the time he signed for United for £35m in 2020, after impressing for Ajax.
His transfer to United came out of the blue, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t the manager’s signing.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer barely used the Dutch midfielder, who made just 4 Premier League starts in his first season, and none in his second.
Whenever he did get an opportunity to play, he never really performed to a level that would see him become a regular in the team, and after 4 seasons at the club, he only appeared a total of 62 times, with many of those being cameos from the bench.
Although he was a sought-after player before his move, the manager didn’t have a place for him in the United team, and wanted signings in other positions, so it was a strange transfer, which didn’t work out.
He was sold to Girona for an initial fee of €500,000, which also represented a big financial loss for the club.
2. Ángel Di María
Ángel Di María is another player that was generally well-received by fans when he first signed from Real Madrid in the summer of 2014, for a fee of £59m.
It was the highest transfer fee that a British club had paid at the time, so naturally expectations were high.
After a decent start, things started to go wrong quickly, as he failed to settle and adapt to his new surroundings.
His form took a nosedive, and he fell out with manager Louis Van Gaal.
With just 4 goals in 32 appearances, Di María was sold to PSG after 1 season for £44m, which meant United had to swallow a £15m loss just 1 year after signing the Argentine.
The less said about Ángel Di María around United now, the better.
1. Alexis Sanchez
Alexis Sanchez arrived at United as one of the Premier League’s best players, and left an emphatic flop.
An argument can be made to say that United didn’t need someone of Sanchez’s profile at the time, with both Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial performing well on the left wing, but he came to the club as part of a swap deal, which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan go to Arsenal in return.
Sanchez was on huge wages at Old Trafford, but never got near the form he’d shown at Arsenal.
He reportedly regretted making the switch shortly after it had happened.
After only 5 goals in 45 games for the club, he was let go for free to Inter Milan, after 18 months of failure at Manchester United.