Five Man Utd flops who shone after leaving
Stefan Bienkowski
- 15 Feb 2022 20:59 GMT
- 4 min read
Manchester United have spent untold fortunes on some of the best players across European football, but it hasn’t always worked out.
Like any club, the Old Trafford side have struggled to get the best out of undoubtedly talented players only to then see them thrive elsewhere.
But who are the five best examples of players completely flopping at Man Utd but somehow managed to turn their careers around as soon as they left the Premier League side?
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Diego Forlan
Man Utd aren’t exactly known for plucking players from South American football and Diego Forlan is a perfect example of how it can all go wrong.
Signed for the sizable sum of £6.9m, Forlan joined Man Utd in 2002 but only managed eight goals in 17 games for the club before leaving two years later to join Villarreal.
However, where Forlan struggled in English football he utterly thrived in Spain, where the Uruguay international picked up a remarkable 58 goals in just 123 games for the Yellow Submarine, before Atletico Madrid bought him for just under £19m in 2007.
Forlan arguably did even better for the capital side, where he picked up 96 goals and 31 assists in 198 games and enjoyed a tremendous career in Spain that saw him win the Intertoto Cup in 2004 and the Europa League in 2010.
Juan Sebastian Veron
Juan Sebastian Veron made headlines in 2000 when he joined Man Utd in a deal worth £28.1m to become the most expensive transfer in the history of English football.
Although that record has been beaten a number of times, Veron’s reputation in England has remained intact due to his unfortunate spell at Old Trafford.
Despite a number of good performances for the club, Veron never adapted to the pace of English football and was labelled an expensive flop before being sold to Chelsea for £15m.
That spell didn’t work out either, but Veron eventually got back to his best when he was allowed to return to Italy on loan, where he helped Inter win the Serie A in 2006, as well as two Coppa Italias in successive seasons.
Angel Di Maria
Like his compatriot Veron, Angel Di Maria arrived at Man Utd with huge expectations placed on due to his success beforehand and the large fee the club paid for his services.
Despite a bright start, Di Maria struggled in a Louis Van Gaal team that asked him to play a number of different positions - including as a lone striker - and by the time his spell at the club was confirmed to be over the Argentina international had managed just four goals and 12 assists in 32 games.
Fortunately for Di Maria, he moved on to Paris Saint-Germain, who found a useful role for the winger as a workhorse to make the club’s star-studded attacks click into gear.
In the French capital the winger became a vital part of PSG’s squad and has to date won four league titles and five French Cups, as well as helping his side reach the Champions League final.
Romelu Lukaku
Chelsea fans may be furious at Lukaku’s lack of goals right now but back in 2018 it was Man Utd fans tearing their hair out over the expensive striker that couldn’t seem to find the back of the net.
Lukaku joined the Old Trafford side in 2017 for £76m, but the striker managed just 42 goals in 96 games for the club and struggled to offer much more than a traditional poachers role. And after two years the Belgium international was on his way to Italy to play for Inter, where he went from strength to strength.
Over the course of two seasons, Lukaku was a tremendous talisman for the Serie A giants, where he picked up 64 goals and 16 assists in 95 games for the club and, crucially, played a pivotal role in the club winning their first league title in 11 years.
Memphis Depay
Netherlands international Memphis Depay made the move to Man Utd in the summer of 2015 for £30m and was expected by most to light up the club’s wings as the next big thing from Dutch football. Things didn’t exactly work out like that.
Over the course of two years at the club, Depay managed just seven goals and six assists in 53 games for Man Utd and was considered in no uncertain terms to be a complete flop for the club before leaving for Lyon in 2017.
However, at Lyon, Depay quickly returned to the kind of form he had shown in Holland and over the course of four seasons in French football the forward bagged 76 goals and 55 assists in 178 games.
