As one of England's most successful football clubs, Manchester United have always chased the biggest and best players in the game, regardless of the price tag. In 2001, we set the British transfer record to sign Juan Sebastian Veron, while more recently, we broke our club transfer record in landing Juan Mata from Chelsea for a cool £37 million. But not all of the club's huge transfer outlays have proved successful. While players such as Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo have graced the Theatre of Dreams, more than a few hopefuls have instead endured nightmares, at both their own, and our expense. Though United have always seemingly had money to burn, many promising stars have seen their playing careers go up in smoke when attempting to live up to their occasionally-eye-watering transfer value. And here, What Culture! takes a look at some recent and some legendary expensive transfer flops in the history of Manchester United.
10. Alan Brazil (£625,000)
£625,000 represented a huge sum of money when Manchester United forked out to take Alan Brazil from Tottenham Hotspur back in 1984. At the time, it looked like money well spent - after all, Brazil had been prolific at former club Ipswich Town, netting 70 goals in 154 appearances between 1977 and 1983. However, in hindsight, there were early warning signs that his United career was never going to be a successful one. Brazil went on to join Spurs in 1983, managing just the nine goals for the Lilywhites before moving to Old Trafford. There, he was similarly unimpressive, managing just eight strikes in 31 outings before moving on to Coventry just two years later. In today's money, Brazil would have been worth around £13,650,000 - making him one of our most expensive transfer blunders in history. Click 'next' for more costly flops.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
