Manchester United is one of the richest clubs in the World and is known to be the dream club of up-and-coming footballers, along with Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.
A football club of Manchester United’s stature is known to attract the best talents and high-profile footballers. It is the most successful club in England, both on and off the pitch.
Over the last four decades, Manchester has broken several work transfer records and signed the best in the World, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, Wayne Rooney, Peter Schmeichel, Rio Ferdinand, Roy Keane, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Edwin van der Sar, Nemanja Vidic, Teddy Sheringham, and more.
With their success in signing world-class players, not all of these transfers have gone to plan. Eleven-time Premier League champion Manchester United Paul Scholes has named former Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich as Manchester United’s worst-ever signing, claiming “He couldn’t kick a football.”
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Mark Bosnich joined Manchester United from Aston Villa in the summer of 1999 to replace Peter Schmeichel following his retirement. Bosnich spent only 19 months at Manchester United and eventually joined Chelsea on a free transfer following the arrival of Fabian Barthez in the winter of 2001.
Who is Paul Scholes’s worst-ever Manchester United signing?
When it was suggested that Argentine international Juan Sebastian Veron is United’s worst-ever signing, Scholes claimed otherwise on the Overlap, saying: “Veron was a great player, a talented player. Don’t really know why it didn’t work for him, but what a footballer.
“I go back to the goalkeepers when you had to try and replace Peter Schmeichel, which is always going to be difficult.
“We had a few. I was thinking [Massimo] Taibi, Mark Bosnich.
“I thought he was a good keeper at Villa, Mark. He came to us, he was so unprofessional. Honestly, it was ridiculous.
“In shooting practice, you normally have like 15, 20 shots. After three shots, he’s knackered, ”oh no, get someone else in”.
“I never realised he couldn’t kick a football. I’ve never seen anything like it. We played Everton away in first game of the season, and none of us picked up on it, he couldn’t reach the halfway line.
“There was no wind, it was a perfect day. But when you look at his feet, size 14s, honestly he was just kicking the floor all the time, big flippers. Honestly, it was disappointing.”
Legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson also criticized Mark Bosnich in his second autobiography, Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography, released in 2013, for his lack of professionalism.
Sir Alex Ferguson wrote: “Mark Bosnich was, in my opinion, a terrible professional, which we should have known.
“The Bosnich buy stemmed from Peter Schmeichel announcing in the autumn of his final season that he would be retiring, which caught us on the hop. We jumped into decisions.
“We met Bosnich in January, despite reports filtering through to us about his conduct off the pitch. I sent someone down to watch him in training. He was doing nothing in the sessions that convinced me he was the right man for Manchester United.
“I changed tack and went for Edwin van der Sar instead, spoke to his agent and then to Martin Edwards, who told me, ”Alex, I’m sorry, I’ve shaken hands with Bosnich.” That was a blow. Martin had shaken Mark’s hand and would not go back on his word, which I respect. But it was a bad piece of business.”
Mark Bosnich later responded to Sir Alex’s Ferguson claims and labelled them lies.
