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Teddy Sheringham says Man United have a £70m player who Sir Alex Ferguson never would’ve signed

Charles Jones

Wed 23 April 2025 11:15, UK

Manchester United have had their fair share of problems over the past decade, and many of those issues can be traced back to one incident.

Indeed, the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson is something that Manchester United still haven’t managed to recover from.

Alex Ferguson is one of the greatest managers ever, and he set all of the standards at United, standards that haven’t been upheld since his departure.

There has been plenty of chat about how Alex Ferguson would deal with the current crop of United players.

Rio Ferdinand says Alex Ferguson wouldn’t have liked Jadon Sancho, while Nicky Butt reckons Bruno Fernandes wouldn’t have lasted under Fergie.

Speaking on , Teddy Sheringham has been discussing United’s recruitment over the past few years, and he’s highlighted a few players that Fergie simply wouldn’t have had at United.

• READ MORE: Micah Richards says Man United once had a player who was even better than Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold

Alex Ferguson never would’ve signed Casemiro

Teddy Sheringham spoke with Michael Owen about United’s recruitment in recent years.

Owen made the point that United have made some big-name and big-money signings in recent years, but they seem to flop at United.

However, Sheringham retorted, claiming that all of these players had clear flaws that a manager like Alex Ferguson would’ve spotted a mile off.

One example that was used was Casemiro, who United signed for .

“They have done that though? They signed Sanchez from Arsenal, Di Maria, Casemiro, they’ve tried it, but these top players, their level goes at Man United,” Owen said.

“Let’s go through that, Sanchez was having a tough time at Arsenal, did you want that to give him top money? Who else? Di Maria? He was coming away from Real Madrid, Casemiro is at the end of his career, Varane, those aren’t the types of players Fergie would’ve signed,” Sheringham said.

Alex Ferguson’s big-money flops

As Sheringham says, Alex Ferguson often got it right in the transfer market.

Mike Phelan said Ji-Sung Park was one of Fergie’s best signings, and he knew how to spot a gem.

However, that said, Ferguson did have his fair share of big-money transfer misses, especially when you adjust the fees for inflation, via the Sky Sports inflation tool.

Juan Veron, Anderson, Shinji Kagawa and Diego Forlan are just a selection of United players who flopped after being signed by Ferguson for big money, so the idea that Fergie wouldn’t have signed players such as Casemiro, Alexis Sanchez or Angel Di Maria is remiss.

Manchester United’s recruitment has got a lot worse as of late, but it wasn’t always perfect under Ferguson either.