Which players should Fergie not have sold?

[Father Ted]

Through the years, Fergie has gotten rid of players at times when it looked like they were at the top of their game. Examples include:

Paul McGrath
Norman Whiteside
Gordan Strachan
Mark Hughes
Paul Ince
Andrei Kanchelskis
Lee Sharpe
Jaap Stam
David Beckham


For me, the Jaap Stam sale essentially lost us the 2001-2002 season. Imagine a Stam-Rio partnership today.

[Achtung]

For me, the most glaring one is obviously Stam, though I think that really had more to do with his book than anything on the field. I have to say that if we'd kept Stam, its unlikely we would have bought Rio in 2002. Other than that, Kanchelskis (before my time though) I thought could have continued to play well for United, just that he had a tough time the other places he'd played. But for the most part Fergie knows when a player still has it and when he doesn't.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

Through the years, Fergie has gotten rid of players at times when it looked like they were at the top of their game. Examples include:

Paul McGrath
Norman Whiteside
Gordan Strachan
Mark Hughes
Paul Ince
Andrei Kanchelskis
Lee Sharpe
Jaap Stam
David Beckham


For me, the Jaap Stam sale essentially lost us the 2001-2002 season. Imagine a Stam-Rio partnership today.

Out of those I would only say Stam. However, did Fergie know about the drug issue. If so, I would agree with that transfer. The others all deserved to go.

[jammybastard]

Y'know, I'm still torn about Beckham.
We do miss his crossing and deadball shooting, but I think he's past his peak and Fergie cashed out while he could.
It goes without saying though that if he wasn't married to football equivalent of Yoko Ono he probably would've stayed.

[johno]

I am in no position to comment on the others but I would say that Stam firstly and Beckham secondly were sold to soon.

Beckham has an asterisk though. Since he went for a boatload of cash and we have bought Rooney - I think that if not selling Becks would have meant not getting Rooney then I'd sell Becks if it were up to me.

Agree with the others who say Stam/Rio partnership would have been great. However - I don't see us getting Rio if we don't sell Stam and remember we got 17 million GBP for Stam and then picked up Rio a year later, so in essence one can call Fergie a genious at not only choosing the right time to cash in on quality players but also at finding their replacements.

Ronaldo in my mind has already made our attack more potent, but the addition of Rooney (yes, I can eat the humble pie, I was against it at first, I wanted a winger or DM) means that we are much more of a threat than we ever were with Becks who might not have fetched that much cash in the future - so while its true that it would be great to have Stam and Rio... Becks and Rooney/Ronaldo we don't - and its possible that without selling those two stars, we might never have come across the gems that we have that are at least in my mind, already making it hard to remember why I was worried about the old guard leaving in the first place.

[SF Gooner]

Forlan!!! :d :d :d :d

[Mac_Howard]

Well, he's not included in the list, but I thought it was premature to sell Nicky Butt. In my view he would still be the best standin for Roy Keane.

[triplelake]

Among all the players that SAF has sold, none of them were not replaced by someone who are better either in terms of quality or potential. The only minor exception is Stam whom we struggled to replace until we bought Rio. For example, when Ince replaced by Keane, Sharpe replaced by Giggs, Kancheskis replaced by Beck, Beck replaced by Ronaldo....etc.
The players that we really struggled to replace are those who retire or leave because of his age. such as Schmeichel and Cantona.

[comme]

Gordon Strachan and Paul McGrath both won the player of the year award after Fergie had sold them, so I think there is some evidence that they were sold too early. Would Leeds without Strachan have won the title in 1992? I don't think so.

[Dark Savante]

Stam has to be top of the list for me. It effected us hugely and we've still not recovered from it. At that time we could have challenged for the CL in consecutive season's if Stam had stayed but, how he was solkd and the huge gap it left in our system it affected the team badly.

We may not have gotten Rio if Stam had stayed. The question is, would we have even needed him?

Beckham had to go. The relationship between he and Fergie had absolutely reached rock bottom and his fame was at its peak in England then which rubbed Fergie completely the wrong way.

I think McGrath had to be sold as he broke the ethos Fergie was trying to create..and loved a bit more than a tipple of the old ale :D

Strachan was sold too early. I think we should have held onto Poborsky, Butt and Kanchelskis longer than we did.

[Sofabloke]

I agree with those who say Stam. Couldn't understand it at the time & still can't.

Going back a few years, IIRC we also sold Dion Dublin after which he had a few really decent years at a time we could have done with a striker who was good in the air (as a sub).

Slightly off topic, but the 'which player should Fergie have bought' has got to go to Arjen Robben. The fact the board bottled it grates more and more with each passing week :(

The fact that a lot of the players we have sold have not shone, is a credit to SAF's reading of his players.

[Father Ted]

Paul McGrath has become a really sad story. When he joined Villa he went on a great roll. Plus in my mind, he was Ireland's greatest ever player. One of my favourites. But his drinking was a problem throughout his career. Since his retirement from his game it has gotten worse. There have been stories of Paul boozing it up in pubs around Dublin and Bray and sometimes wandering drunk around town. His ex-wife got a court order forbidding him to come near his children. Sad sad story.

[comme]

I've seen Paul McGrath playing pool a couple of times in Didsbury. I was surprised he could stand up, although perhaps the booze he was on numbed the pain.

[prk166]

For me, the Jaap Stam sale essentially lost us the 2001-2002 season. Imagine a Stam-Rio partnership today.

According to Keane, Stam was a great sale because Jaap was missing that special something, that level of concentration required to be the very best of the best in the matches that were massive.

[prk166]

Gordon Strachan and Paul McGrath both won the player of the year award after Fergie had sold them, so I think there is some evidence that they were sold too early. Would Leeds without Strachan have won the title in 1992? I don't think so.

Great point!

I'm purely speculating here. My own two-bits worth is Fergie saw the game was getting more profesional and knew he needed to shake up the squad to cut down on the drinking culture. I'm not saying Strachan was a lush. But I suspect that was part of the reason a few like him were let go.

[prk166]

The players that we really struggled to replace are those who retire or leave because of his age. such as Schmeichel and Cantona.

I don't know about that. Schmeichel, yes. But Cantona? He's a god but to say he hasn't been replaced? Do you mean a like-for-like replacement?

[fatmaradona]

Through the years, Fergie has gotten rid of players at times when it looked like they were at the top of their game. Examples include:

Paul McGrath
Norman Whiteside
Gordan Strachan
Mark Hughes
Paul Ince
Andrei Kanchelskis
Lee Sharpe
Jaap Stam
David Beckham


For me, the Jaap Stam sale essentially lost us the 2001-2002 season. Imagine a Stam-Rio partnership today.

I think McGrath and Stam were the two big mistakes. I understand that he thought Paul had a problem, but for a player with his talent, I would have liked to see Fergie try and help him.

I think Norman Whiteside was already injured all the time when Fergie sold him.

[haven]

Stam is the only obvious "mistake."

Of course, most of those were before I could ever actually watch the EPL. So I'm not really in a position to evaluate them. Anyone who mentions Beckham needs to remember that we did get 25m for a player who was (rightly) benched for OGS (who, while very good, isn't a 25m player himself).

[FCDallas96]

I think McGrath and Stam were the two big mistakes. I understand that he thought Paul had a problem, but for a player with his talent, I would have liked to see Fergie try and help him.

I think Norman Whiteside was already injured all the time when Fergie sold him.
I have to say that the best sale of all was Lee Sharpe. His sale allowed Giggs to move into the left wing position but what happened to Sharpe was a tragedy though. Fergie sold him to Leeds and in that season he tore his ACL which he never fully recovered from. I would have to Stam was a great sale as well due to the drugs scandal. We would have missed him for 6 months anyway so I think it was a good piece of business.

[United Forever]

The only one can also agree with is Stam. He was in his prime when he was sold but if you show a lack of respect to Fergie you cant expect to hang around. I have watched videos of Paul and Andrei and they looked pretty good but I can not really comment on them because I did not see enough of them.