Opinion on Sir Alex Ferguson's transfer dealing

Ferguson has been managing Manchester United since 1986. He will always be famous for the incredible treble in 1999 as well as the great amount of trophies that he won both at Aberdeen and Manchester United. In addition, another legacy he will leave behind when he finally leave will be the youth system that he established and the number of players who graduated the youth system and managed to establish a career in the upper echelon of football even contributing a whole group of players for the England national team.

However this article is going to look at his top transfer dealing over the years. Throughout his time at Manchester United, he has always been willing to pay the top dollars for players he feel are at the top of the game. For examples, he paid a British record fee of 3.75 million for Roy keane from Nottingham Forest, he paid 28.1 million for Veron from Inter and 31 million for Wayne Rooney just to name a few examples.

I will be accessing the effectiveness of his big money transfer signings and the way he let these players go.

The first one I will be looking at is Gary Pallister who was bought from Middlesbrough at a British transfer record fee of 2.3 million. He started off inauspiciously by having a terrible game on his debut. However he went on from strength to strength and eventually became a key figure in the defence and went on to win a number of premier league titles, FA cups, a league cup and the cup winner cup. He was allowed to leave in a dignified manner when he was no longer at the top of his game.

The next player is Roy Keane. He was bought from Nottingham Forest at 3.75 million which broke the British transfer fee. He fitted perfectly into the role of the defensive midfield and replaced the legendary Bryan Robson and formed the fulcrum of Manchester United midfield for nearly a decade. During his time with the red devil, he won many trophies and was even appointed the captain of the red devil for a number of years. He was widely recognised as the best defensive midfielder in the premier league for a number of years. Although eventually he left manu due to comments he made about the team but I felt that Ferguson was correct in letting him go at that time for two reasons. Physically Keane' physically was not able to maintain his high standard of play and secondly it was necessary to do that for the team spirit to remain.

After these two buys, Ferguson did not made a big money signing until the 1998-1999 season, when he made Jaap Stam the most expensive dutch player in history when he purchase him from PSV. He was instructional in Manu winning the treble as he was the rock in Manu defence. He was a key member in the team till Ferguson got rid of him partly due to the autobiography that he wrote. Up to this day, in my opinion I feel getting rid of Jaap Stam was a poor decision as he did not have a replacement for him. He tried to get Laurent Blanc but it was a failure. Other defenders have been used in that position to cover that gap but none have been near the standard. Only recently Vidic looks like someone who defends in the same style as him. A no nonsense defender who relishes defending.

The next two big buys that he made during the 2001-2002 season, to push Manu to win for the second time the Champion League, had contrasting degree of effect on Manu. In April 2001, Ferguson made the first of two big money signing who is Ruud Van Nisterooy for a then British record transfer fee of 19 million pounds. In the summer, he bought Veron from Lazio for 28.1 million pounds which surpassed the transfer of Ruud.

The arrival of Veron with his style of play in Ferguson opinion was the missing component to winning the Champion League which till today is his largest ambition. However it did not go as plan. The English game was too fast pace and physical for his style of football which was more suited for a slower tempo. He did alright in the Champion League but eventually Ferguson decided that he was not going to be really a key player in his team and decided to let him talk to Chelsea. He left Manu for half of the transfer fee that Manu had bought him. In my opinion, he was one of the rare big money signing which did not work out. I felt Ferguson overpaid for him and he also did not consider the implication that Veron style of play is not suited for the high octane premier league.

Ruud on the other hand can be considered to be a great buy even at 19 million pounds. He was a pure goal scoring machine. He broke a number of scoring record at both Manu and in the English Premier League. In the eyes of many Manu fans, he was considered Ferguson best buy. He had a good relationship with Ferguson until the 2005- 2006 season. Even though he was the top scorer at the club but a number of his goals at that time were via penalty. In addition, he also developed a tendancy to fall around the penalty box which fustrated his team mates at time. In my opinion, he was agreat signing but I felt Ferguson let him go mainly because he wanted Manu focal point to be Rooney instead of Ruud. In addition, he wanted Manu to play a more flowing style of football where the center forward will sometime fall back and allow the winger to push ahead of them before they come back into the penalty box. Whether the sales of Ruud will prove to be a poor choice or not will depend on how Manu does over the next few season.

The last big money signing to look at is Rooney. Ferguson paid another record amount of money for him. With regard to the purchase of Rooney, he is paying more for the potential that he will develop into rather than a finish article. In the last two to three years, Ferguson has been considering on building a new team with the two focal points as Rooney and Ronaldo. In my opinion, he could be a great signing but it depends whether he is able to fully develop his talent to the fullest.

In general, if we are looking at the big money signing that Ferguson has paid in his time, the majority are great success with only one noticeable disappointment in Veron. However his record with the lower profile signing has not been that great. That will be my next article.