Ranking all 75 Manchester United signings since Sir Alex Ferguson

Manchester United have spent nearly £2billion on 75 players since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. We’ve ranked them all.

That is an absolutely incredible amount of money for having won no Premier League titles and to have consistently fallen in and out of the Champions League.

The Red Devils finished 15th under Ruben Amorim last season and are desperately trying to hang onto the top six this season.

And now, with talk that Manchester United could have signed Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but instead plumped for Cristiano Ronaldo, Donny van de Beek and Jadon Sancho, we bring you the full updated ranking…

The Red Devils signed one of the best players in the Premier League on astronomical wages and he seemed to become an incompetent footballer overnight. Nice piano, though.

Time is up for Sancho at Man Utd . And Chelsea. They paid £5million so they don’t have to sign him permanently . Now at Aston Villa for a season before leaving United for absolutely nothing.

Who? Exactly.

Another player who joined with a huge reputation; Falcao failed to rediscover his FC Porto and Atletico Madrid form during his spell with Man Utd and then Chelsea .

The Brazilian was a catastrophic signing and Man Utd will be lucky to get £15m for him if he is put up for sale…is what we wrote before an amazing loan spell at Real Betis. In the end he exited for less than £22m and United felt lucky to get that.

After signing Benjamin Sesko, United froze Hojlund out against his will. We feel sorry for him, but scoring four goals in 32 matches last season after costing over £60m is unacceptable. He’s doing a little better back in Serie A with Lazio.

Joining off the back of a man-of-the-match performance in a Champions League final, Di Maria flopped at Old Trafford. The only saving grace from his stint in Manchester is that the club recouped £56.7m when he was sold to PSG less than a year after arriving.

Wearing the No. 7 shirt has become something of a curse since Cristiano Ronaldo left in 2009 ; even for the Portuguese himself.

Depay came in as a terrific youngster from the Netherlands and took on the famous number. The forward scored seven goals in 53 games and left for Lyon for a little over half of what Man Utd paid for him.

Schneiderlin was great for Southampton, so Louis van Gaal brought him to Old Trafford where the Frenchman was nowhere near good enough. He left for £20m, so it’s not all bad. Bloody Everton .

United fumbled a decent goalkeeper.

When Dubravka joined from Newcastle United , many expected him to feature in the Europa League group stage, but Dubravka only played three cup games before having his loan terminated in January. What a pointless transfer.

Brought in for the rest of the season in January 2022 after Dubravka’s loan ended. Butland did not make a single appearance for the club.

Oh my, this has been a shambolic signing. We thought Onana was a serious upgrade on David de Gea, but he was a disastrous downgrade. That says a lot as well, because De Gea was awfully error-prone in his last season at Old Trafford.

Onana made some catastrophic errors for United and is now on loan at Trabzonspor watching his value plummet.

That is an absurd loan fee for an average player.

The Uruguayan right-back played four times in the Premier League for Man Utd.

Van de Beek’s demise wasn’t completely down to his poor performances, but more down to the fact that he could barely get a kick. He spent a completely bizarre four years as a Manchester United player, making 62 appearances and scoring twice.

Schweinsteiger is a Bayern Munich legend and a forgettable Manchester United midfielder.

Fits the home-grown quota and joined Manchester United for no other reason.

Yes, this happened. And yes, we forgot until now.

Both player and club could have done without this move.

See Lee Grant. But Heaton was a free transfer.

Signed as a back-up goalkeeper. Is a back-up goalkeeper.

There has to be a point when you put your neck on the line and say this guy might not be very good. PSG sold him after one year and then won the Treble, while his new club went from finishing eighth to 15th. Ugarte has looked off the pace from day one and needs to show remarkable improvement to win us, and many others, over.

James was never good enough for Man Utd and was probably only signed as he was seen as Young And Hungry. The best thing to come from his move is that they turned a rare profit when they sold him to Leeds United.

Erratic and amusing, Bailly was signed for big money and was more comical than he was convincing at defending. Injuries didn’t help him, to be fair.

He scored a decent amount of goals but didn’t do enough to merit a £76m transfer fee.

Having paid no transfer fee for the young Dutch winger, Man Utd looked like they did pretty well. He didn’t get much of a chance and was sold to Birmingham City for £1.5m after a successful year on loan before getting his chance in the Premier League with Luton Town, where he did quite well.

The Red Devils were right to sell Chong but definitely could have sold him for more.

Fosu-Mensah was pretty cheap and the club turned a profit in the end. He made 30 first-team appearances and was quite useful due to his versatility.

He cost an absolute fortune with only a year left on his Chelsea contract and even when fit, he has been very underwhelming.

We all know the ability Mount possesses but we have not consistently seen it since 2022, which is quite a while ago. Maybe too long ago, right?

The Italian was bang average for United and was only sold for £2m.

Often erratic, Rojo was box office at times but had an average spell at Old Trafford.

Weghorst came in to fill a gap between January and June 2023 and was signed for peanuts, unlike Ighalo. Even still, it was a weird spell for everyone involved .

Pogba left United for Juventus on a free transfer in 2012, only to be re-signed by the Premier League club for a world-record transfer fee, to then return to Turin on a free transfer in 2022.

He was excellent in fits and starts but nowhere near consistent enough. Especially for a world-record transfer.

The other half of the worst deal on this list, Mkhitaryan joined with lofty expectations having provided 90 goal contributions in 140 games for Borussia Dortmund.

He scored in a Europa League final victory for United. He also scored a scorpion kick (that would not have counted in the VAR era). Anything good he did for the club was eclipsed by the woeful swap deal which saw him go to Arsenal.

His United career is going miserably. Nobody knows what his best position is – even Amorim.

Bought from Monaco in 2019, Mejbri joined Burnley permanently for £5.5m and helped them gain promotion to the Premier League as one of Scott Parker’s most important players.

Malacia quickly shifted Luke Shaw out of the starting XI before generously giving his spot back to the England international. Not a good signing, even for the price.

We can’t do anything more than shrug and swiftly move on.

The jury is very much out, but we suspect they are ambling towards a ‘Guilty of being massively overpriced’ verdict.

The jury is most certainly out on this one. He has the work-rate and pace necessary to thrive in wing-back, but technically, Dorgu is lacking.

Often the scapegoat and always mocked, the former Man Utd captain has put in many good displays for the club. He’s also made many high-profile errors. Definitely not worth the money he cost, but definitely not as bad as people say.

Man Utd signed Matic four years too late .

There was plenty of faith in Pellistri to come good at Old Trafford but not enough apparently. He joined Panathinaikos for around £5m.

Blind was a handy player to have. Versatile, consistent, rarely outstanding. He played over 140 times in four years at Old Trafford and is currently thriving at Girona.

Telles was decent when called upon but Erik ten Hag sent him out on loan to Sevilla in his first summer at Old Trafford.

This club and their extortionate loan fees…

Lindelof was painfully average and nowhere near the levels required for a £31.5m defender signed in 2017. Now doing a job at Aston Villa after leaving for free.

Fellaini was the first signing post-Ferguson after David Moyes bought him on deadline day for a higher price than the release clause that was active earlier in the window . He made 177 appearances for the Red Devils before leaving for Shandong Taishan in 2019.

Martial joined as the most expensive teenager in world football, scored a wonderful goal on his debut and was being compared to Thierry Henry. He scored 17 goals in 32 Premier League matches in 19/20 and looked like he was coming of age. After that terrific year, he looked slow and poor in front of goal.

After an underwhelming loan spell at Sevilla, Ten Hag gave Martial another chance with his fitness letting him down. He eventually joined AEK Athens on a free transfer.

Wan-Bissaka was one of Erik ten Hag’s biggest success stories at Man Utd. The right-back enjoyed a very productive 22/23 campaign but was never able to usurp Diogo Dalot and his transfer fee will always look very silly.

Varane failed to convince everyone that he is in fact a four-time Champions League winner in his time at Old Trafford. Injuries absolutely did not help but what a disappointment he was.

The Frenchman joined Cesc Fabregas’ Como and swiftly retired after suffering another serious injury.

As far as back-up goalkeepers go, Romero was pretty good. And he cost bugger all, which is always a bonus.

Yoro’s potential is astronomical but that was a debut season to forget.

It is hilarious how high Evans is here. Genuinely astounding.

Ajax, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester United . Matthijs de Ligt has an impressive CV. An impressive CV is one thing, performing on the pitch is another. So far, so average.

He is comfortably the best signing made in the summer of 2024. Low bar, mind.

As far as half-season emergency loans go, this was a success. Ten Hag decided against signing Sabitzer on a permanent basis. Silly man.

Competent. And that really is enough.

Not quite delivered numbers-wise in the early part of 2025/26, but he has fire. And in a sea of sometimes looking like they don’t give a sh*t, that counts for something.

David Moyes’ second major signing after Fellaini, Mata joined from Chelsea with high expectations. The Spaniard played 285 times for the Red Devils, with game time hard to come from the start of 20/21 up until his departure in June 2022.

A few years ago Fred was in the same bracket as Lukaku, Pogba, and others as the big-money flops. But the Brazilian midfielder massively improved in his last two years at the club. Still, £53m is steeeeeeep.

Martinez is a fine footballer who adapted to Premier League life very quickly despite being written off before kicking a ball because of his height. After emerging as the club’s most competent defender, he can’t stay fit.

The fact that Eriksen cost nothing carries lots of weight. We expected more, but still don’t feel massively underwhelmed.

He might already be United’s best centre-half.

Seventeen goals in 39 games in his first season was a great return from a player signed on a free transfer. He was rewarded with a new contract before Man Utd bought Cristiano Ronaldo, which screwed the Uruguayan over.

Dalot is a pretty inconsistent player. He definitely suits a back four more than he does a back five. So, as long as Amorim’s in charge, his stock will only decrease.

Immediately looks like a Manchester United player. Which is less of a compliment than it was 20 years ago, but still…

After a rubbish loan spell with Rangers, Diallo was pretty much written off. However, his Sunderland loan was superb with the young Ivorian increasing his transfer value and staking a claim for minutes in the Premier League.

His transfer fee could rise to £37m, which now looks somewhat reasonable, when it looked frankly ridiculous for a long time.

Herrera was named Manchester United Fans’ Player of the Season in 2017 after he helped them win the League Cup and Europa League. He played 189 times for the Red Devils and was a fan favourite due to his passion, tireless work rate, and man-marking techniques; just ask Eden Hazard.

There’s not a lot to say that has not already been said; £13.5m for the most marketable footballer on the planet isn’t too bad at the end of the day. Even if it ended up turning into the biggest circus in world football .

After spending the whole 2022 summer transfer window chasing Frenkie de Jong, Man Utd realised that Casemiro was available and willing to join.

In his debut season, Casemiro was outstanding and the main reason Ten Hag was able to end the club’s trophy drought and finish third in the Premier League, which is why he is so high here.

In his second season, the Brazilian was awful. He looked remarkably off the pace and Man Utd prayed a Saudi Arabian club would bail them out in the summer.

And then in 2024/25 and now 2025/26, he is one of Amorim’s better players. Funny ol’ game, innit?

Shaw has had spells where he’s looked like the best left-back in the world, and spells where he’s looked completely hopeless, mainly due to his inability to stay fit. Overall, he’s been a good signing, but the fact he ranks fourth here speaks volumes about United’s woeful transfer business over the last 13 years.

You might doubt his ability to become a world-class winger, but Garnacho has made United some sumptuous profit. And that’s awful rare for United.

This is arguably the first signing on this list which was/has been a huge, unqualified success at Old Trafford. It only took 70-odd players to get here but at least we did.

Zlatan scored 28 goals and provided 10 assists in his only full season, helped the Red Devils win the Europa League and scored a brace in the final of the League Cup as they beat Southampton 3-2 at Wembley. In 17/18, he struggled for fitness and left for LA Galaxy, for whom he scored 22 goals in 27 games in the same campaign.

Although his performances are not as good as they were during the behind-closed-doors days, Bruno Fernandes has been a revelation at Old Trafford. In his first season and a half, Fernandes provided 65 goal contributions in 80 games and was the best player in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side by a country mile.

He is one of the best midfielders in the Premier League and a rare bit of great business by the Red Devils. It will take a lot to bump him off top spot.