The Red Devils have made a splash this summer by signing Mason Mount, Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund – but is this their best ever window?
Have Manchester United won this summer's transfer window? They certainly have addressed every area of the squad which needed attention after landing Mason Mount and Andre Onana, with Rasmus Hojlund's move from Atalanta effectively a done deal.
For the second summer in a row, the club have chosen to generously back Erik ten Hag, giving the Dutch manager around £170 million ($216m) to spend after last year's club-record £211m ($268m) outlay. And unlike last year and previous summers, when the club have been scrambling to sign players on deadline day, they have got their business done nice and early, allowing them to properly prepare for the coming season.
Only time will tell whether the money has been well spent. But with the benefit of hindsight, GOAL has gone through the archives and come up with United's best ever transfer windows, taking cost, trophies won and longevity into account…
Getty 10Summer 2001 – Two marquee arrivals but one big departure
Despite winning three consecutive titles, United were not prepared to stand still. Having been on the verge of signing Ruud van Nistelrooy the previous summer until a knee injury wrecked the move, United completed a £19m (£24) move for the Dutch striker.
As if landing the prolific forward wasn't enough, they then made Juan Sebastian Veron their record signing for £28m ($35m). Where United went wrong that summer was to sell Jaap Stam – albeit for a tidy £16m ($20m) – and to replace him with the 35-year-old Laurent Blanc.
United lost the title the next season to Arsenal, painfully surrendering their crown after defeat by the Gunners at Old Trafford. But they reclaimed it the following season and Van Nistelrooy, who had also had a stunning first campaign, finished as top scorer with 25 goals. Veron was inconsistent but also played his part in winning back the title, scoring in the 2-0 win over Arsenal at Old Trafford.
The Argentine had an ultimately unsuccessful two years at United and was sold to Chelsea for £14m ($18m) in the summer of 2003 but Van Nistelrooy remains one of the club's greatest ever strikers, scoring 150 goals in his five seasons.
AdvertisementGetty9Summer 1996 – Squad planning for the future
United had hoped to sign Alan Shearer this summer but the England striker ultimately wanted to go back to boyhood club Newcastle, United's main rivals at the time. The Red Devils saved £15m ($19m) by missing out on Shearer and instead bought a number of relatively unknown foreign players.
Karel Poborsky was the most famous after scoring a stunning chip in Euro 1996, while Jordi Cruyff was best known for being the son of legendary player Johan. But the most successful signings were the two Norwegians, Ronny Johnsen and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who cost a combined £2.7m ($3.4m)
Johnsen was a defensive pillar for five seasons and was remarkably consistent, the perfect partner for Jaap Stam. And Solskjaer spent 11 years with United, scoring 126 goals, including perhaps the most important in the club's history, snatching victory over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final to complete the treble.
Getty 8Summer 1995 – You can win things with kids (and Cantona)
At the time, it seemed like madness. United had just lost the league title to Blackburn and been beaten in the FA Cup final to Everton yet the club made no signings at all. And they decided to sell three senior players, Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul Ince.
The season got off to an awful start as a remarkably young and inexperienced side were beaten 3-1 by Aston Villa on the opening day, prompting Alan Hansen to infamously remarking "You'll win nothing with kids."
Ferguson, however, had a plan. He knew his wonderful generation of young players were just approaching maturity and that Eric Cantona would soon return from his long ban for kung-fu kicking a Crystal Palace fan.
The Frenchman announced his comeback with a penalty against Liverpool and duly inspired United to a league-and-FA Cup double, helped by David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, who had all just come of age.
Getty 7Winter 2006 – Unknown but brilliant defensive additions
After a quiet summer transfer window in which they had signed Edwin van der Sar and Park Ji-sung, United went into the market again in the winter. They signed two relatively unknown defenders, Spartak Moscow's Nemanja Vidic and Monaco's Patrice Evra, for a combined £12m ($15m). Neither arrival stirred up any great excitement among fans and they did not get off to the finest of starts.
Evra's debut was the 3-1 defeat at Manchester City while Vidic played in the demoralising 3-0 defeat at Chelsea which saw the Blues clinch the title. But these first few months helped the players adapt to their new surroundings and when the new season began, they had already settled and they hit the ground running.
Vidic and Evra formed part of United's defence for the next eight years, winning practically every trophy imaginable (only the FA Cup evaded their grasp). Signing them up for so little was a fine piece of business.
