Manchester United are a club steeped in tradition, and as such are one of the most decorated outfits in the history of the sport.
Their past is exceedingly glittering, with trophies having adorned seemingly every year which Sir Alex Ferguson oversaw. However, it is this history that has seen such high standards maintained nowadays, of which are seemingly impossible to reach with the ever-increasing competition.
Erik ten Hag is being forced to compete with Jurgen Klopp's evolving Liverpool side, Mikel Arteta's exciting young Arsenal outfit, and Pep Guardiola's treble-winning Manchester City. It could be argued that the strength of the Premier League is at an all-time high, which made last campaign's third-placed finish even more impressive.
And yet, having been expected to build on that fine foundation set, it could be argued that the Red Devils have regressed.
Saturday's narrow win over Sheffield United marked an important one, but their inability to brush aside such low-level opposition remains a searing indictment of the issues that plague them of late.
However, they are born from years of inadequacy rather than the dwindling quality of their current playing staff, as their Dutch boss not only has to contend with the modern-day managerial goliaths, but the consistent failures in the market suffered across numerous tenures.
Who is Manchester United's worst-ever signing?
Having seen six different permanent bosses come and go from the Old Trafford dugout, having settled on the former Ajax man most recently, it was always bound to be a near-impossible task to live up to the levels set by the legendary Scotsman who resided over the role for 27 illustrious years.
However, the ease with which the Gunners seem to have found Arsene Wenger's successor will leave fans frustrated, having brushed aside Unai Emery's unfortunate period in charge to get it right at the second time of asking.
In doing so, they avoided the vast amount of transfer blunders that the Red Devils would oversee across such a troublesome 11 years since Ferguson's retirement, one or two acquisitions aside.
David Moyes kickstarted their relentless investment with the signing of Marouane Fellaini, before big-money buys such as Angel Di Maria, Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba all followed, to name just a few.
Whilst there has been wildly varied success for these names, one acquisition which will almost certainly go down as a failure is that of Fred, brought in by Jose Mourinho from Shakhtar Donetsk.
It was a deal that excited the Portuguese boss, who waxed lyrical on his new enforcer: "Fred will complement our other midfielders' qualities, which we need; his creative brain and passing vision will give us another dimension to our game. I am very happy he is joining our club and I believe our players know how important he can be in our team."
However, it was to be far from a positive spell for the 30-year-old, who enjoyed five years in Manchester, picking up a lucrative salary despite his consistently underwhelming performances.
In fact, one such quote from journalist John Deehan would sum up the Brazilian's time at Old Trafford, outlining a lack of technical quality that would hamper his career: "Fred is a far more effective midfielder when all the game requires him to do is run around like a headless chicken, stick a boot in and lay the ball off."
This was a notion supported across his 213 appearances for the club, with the 33 goal contributions mustered indicative of his failure to offer an offensive impact. And yet, in arguably his finest year during the 2020/21 campaign, Fred was dribbled past two times per game, slightly offsetting the admittedly impressive 2.7 tackles per game he managed, via Sofascore.
Club legend Roy Keane would put the final nail in the coffin for the midfielder, who left over the summer, as the Irishman noted back in 2022: "The decision-making and the football intelligence, in particular from Fred – and I've said this for a long time – Fred and McTominay are not good enough. They won't get Manchester United back competing at the top. We see it week in, week out. [They are] not up to it."
How much did Manchester United pay for Fred?
Whilst Fred was never the worst player to have played for the club, he did suffer massively because of the price tag attached to him. After all, spending £52m to pry him from the Ukrainian top-flight was a tad unnecessary, and ramped up expectations accordingly.
This was something pundit Gary Neville even sought to outline, as he noted: "The problem with Fred is he was £60million. The problem has never been, to be fair, Fred’s commitment, his levels of performance.
£6.27m
£4.62m
£412k
£2.1m
"I know people are critical of him, but he does what he does very well. Every club at the top of the league has a Fred – but they don’t ordinarily pay £60m for the player! And I think that’s the problem, that you expect more when you pay that level of money."
However, he would also admit that there was not nearly enough to justify his fee: "I’ve not seen really anything of him in the 12 months he’s been here to justify the price tag. He looks like he takes the ball, he’s tidy on it but I don’t see a goalscorer, I don’t see a defensive midfield player, I don’t see a runner. I’m not quite sure what I see".
How much did Fred earn at Manchester United?
Alongside his huge transfer fee, an equally lucrative contract was certain to follow. After all, the club are synonymous with high-profile financial blunders nowadays, with Fred no different.
His £120k-per-week salary, across five years, only added to the disappointment of his signing, as not only were his performances far from the requisite level, but it added a further £35.8m on top of the initial disappointment.
Therefore, in total the current Galatasaray flop has snagged a cool £87.8m from Manchester United, a truly astronomical fee for a midfielder famed for being relatively average across the board.
