‘Very challenging’ – Sir Alex Ferguson’s six-year Man United error that Erik ten Hag is trying hard to avoid
The goalkeeping personnel. The outsiders. The outliers. The abandoned.
It is a position that is so essential to football, yet it went and continues to go underappreciated. The transfer fees that are typically regarded acceptable to pay for them have compensated for this.
Gianluigi Buffon’s £47.6million transfer from Parma to Juventus in 2001 was a record-breaking transfer fee for a goalkeeper at the time, but it was not uncommon for outfielders to be sold for that amount by that point, and the record stood until it was broken twice in the same summer of 2018. Buffon is the third most expensive goalkeeper of all time, but the 89th most expensive player overall when including outfielders.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is the most expensive goalkeeper after Chelsea spent an absurd £71.5 million to acquire him, but he ranks only 26th for all transfers. Teams consider Wesley Fofana, Raphina, and Luka Jovic to be more essential than this position, which is remarkably underrepresented in the biggest transfer in history. When it comes to outfielders, vast quantities of money are lavished without much thought, but when it comes to goalkeepers, the purse strings are tightened.
Teams have demonstrated that a great goalkeeper is one of the wisest investments you can make and often leads to success. Six of the ten most expensive goalkeepers, including Buffon, Alisson, Ederson, Thibaut Courtois, Manuel Neuer, and Francesco Toldo, have won multiple trophies, including domestic championships and the Champions League.
Similarly, a poor goalkeeper acquisition can have calamitous results, as Manchester United discovered.
Peter Schmeichel’s departure from Old Trafford could not have ended on a higher note. He was the undisputed greatest goalkeeper in the world and captained a treble-winning team to victory in the Champions League final while Roy Keane was absent.
But after that historic night in Barcelona, Schmeichel decided to abandon the grueling life of a top-tier club player and move to Lisbon, where the pace of life is slower. It would take Sir Alex Ferguson six years to recover from this situation.
Mark Bosnich was the unfortunate soul initially tasked with filling the enormous vacuum left by the Great Dane, and he struggled to do so even though he contributed to regaining the Premier League the following season. But Ferguson was unsatisfied and arranged for Schmeichel to terminate his contract with Sporting and return less than a year later, before deciding to sign Fabian Barthez instead.
The eccentric Frenchman assumed the position of goalkeeper and proved to be a capable but fallible goalkeeper, with his erratic nature often resulting in him being featured on gaffe DVDs and the manager having to defend him.
Ferguson called Barthez “the best goalkeeper in the world,” but by 2003 he had been replaced by Roy Carroll and Tim Howard and was on loan to Marseille.
Carroll played 50 times for United, but he is best known for allowing a Pedro Mendes shot to ricochet off his hands and cross the goal line without being penalized because the goal was disallowed. Between 1999 and 2005, Ferguson used ten different goalkeepers, including Raimond van der Gouw, Nick Culkin, Massimo Taibi, Paul Rachubka, Andy Goram, and Ricardo, none of whom were able to secure the No. 1 uniform.
Oliver Kahn, the other goalkeeper on the field during Schmeichel’s final game for United, was pursued during those years, but the German legend declined. “Sir Alex Ferguson is still mad at me today,” Kahn told the German publication Bild in 2017.
“He believed I would move to Manchester United in 2003 or 2004, but I was more interested in defining an epoch at Bayern Munich. In retrospect, I should have done it back then. It would have presented me with an interesting challenge.”
United were hardly unsuccessful during this time, as they won the Premier League twice and the FA Cup, but their stranglehold on the country was obviously weakening as Arsenal grew stronger and new rivals Chelsea rose to prominence. The instability at the back threw the entire team off balance, and they only advanced to the Champions League semifinals once.
“I tried to replace Schmeichel, but that was very difficult,” Ferguson admitted in 2009, before going into greater detail in his 2013 autobiography: “We had a bad period trying to replace Peter Schmeichel,” he wrote, labeling it one of his biggest regrets. “Perhaps it’s not my strong suit.
“It is difficult to recuperate from the loss of Peter Schmeichel. He was the best goalkeeper in the world, but abruptly his presence and personality vanished.”
In 2005, Ferguson eventually found the solution to his problem by signing Edwin van der Sar, the goalkeeper he had always desired. Ferguson had identified the 1995 Champions League-winning Ajax goalkeeper as the ideal replacement for Schmeichel, but the club had already agreed to a transfer for Bosnich despite Ferguson’s grave concerns regarding Bosnich’s fitness and off-field conduct.
“He did nothing in practice to convince me that he was the right fit for Manchester United.” So I changed course and pursued Edwin van der Sar instead. I spoke with his agent and then Martin Edwards, who told me, ‘Alex, I’m sorry I’ve shaken hands with Bosnich.
“That was a severe setback. I revere the fact that Martin had shaken Mark’s hand and would not go back on his word. But it was a poor business decision. Bosnich posed a difficulty.
We ought to have substituted Van der Sar for Schmiechel. His agent told me, ‘you’ll be occupied, because he’s talking to Juventus,’ but we missed the opportunity. I had to return to Edwin’s intermediary and inform him that we had already agreed to take someone else, so I had to withdraw my application.
“I should have purchased him as a second horse as well. We would have quickly learned about Bosnich, and Edwin would have played from the end of the Schmeichel era through my final years as manager.”
Van der Sar’s tenure at the Old Lady had not exactly gone according to plan, as he was the one to lose his position when Buffon arrived for that enormous fee. The celebrated goalkeeper transferred inexplicably to newly promoted Fulham and spent four years at Craven Cottage.
Even well into his 30s, he continued to excel in the Premier League and impress Ferguson, who eventually signed him at age 35 after six years of trying.
‘Very challenging’ – Sir Alex Ferguson’s six-year Man United error that Erik ten Hag is trying hard to avoid