Paul Scholes is one of those rare elite talents that any club would inevitably struggle to replace. Sir Alex Ferguson identified this problem just half a season after the Manchester United maestro’s first retirement, bringing him back to Old Trafford for another 18 months that would end in a final Premier League title.
In the time since, Manchester United have spent frankly embarrassing sums trying to fill Scholes’ void in deep-lying midfield, a void that only expanded during Michael Carrick’s transition from engine room lynchpin to Carrington backroom man.
Indeed, when we look at the players Ed Woodward has brought to United specifically to line up in the double pivot Scholes and Carrick once made their own, the list is truly quite astounding, starting with Marouane Fellaini’s arrival in summer 2013.
The details of that transfer were humbling enough for Woodward: United bizarrely allowed Fellaini’s release clause at Everton to expire, before paying more for him around a month later. Fast forward to April and The Telegraph had already dubbed him one of the Premier League’s top ten worst signings of the season.
Following on from Fellaini, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin would go on to make a mere 82 appearances combined for United before being moved on, while Fred might well be emerging as one of United’s better players this season – he’s eighth amongst the squad for average Whoscored ranking – but the scrappy Brazilian is still yet to prove he’s worth anything near the £52m plus bonuses the Red Devils handed to Shakhtar Donetsk.
Admittedly, there is one exception to the rule in Ander Herrera. He won United’s Player of the Year award in 2016/17 and ultimately left Old Trafford because he’d obtained an incredibly lucrative admirer in PSG.
But the Spaniard is exactly that: an anomaly contrasting with a list of deep midfield flops that in total have cost United upwards of £160m based on figures provided by Transfermarkt, when we also add Nemanja Matic to the mix – a two-time title-winner with Chelsea who aged just 31 has become a shadow of his former self since moving to Old Trafford.
Is life under the Glazers really that bad? Maybe this quiz will change your minds, Man United fans…
And what’s most concerning is that United record in this department – which, perhaps unfairly, inevitably gets pinned to the lapel of Woodward’s jacket – only looks set to continue, based on recent speculation.
As if the long-standing interest in Sean Longstaff wasn’t bad enough considering he has only ever made 27 Premier League appearances and isn’t even a guaranteed starter for Newcastle, the Red Devils are also reportedly weighing up a move for Eric Dier.
That’s Eric Dier, a player who has become nothing more than a bit-part defensive utility man for Tottenham – largely because he lacks all the attributes to make any particular position his own -potentially filling a position that was once occupied at Old Trafford by two of England’s greatest midfield technicians in Scholes and Carrick.
The report states Ole Gunnar Solskjaer likes the fact Dier can also play in defence, suggesting he would be recruited as a more holistic member of the squad rather than simply a defensive midfielder. But have the standards at Old Trafford really fallen so low that they’re targeting a player who has made just 25 Premier League starts in 18 months, who doesn’t get into the Tottenham team and who hasn’t even made the last few England squads?
Talk about dropping levels. Dier already looks like the perfect candidate to add to Woodward’s ever-expanding record of deep midfield signings that just aren’t good enough.