Hojlund next: Ranking Man Utd’s striker signings since Ruud van Nistelrooy left
With Manchester United working on a deal to sign Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta, we’ve taken a look at the centre-forwards they’ve signed to lead their line since Ruud van Nistelrooy departed in 2006.
One caveat: Must have played at least 10 games. So, mercifully, no Manucho, Mame Biram Diouf or Angelo Henriquez. Erik ten Hag has to hope Hojlund is more RVP than Big Rom…
14) Romelu Lukaku
We start with the most expensive of the lot, which goes a long way to explaining why he was the biggest disappointment.
Lukaku cost United £75million in 2017 and his first season went well, with the ex-Everton and Chelsea striker top-scoring with 27 goals in all competitions. But, already possessing decent heft, Lukaku decided he needed to bulk up even more for the 2018 World Cup. Once he started bench-pressing Ford Mondeos, his form fell through the floor.
Jose Mourinho dropped him before the manager was axed himself and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer never fancied Lukaku. He still chipped in with 12 Premier League goals but Solskjaer wanted a more mobile centre-forward and packed him off to Inter Milan, somehow recovering much of their failed investment.
Is he the worst striker on this list? No. But there was almost nothing redeeming about his career at United. Other less potent strikers made their mark in a different way. Lukaku’s legacy is, well, meh. Scoring that header against City in the Champions League final might have nudged him up a few places, mind.
13) Radamel Falcao
Falcao too was a crushing disappointment, but at least United could return to sender at the end of a single season spent on loan at Old Trafford in 2014/15.
It was quickly evident that the Colombian hit-man just wasn’t the same after a serious knee injury. If he was, Atle
tico would not have loaned him out. Still, it’s understandable that Louis van Gaal was tempted to see for himself but it became difficult to watch Falcao flounder when we knew how good he could be.
Falcao bagged four goals in 29 appearances, which made it an easy decision to swerve the option to buy him for £43million.
12) Wout Weghorst
He tried, God love him. No one could doubt Weghorst’s commitment after making a surprise loan move from Burnley in January having spent the first half of the season at Besiktas.
He pressed as if his life depended on it, which made it easy to will Weghorst on. But in front of goal, he simply didn’t possess the potency required to lead United’s line.
The Netherlands striker played 31 games but failed to score in the Premier League, with his two goals coming in the Carabao Cup and Europa League.
11) Odion Ighalo
Ighalo blazed the trail for Weghorst as a desperate January loan signing out of nowhere. Or, more specifically, China.
Solskjaer borrowed the ex-Watford striker from Shanghai Shenhua in January 2020 and he scored more than Weghorst – five, to be precise. But all were in the cups, with Ighalo restricted to just shy of 100 minutes in the Premier League.
With Covid acting the d*ck, United extended Ighalo’s loan to last for a year but in his second campaign, behind closed doors, the forward played all but nine of his 157 minutes in the Carabao Cup.
10) Michael Owen
Wee Michael’s brochure found its way to Sir Alex Ferguson in 2009, when the ex-England striker had departed Newcastle once he had rinsed the Magpies for as much as he could, and the United boss was tempted as he sought a signing to fill Cristiano Ronaldo’s No.7 shirt.
It was a controversial move, one that tarnished his legacy with Liverpool fans. And his Anfield links made it hard for United supporters to warm to Owen, even if a last-gasp winner in the derby helped thaw those relations.
Owen offered diminishing returns over three seasons, scoring nine, five then three goals in all competitions as injuries, unsurprisingly, restricted his involvement. He departed in 2012, with neither United nor Liverpool keen to claim him as one of their own. Newcastle and Stoke weren’t interested either.
Ranking all seven Man Utd No. 7s since Ronaldo departed in 2009 as Mason Mount takes shirt
9) Anthony Martial
The enigma…
Martial might have been brilliant. He could have fulfilled the potential that United saw in him at Monaco to pay a figure that might have reached £50million. But he hasn’t for reasons you can decide.
Injuries have definitely played their part. But so often, Martial just doesn’t seem up for it. Some players carry that mard-arse expression, and Martial is definitely one of them, but seven years of evidence suggests it is an accurate reflection of what’s going on in his head.
Martial has looked more dangerous for United off the left flank but he reckons he’s a centre-forward. The rest of us remain unconvinced and doubtless we’ll die waiting.
8) Cristiano Ronaldo
Obviously, this is a reflection upon his second spell at the club, not the first when he established himself as one of the world’s greatest players.
Upon returning in 2021, Ronaldo still had that mentality that made him a GOAT, even if his powers were waning. In his first season, a wretched one under Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, he largely carried the team with 24 goals in all competitions, even if some identified him as A Problem.
That was certainly the case in his second season, which he spent trying to get out of Old Trafford, evidently not keen to play the Ten Hag way. Ronaldo was lobbing grenades everywhere until the biggest bombshell: his interview with Piers Morgan that gave United no option but to f*** him off.
7) Edinson Cavani
Signing a veteran striker for free from PSG worked when United tried it with Zlatan so they repeated the trick in 2020 by taking Cavani as a free agent.
His first season was a success, scoring 17 goals in all competitions, 10 coming in the Premier League, mainly in front of empty stands because of Covid.
Cavani’s second campaign, though, was a disappointment. He gave up the No.7 shirt for Cristiano Ronaldo and with it, his drive seemed to go. Amid a dreadful season all round, there were questions over Cavani’s commitment before he sloped off to Valencia prior to Erik ten Hag taking over.
6) Henrik Larsson
Three goals in 13 appearances during a brief loan spell in 2007 wouldn’t warrant a high ranking without the context offered by Ferguson…
“On arrival, he seemed a bit of a cult figure with our players. They would say his name in awed tones. Cult status can vanish in two minutes if a player isn’t doing his job, yet Henrik retained that aura in his time with us.”
These weren’t no-marks. United’s title-winning side from 2006/07 featured Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney, Ronaldo, Gary Neville and Edwin van der Sar – senior pros who knew a player when they played with him. Larsson regretted not staying on whe he returned to honour his commitment to Helsingborg: “I should have stayed, as it would have meant I got a Premier League winner’s medal, that’s the only regret I have in my career.”
5) Javier Hernandez
As a new recruit in April 2010, many expected Chicarito to go the same way as Mame Biram Diouf, Manucho, Angelo Henriquez and some of the other dross United have signed in their quest for value. They were wrong.
Hernandez, bought from Guadalajara as a 21-year-old, endeared himself to United fans immediately by scoring on his debut in the Community Shield, smashing a sitter at his own face and into the net. He settled at Old Trafford far quicker than expected and netted 20 goals in his first season, followed by 30 more over the next two campaigns before Ferguson retired. But never did he establish himself as a dead-cert starter, despite repeatedly having an impact off the bench.
Like everyone, Hernandez struggled under David Moyes, so much so that Louis van Gaal cut him loose, initially to Real Madrid on loan. He reunited with Moyes later, at West Ham, though he probably wishes he hadn’t.
4) Carlos Tevez
Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov… as front fours go, it takes some stopping. Indeed, in 2008, few did stop them. United won the Champions League and Premier League, with Tevez at the heart of much of it.
But not enough come the end of his second season. He arrived in 2007 on a two-year loan deal, borrowed from God knows who. It wasn’t West Ham. Tevez scored 34 goals in 99 appearances for United but towards the end of his agreed stay, he found himself sat on the bench more than he would have liked.
United still wanted to pay the £25million required to make it a permanent deal but by then, Tevez and his advisors had a better offer from Manchester City. Who milked the coup for all they could.
Moving across Manchester tarnished Tevez’s legacy, even if the player has sought to rebuild bridges. Many won’t forgive him, but few can forget how good that strikeforce was.
3) Dimitar Berbatov
Perhaps it was Berbatov’s arrival for £30.75million on deadline day in summer 2008 that precipitated Tevez’s departure. Four into three doesn’t go and the Argentine became the odd man out.
After a strong first season with 14 goals and 11 assists, Berbatov struggled to replicate that form in his second campaign. But he came into his own in 2010/11, sharing the Premier League Golden Boot with his former team-mate. “I think we are being rewarded this season for our confidence in a player who has a touch of genius about him,” said Ferguson.
Still, that didn’t deter the manager from bombing Berbatov from his squad for the Champions League final. The Bulgarian had to watch Barca pull United’s pants down from the Wembley stands.
Fergie later admitted he regretted the decision which hastened Berbatov’s United exit after 48 goals in 108 Premier League appearances.
2) Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Zlatan arrived at United at the same time as Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba. That should have been f***ing brilliant. Instead, only Zlatan left Old Trafford with a positive legacy.
He didn’t stay long. Initially, Ibra signed for a year after leaving PSG as a 34-year-old. As we know now, he wasn’t winding down.
Zlatan scored 17 goals in 28 Premier League appearances to get himself among the PFA Player of the Season nominees. He scored twice in the EFL Cup final including a late winner to seal part of the Treble Lite, but knacked his knee a month before the end of the campaign.
He returned the following campaign, by which time Lukaku had been signed and his No.9 had been taken. So Zlatan took the No.10 but his appearances and impact diminished. Still, watching Ibra offered some brief respite amid the post-Fergie darkness.
1) Robin van Persie
Arguably the closest thing to Cantona since Eric himself.
Ferguson needed someone to lift United in 2012 after being pipped to the title by Manchester City. Van Persie had proved himself as one of the Premier League’s great strikers by winning the Golden Boot with 30 goals in his final season at Arsenal before insisting he would not renew his contract.
Fergie swooped and it proved to be one of his best decisions. Van Persie was absolutely brilliant at Old Trafford, retaining the Golden Boot while winning his first Premier League title, playing in every game along the way. Then, to Van Persie’s astonishment, Fergie f***ed off.
He still managed double figures for Moyes and Van Gaal in his the subsequent two seasons, and it was hoped that the appointment of his national team boss might reinvigorate Van Persie. But he plundered fewer goals in those two seasons combined than that astonishing year under Fergie.
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