Mason Mount has had a lackluster start to his Manchester United career, but he wouldn’t be the first high-profile signing to shine after making those early awkward appearances.
As United has had a sluggish start to the Premier League season, Mount has struggled against Wolves and Tottenham.
However, the midfielder will take comfort in the knowledge that some United heroes have had worse starts and impressive comebacks.
Seven significant United signings who overcame sluggish starts to become club legends have been chosen.
Patrice Evra
The January 2006 debut of Evra has become United lore.
“After the first five minutes I played against Trevor Sinclair,” the full-back said about his United bow in the Manchester derby. “I was cut here [on the head] I remember I was against the post and you know when you’re talking to yourself, I was like ‘what the hell am I doing here?’
“The football was so fast, so strong. I was chilling in Monte Carlo – I was named the best left-back four times. I was thinking I’d made it, that I was a big player. Then at half-time, that’s the first time I was introduced to the hairdryer by Sir Alex Ferguson.
“He destroyed everyone and he came to me and said, ‘You’re going to sit next to me and you’re going to learn English football’. I’ve played for the French national team, I’ve been in the final of the Champions League – and on my first game I’ve been subbed after 45 minutes.”
Fortunately, the Frenchman went on to have a fantastic career at Old Trafford, where he played 379 times and won 14 trophies, including five Premier League titles and the Champions League.
Nemanja Vidic
Vidic was acquired along with Evra at the beginning of 2006, and he made his professional debut against Blackburn in the League Cup semi-final. However, his teammates had their doubts after seeing him play for the reserves earlier in the season.
We played Wigan,” former United reverse player Phil Marsh recalled to the ‘Talk of the Devils’ YouTube channel. We had a really strong reserve team. Most of the time, we prevailed. Nobody was familiar with Vidic outside of the game he was playing.
“We got battered 4-0 and he didn’t have a great game. He had a torrid time and slipped for one of the goals… we were all scratching our head and thinking ‘Who’s this guy?’”
“He got his chance in the first team and the rest is history but I remember my first impression being ‘What’s going on here, who have we signed?’
“To be fair, we did have a few of those over the years, like Kleberson and Djemba-Djemba… Vidic proved everybody wrong and everybody loved him. He went down as a hero.”
Damn right, Vidic was dominant during the late Ferguson years and is rightfully remembered as a club legend despite the fact that it took him half a season to adjust to England.
Rio Ferdinand
Although it may seem odd to include Ferdinand here, we’ve previously written about how the center-back took a while to establish himself as a United standard.
Michael Carrick
Every man and his dog knew United needed a central midfielder to help wrest the title from Chelsea’s grasp after Roy Keane was abruptly fired from Old Trafford in 2005.
Few, however, anticipated that Carrick, who cost £18.6 million and was acquired from Tottenham, would develop into that person. He was a very different player from Keane, prompting pundits to declare the England midfielder to be overpriced.
Although it would be a stretch to say that Carrick got off to a slow start at United, his impact was consistently underappreciated until the latter stages of his career. Ferguson had made the right choice.
David De Gea
Ignore the fact that De Gea’s tenure at United came to an end after a string of embarrassing errors, mistakes, and weekly demands for his execution from keyboard warriors.
The goalkeeper was arguably Old Trafford’s best player in the 2010s, making numerous saves for his team and taking home four Player of the Year Awards.
Given his humble beginnings in English football, where he was bullied on a weekly basis at set-pieces by rival players, his accomplishments were all the more remarkable.
Andy Cole
In January 1995, Cole’s £7 million transfer from Newcastle to Manchester made headlines, particularly when Kevin Keegan stood outside St. James’ Park to justify the club’s decision to offload their star striker.
Cole did score 12 goals in his first half-season at Old Trafford, but many chose to focus on the missed opportunities he had at West Ham, which cost United the championship.
The goal scorer, who was born in Nottingham, struggled throughout 1995–1996 and received harsh criticism from fans and commentators due to his poor play. His participation in 1996–1997 was also limited by two broken legs.
However, Cole bounced back and eventually stood out during the 1998–1999 treble–winning season. He scored 121 goals in 275 games during his time at United.
Teddy Sheringham
Sheringham was acquired from Tottenham to serve as Eric Cantona’s successor after his retirement in 1997. No need to rush, Teddy.
Despite excelling at Spurs and representing England alongside Alan Shearer, Sheringham initially struggled to make an impact at Old Trafford. Ironically, he made his league debut at Tottenham and missed a penalty. His first season, he only scored 14 goals.
Although he scored in that Champions League final, he spent most of 1998–1999 as a substitute. Nevertheless, he went on to win the PFA and Football Writers’ Player of the Year Award in 2001 for his outstanding play.
