Alex Ferguson was the Manchester United manage for the best part of thirty years and Manchester United can thank the Scot for the size of the club they are now. Fergie made some good and bad signing like most managers, you can’t always get it right. But one of the his most disappointing signings was English man and former Bayern Munich player Owen Hargreaves.
“He could play right-back, wide right or central midfield,” he wrote in his second autobiography.
“I played him wide right in the 2008 final against Chelsea, and when we started to struggle against their midfield three, I put him in the middle of the park with Rooney wide right and it worked. He had definite value. But it was all lost in the fog of his lack of games. Yet, Hargreaves was fantastic for England at the 2006 World Cup, plugging gaps, racing to the ball.
“I look back less fondly on our move for Owen Hargreaves, who was phenomenal in the summer of 2006 and was just the type of player we needed to fill the gap left by Keane,” Ferguson writes.
“We started to put together a bid for him. But I studied his playing record and felt a tinge of doubt. I didn’t feel a strong vibe about him.
“David Gill worked hard on the deal with Bayern. I met Owen’s agent at the World Cup final in Berlin. Nice man, a lawyer. I told him we could develop Hargreaves at United. It turned out to be a disaster.”
“Owen had no confidence in himself whatsoever. He didn’t show nearly enough determination to overcome his physical difficulties, for my liking. I saw him opt for the easy choice too often in terms of training. He was one of the most disappointing signings of my career.”