£175m spent and just four trophies won – Manchester United clear out expensive flops

Pogba, Lingard & Co. depart 

Manchester United have no new signings to announce just yet but the club’s numerous departures have made for good news for fans of the club and it seems as though the Old Trafford side are more than happy to indulge them. Rather than confirm the departures of numerous first team players due to expiring contracts, the Premier League giants have instead elected to announce each departure one after the other across an entire week. 

Man Utd have confirmed that Paul Pogba will leave the club this summer

But where will the French midfielder end up next? pic.twitter.com/GVRYLIEEKj

— Transfermarkt.co.uk (@TMuk_news) June 1, 2022

On Wednesday Paul Pogba was the first to be shown the exit, quickly followed by Jesse Lingard on the same day. Then, on Thursday morning, Juan Mata was given his marching orders as the club bid farewell to the Spanish attacker. Edinson Cavani is widely expected to join the departing group by the end of the week. And when we add the previously confirmed departure of Nemanja Matić to that grouping it certainly seems to define a certain era in the club’s recent history that didn’t exactly go according to plan. 

£175 million wasted and just four trophies won – Man Utd’s modern legacy 

Indeed, while Lingard and Pogba are technically players that came through Man Utd’s youth academy, they have, alongside Matic, Mata and now Cavani, come to represent the post-Alex Ferguson era of the club and the many challenges that it has had to stay on top of English football. Despite spending an unfathomable amount of money along the way, to very little success. 

Pogba is perhaps the most obvious example of this reckless, expensive and ultimately doomed period for the club, after returning to Man Utd for no less than £94.5 million and winning just three trophies over the course of the last six years. However, the French midfielder certainly isn’t the only example. Both Mata and Matić were signed for around £40m each but have also managed just three titles at the club since making the move to Old Trafford. In fact, when we combine the transfer fees and subsequent titles won by the five departing stars it comes to around £175m spent and just four titles won over a period of time that stretches as far back as 2014. And will undoubtedly go down as one of Man Utd’s most inefficient and disastrous periods in the club’s modern history. 

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