Wirtz next? Ten greatest signings by Premier League champions obviously dominated by Manchester United
Liverpool will hope Florian Wirtz can become one of the finest signings made by a Premier League champion, but Manchester United will take some budging.
And no, we don’t mean that time they signed Michael Owen.
Ten greatest signings by Premier League champions
10) Erling Haaland
“We cannot replace him, we cannot,” said Pep Guardiola through tears induced by Sergio Aguero’s farewell match, in which the Argentinean inevitably scored twice from the bench.
The Manchester City manager had lied equally absurdly a month or so before, stating that “because of the economic situation in the world right now, we are not going to sign a striker next season”.
Haaland arrived in a £200m package soon after and is now within five places of Aguero on the club’s all-time top scorer list after just three seasons. Although it somehow remains unclear whether Manchester City are better without a Proper Striker or not.
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9) Ruud van Nistelrooy
Not even a mess of medicals could prevent Manchester United from eventually pushing through the British record capture of Van Nistelrooy, the player Sir Alex Ferguson believed would help translate domestic dominance into consistency on the European front.
In his five seasons, Manchester United’s Champions League performances in chronological order were: semi-final, quarter-final, last 16, last 16, group stage. It did not work as planned.
But three trophies for 150 goals in 219 appearances is a neat summary of how a phenomenal individual thrived in a slightly less functional team. Manchester United won three consecutive titles before Van Nistelrooy arrived, with Dwight Yorke’s 20 goals in 1999/2000 the most any player mustered in any of those seasons. The Dutchman beat that tally in three campaigns, equalled it in another and only fell short once because of injury.
Yet Van Nistelrooy left with just one Premier League title, an FA Cup and a League Cup, matched with the solitary Golden Boot he managed to snatch away from arch-nemesis Thierry Henry.
8) Freddie Ljungberg
Arsene Wenger felt compelled to make an exception for Ljungberg, a player he had never seen in person before sanctioning his purchase from Halmstad in 1998.
“I saw Freddie Ljungberg giving a hell of a lot of problems to Martin Keown while watching him on television as he played for Sweden against England. I decided to buy him then,” the legendary Arsenal manager once said of a Euro 2000 qualifier in which Keown categorically did not feature.
Whoever was tormented by a prodigious Ljungberg, it was to Arsenal’s ultimate benefit. The forward became an Invincible, the club’s second-highest Champions League appearance maker, a winner of five trophies and a wearer of lovely pants.
7) Riyad Mahrez
Perhaps the most ludicrously underappreciated Premier League player ever, Mahrez was the first signing Manchester City made as champions under Pep Guardiola. The Algerian figured they would be “successful over the coming years” and it is difficult to argue with his reasoning.
Mahrez scored 78 goals and assisted 59 across five seasons at the Etihad, winning 10 trophies including a Treble and seasonal domestic sweep, and missing penalties with weird frequency.
An inability to replace his productivity and knack for stepping up in the biggest games has played a significant role in Manchester City’s recent plight. Jeremy Doku wishes he was as good as peak gloves Mahrez.
6) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
One Irish newspaper at the time of a transformative summer for Manchester United wrote that ‘along with Karel Poborsky and Jordi Cruyff, Scandinavian duo Ronny Johnsen and Ole Gunnar Sloksjar signed for a combined fee of £2.7 million’ to ‘make up Fergie’s team of flash continentals’.
Poborsky was a throwback major international tournament signing and Cruyff had the name if not the genetic brilliance, but it was the Norwegian pair of Johnsen and Sloksjar who would move the needle considerably at Old Trafford.
While Johnsen was a crucial cog in the machine, Solskjaer became an adopted Mancunian for life with a surname impossible to misspell. Manchester United paid £1.5m for 366 games, 126 goals – among which was the most important in their modern history – and a sense of loyalty so strong he probably still refuses to use his old manager’s parking space.
5) Ashley Cole
By the time Cole left Chelsea for Roma after winning seven trophies in eight years, the pawn in the controversial move which saw him swap a fading force for one just establishing itself was retiring from the game completely.
Arsenal wanted £25m for their starting left-back at the start of summer 2006; they eventually relented and settled for £5m plus William Gallas.
It was preposterously good business for Chelsea, who had been routinely rinsed in the market as selling clubs formed an ordinarily queue to see their exploitable riches coming a mile off. They certainly benefited from a situation of their own making with Cole, whose bridges back to Arsenal had been summarily torched, but still.
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4) David de Gea
It might not be entirely accurate but it does feel as though De Gea single-handedly prevented Manchester United from enduring as catastrophic a season as their most recent on multiple occasions over a 12-year tenure.
He was the original Bruno Fernandes, a tangibly better player than most if not all his teammates yet bizarrely keen to sacrifice the best years of his career to a failing institution. Once that fax machine faltered in 2015 it seemed as though De Gea just accepted his fate as a Manchester United lifer.
The club never was going to show that same loyalty as soon as the Spaniard became dispensable and their handling of his exit was amateurish. But there was a time – after a rough initiation period – when Manchester United almost accidentally possessed the finest keeper in the world.
3) Rodri
With all things being even, it remains the case that a fit, available and peak Rodri guarantees a title win for Manchester City.
The hope is that theory can be properly tested next season, but four Premier League trophies in a row have been sandwiched by a chastening first year spent learning how to foul, and a campaign entirely ruined by a knee injury.
Manchester City collapsed without Rodri in 2024/25 and ongoing negotiations over a substantial pay rise suggest they know precisely how important a role he plays.
2) Roy Keane
It takes a certain type of character to jump from Brian Clough to Alex Ferguson while infuriating Kenny Dalglish in between, but as Keane himself would say, he was just doing his job as the most sought-after midfielder of a generation.
If Blackburn had filed their paperwork properly and Dalglish not taken a sunny July weekend off in 1993, the first Premier League crown under Ferguson might have been marked by no Manchester United incomings whatsoever. But it opened the door to a record-breaking hijack which shaped the club’s future and heralded a glittering and often contemptuous spell.
Keane won a dozen trophies and two Player of the Year awards at Old Trafford, committing to history one of the most iconic individual performances the sport has seen, inspiring the introduction of the prawn sandwich brigade to the game’s lexicon and forlornly challenging the ego of Rio Ferdinand.
1) Cristiano Ronaldo
Arsene Wenger basically refused to do business with Jorge Mendes again over a perceived betrayal. Liverpool management duo Gerard Houllier and Phil Thompson “almost choked on our food” when the £4m deal they had put in place was obliterated by the announcement of a £12.2m hijack by a bitter rival.
They had finished second and fifth respectively to champions Manchester United, who swooped in late but decisively for the next big thing.
Ronaldo was likely destined for greatness wherever he landed but only a fool could claim his biggest development period would have been better served elsewhere. Ferguson and Old Trafford was the perfect post for the Portuguese to learn; within six stunning years he became the sport’s best and most expensive player.
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