Manchester United player could lose spot to Liverpool signing in stunning champion transfer XI
Liverpool have one of their ‘biggest ever summer transfer budgets’, and an XI of signings made by champions dominated by Manchester United to break into.
GOALKEEPER: David de Gea
Sir Alex Ferguson was eventually proven right over his “outstanding replacement for Van der Sar,” but it took a while for De Gea to fill those gloves.
The Spaniard had rejected a move to Wigan in the summer of 2010 in a decision which was vindicated within the year. Having established himself as first choice at Atletico Madrid, De Gea became the second most expensive keeper in history when Manchester United came calling.
There was a rough acclimatisation period involving an unflattering battle for minutes with Anders Lindegaard, struggles with high balls and flying Andy Carrolls, and doughnut-based misunderstandings. But De Gea overcame those issues to become an era-spanning and eventually obsolete legend who deserved better than what the majority of his final decade delivered.
READ MORE: Man Utd goalkeepers ranked with Onana five places behind De Gea
RIGHT-BACK: Ashley Young
It turns out that Premier League champions do not celebrate by signing right-backs. The closest competition for this spot was probably offered by Joao Cancelo and that is remarkably damning.
Maybe Liverpool could change that with one of their ‘biggest ever summer transfer budgets‘ and a need to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Young may be a grizzled veteran of the full-back game in 2025 but for the majority of his Manchester United career – certainly the parts he would look back on most fondly – he was stationed on either wing. Louis van Gaal first reappropriated one of his more reliable foot soldiers and Jose Mourinho relished the opportunity to continue the work of turning a formerly attacking player into a dogged defender.
But then Young was never particularly productive at Old Trafford. In his two seasons under Ferguson he scored eight goals and assisted 11 in 56 games, winning a Premier League title. It won’t have compared to the elation of sticking crosses on Marouane Fellaini’s head en route to the most plastic of Trebles in 2017.
CENTRE-HALF: Ronny Johnsen
Had Johnsen not turned down his first move to Old Trafford in the winter of 1995, The Fortnight of William Prunier would never have taken place. The Norwegian’s loyalty to Besiktas only strengthened Manchester United’s resolve to sign him.
With Steve Bruce departing for Birmingham, a spot in the defence had opened up and Johnsen was earmarked to fill it. While injuries prevented him from doing so as often as he would have liked, his 150 appearances across six seasons were spent largely winning trophies.
Few were quite as important in the Treble season as Johnsen, who was one of just five to start each of the decisive final three games. Ferguson named him alongside Brian McClair and Park Ji-sung as the three most underrated players he managed, weirdly snubbing Prunier.
CENTRE-HALF: Mikael Silvestre
Given the slightly harder task of jumping into the team which won it all in 1998/99 was Silvestre, who at least immediately endeared himself to Manchester United by rejecting an approach from Liverpool to join them.
Silvestre was another relatively unremarkable player in a team of stars, a versatile defender who helped ease the changeover from Denis Irwin at left-back while covering for injuries and poor form in the middle.
Only 16 players have ever made more Premier League appearances for Manchester United, with Agent Silvestre and his four title medals later sent on a stunningly effective deployment to Arsenal.
LEFT-BACK: Ashley Cole
Once the fury and indignation at being offered £55,000 a week finally subsided, Cole would soon have been able to view his decision to leave Arsenal for Chelsea as objectively fair.
Five trophies in six years marked a wonderful period in north London but the Roman Abramovich-shaped signs that the tide might have turned towards the west were clear. Cole might have gone about the journey differently in retrospect but in terms of career progression and ambition, there were few better destinations.
Cole added seven more medals to his collection at Stamford Bridge, completing the set with a League Cup, Champions League and Europa League on what was hopefully a more agreeable wage.
RIGHT-WINGER: Cristiano Ronaldo
After wrestling the title back from Arsenal in 2003, Manchester United prepared for their latest defence with a set of pre-season fixtures which included perhaps their most fateful friendly ever.
Ferguson’s side beat Celtic, Club America, Juventus and Barcelona before falling to Sporting and obviously Stoke, catching a glimpse along the way of a future club legend they insisted on signing immediately.
With Chris Iwelumo deemed likely beyond their budget, it was instead decided that Sporting teenager Ronaldo, coveted at the time by Arsenal and Liverpool, would be their priority. Six days after that friendly he was a Manchester United player; six years later he was sold for a world-record fee as a European and multi-time Premier League champion.
If only John O’Shea wasn’t jet-lagged.
CENTRE-MIDFIELD: Roy Keane
Such was their inherent dominance and influx of generationally gifted academy graduates around the time of the formation of the Premier League, Manchester United never needed to strengthen their hand drastically in the transfer market when their title drought was finally ended.
If Blackburn had filed their paperwork properly and Kenny Dalglish not taken a sunny July weekend off in 1993, the first Ferguson crown might have been marked by no incomings whatsoever. But that opened the door to a record-breaking hijack which heralded a glittering and often contemptuous 12-year stay.
Keane won a dozen trophies, two Player of the Year awards and the hearts and minds of the people by laying into Rio Ferdinand and setting himself up for a lucrative post-retirement career in withering punditry. But it is sadly not believed that he advised Ferguson to stick anything up his bollocks.
CENTRE-MIDFIELD: Rodri
With all things being even, it remains the case that a fit, available and peak Rodri guarantees a title win for Manchester City.
But his first season in England was a chastening experience, spent learning how to foul and displaying a remarkable bitterness in defeat that he would hone to perfection over the subsequent years.
Manchester City finished a distant second to Liverpool after making Rodri their record signing, but for four years on the bounce the Spaniard then buttressed a magnificent run of silver collecting which was only halted when his Ballon d’Or-bound knees were knacked.
LEFT-WINGER: Freddie Ljungberg
The story feels either entirely apocryphal or at least slightly embellished, but Arsene Wenger’s claim to have signed Ljungberg on the basis of watching his performance in a Euro 2000 qualifier for Sweden against England has nevertheless endured over the years.
The predictable reality was that Arsenal had been scouting Ljungberg at Halmstad for months and that display, combined with admiring glances from Chelsea in the winger, merely crystallised their interest.
Ljungberg was an immediate hit with a goal on his debut against Manchester United, who admittedly responded well by just winning the Treble. But the Swede, signed in the aftermath of Arsenal’s first Premier League and FA Cup Double, helped inspire another in 2002 before forming a key part of the Invincibles two years later.
CENTRE-FORWARD: Ruud van Nistelrooy
Counter to the relatively sparse selection of impressive defensive signings made by Premier League champions is the illustrious list of forwards bought as part of hopeful title defences.
There is precious little to separate the two chosen in this XI from Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Teddy Sheringham, Robin van Persie and Carlos Tevez. But in terms of sheer relentless output, there must be a place for Van Nistelrooy.
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.
CENTRE-FORWARD: Erling Haaland
A case really can be made for a great many more players but Haaland is already difficult to ignore based on his first three years, never mind the next ten.
His record-shattering excellence has been entirely normalised and the ease with which he has taken to an unforgiving task basically forgotten. Haaland stepped into the shoes of a Manchester City and Premier League legend in Sergio Aguero, wiped away Pep Guardiola’s tears and scored so many goals people basically stopped caring aside from the month or so every season when the goalbot reboots and allows Are City Better Without Haaland? discourse to dominate.
