Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Denis Law, Andy Cole, Sir Bobby Charlton, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer; quite simply, Manchester United have been used to boasting some incredible strikers in the club’s all-time history.
That said, one of the little rituals our regular drinkers in the Football Transfer Tavern like to complete is compiling the names from the opposite end of the spectrum, the names of players that are often met with gasps, cringing faces and sheer, utter embarrassment.
On today’s agenda, our punters have been quizzed on just who can be rightly considered to be among the Red Devils’ worst ever strikers to have graced or rather more aptly, ambled around Old Trafford.
It is at this moment that one punter pipes up with the name Eric Djemba-Djemba (so bad they named him twice!) but a Red Devils season ticket holder is quick to point out that the Cameroonian would of course grace any United hall of shame, had he been a striker instead of a midfielder of course!
The landlord can sense the punters’ brains ticking over so while yours is as well, click on down below to reveal that our resident drinkers eventually came up with in our five man shortlist.
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Click on these Red Devils fans below to reveal our selections for the 5 worst United strikers of all-time.
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Radamel Falcao
A bit harsh on the Colombian fella?
Well, not really when you consider our resident Manchester United fans were clinking glasses, purchasing Colombia international jerseys from eBay and starting to dance all South American after a few bevvys having signed Radamel Falcao on loan from Monaco last summer transfer deadline day.
What Red Devils fans thought they were getting (and Arsenal fans thought this too!) was a seasoned goal getter, capable of scoring any kind of goal in clinical fashion and who could blame them?
After all, in league competition, Falcao had scored 41 times for Porto, 52 times for Atletico Madrid and 11 times for Monaco prior to moving to Old Trafford.
His United record I hear you cry; 4 strikes in 26 appearances! Lets face it Manchester United fans, he’s a flop in every sense of the word and deserves his place in this hall of shame simply because of the hype that proceeded his time spent on the pitch and out of that injury room!
What will make it worse is that several reports are claiming Falcao will be joining Chelsea this summer where you can bet your bottom dollar that Jose Mourinho will coax the best out of the Colombian once more!
David Bellion
What do you get when you sign a budget forward from Sunderland for a compensation package of £2 million?
The answer; a measly four goals in 24 Premier League appearances and a total flop of a signing for Sir Alex Ferguson.
The Scot really did try to turn water into wine with this young French forward and when you consider that he had only scored one goal in 20 for the Black Cats prior to moving to Old Trafford, we reckon Sir Alex may have made his initial phone calls to the Stadium of Light hierarchy when half cut after rummaging through his wine cupboard at Old Trafford!
Dong Fangzhuo
If you thought the signing of David Bellion was strange, at least there was some logic in this transfer, that was according to many sceptics who claimed that the Red Devils’ signature of Dong Fangzhuo was simply designed to sell shirts in the striker’s native China.
Dong became the first East Asian player to ever sign for Manchester United back in 2004 and his United career was over before it ever really began.
After all, the striker only appeared just once in the Premier League – against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge believe it or not in a rather meaningless ‘we’ve already won the title so lets play our reserves’ kind of encounter.
Oh and he played against Coventry City in the League Cup in 2007 as the picture above shows!
Manucho
Four years after the signature of Dong Fangzhuo, Sir Alex Ferguson was at it again, this time signing another totally unknown quantity in the form of Angola international striker Manucho.
Registering 34 goals in 78 appearances is all well and good in the top division of Angolan football but was it ever really a true barometer for how he’d perform in the Premier League?
Well; he must have either trained really poorly or Sir Alex wised up to what he had actually done early doors because like Dong, Manucho only ever appeared once in the Premier League following a three-week trial spell at Old Trafford.
He appeared so few times that obtaining this image above was more of a challenge than first imaginable!
He went on to play for Hull City on loan back in 2009 and now plays at a good level in Spain in La Liga with Rayo Vallecano.
One thing is for sure; you can bet a lot of Angolan natives went on to support Manchester United back in 2008, such is the power of the sport and the Red Devils brand!
Bebe
We’ve saved the best (well, the worst!) ’til last.
A lot of people claim that Sir Alex Ferguson’s biggest mistake at Old Trafford was letting the services of Paul Pogba slip through Manchester United’s grasp so easily but a close second surely has to be his decision to sign Bebe from Vitoria de Guimaraes back in 2010!
Infamously not even having watched Bebe in action on DVD prior to his Red Devils switch, Fergie could indeed pin the blame on David Gill who had been sent to the player’s native Portugal to seal the deal but Bebe is just one of those players who will forever prompt laughter from footballing fans up and down the land.
That said, he is actually still on the books of Benfica proving that he has turned his joke-laden career around somewhat although considering he has scored ZERO goals on loan at relagated La Liga outfit Cordoba this past season, you’d imagine the Portuguese giants are feeling like how Danny Dyer would say *mugs* also!