Man Utd rejects in European finals include £181.6m worth of signings and ‘fat boy’ who mocked Neville
Even though they contrived to collapse against Sevilla in the Europa League, Man Utd has plenty of representation in every European final this season.
Matteo Darmian
“I have to say thank you to them because if I’m the player and person that I am, it’s also because of them. I just have to say thank you, but now I’m an Inter player and I give everything for Inter,” said Matteo Darmian of his former club, after enjoying a comfortable 90 minutes up against a half-fit Rafael Leao.
Considering Darmian was the Man Utd player exposed to be incapable of boiling an egg – a revelation that was supposed to undermine the coddled nature of the squad Louis van Gaal presided over – it is not difficult to understand his gratitude for helping bring him out of his shell.
But on the pitch, Darmian was rarely more than a spare part. Jose Mourinho was never particularly sold on the Italian, who crammed nearly half of his total 60 Premier League appearances into his first season of four.
Darmian did play in Mourinho’s final game, that 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in December, then made three appearances under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer before being shipped off to Parma in the summer of 2019, eventually finding his way to Inter and becoming a reliable regular.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
With as many major European tournament final goals for Man Utd as Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, and George Best, perhaps Henrikh Mkhitaryan should be remembered more fondly at Old Trafford. But his face never did properly fit during an unsatisfactory period for most concerned at the club.
His arrival in the summer of 2016 was greeted with immense excitement, the £26.3m signing having thrived at Borussia Dortmund. “Mkhi is a fantastic player and what I like more is something that is undeniable, which is the number of goals that he scores by not being a striker,” Mourinho said upon his arrival, also praising “his vision and his concept of collective play”.
Thirteen goals in 63 games were hardly what Mourinho had been expecting from a player who followed Shinji Kagawa’s path a little too closely. Even Mkhitaryan’s departure was tinged with regret and disappointment: as the makeweight in an Alexis Sanchez swap which left none of the parties involved content.
Mkhitaryan never could get going at Arsenal either as it became evident that adjusting to the Premier League style was at least part of the problem. A move to Serie A has reinvigorated his career, first with Europa Conference League champions Roma and then at mismatched Champions League finalists Inter.
Romelu Lukaku
While 42 goals from 96 games are far from a poor record – Chelsea would kill for that level of productivity – it was a scant return on what ultimately turned out to be a £90m investment.
Man Utd had flirted with Alvaro Morata throughout the summer of 2017 but Lukaku was the striker they managed to seal the deal with, as Mourinho identified his ideal center-forward battering ram.
But after an impressive 27-goal first season, issues started to form. Lukaku acknowledged his lack of “intensity” and “aggression” after the World Cup in Russia, blaming the muscly frame he had to maintain to lead Mourinho’s attacking line.
Weight problems were prevalent during the Belgian’s time at Old Trafford, enough so for Lukaku and Gary Neville to lock horns on at least one occasion over the ‘fat boy’. Inter managed to immediately recognise and rectify the cause of his troubles – a dodgy digestive system – and were rewarded with a quite phenomenal striker who is far happier at the San Siro than either Man Utd or Stamford Bridge.
Alex Telles
“We are a very good group but personally I think we need more players to strengthen the squad,” said Luke Shaw in September 2020, before presumably adding ‘not that kind of player’ when Man Utd responded by bringing in competition for the England international at left-back.
Shaw sought the “boost” new signings can bring and that will likely forever remain the legacy of Alex Telles, who encouraged quite the improvement from his new teammate. The Brazilian did reach a half-century of appearances and is technically still on the Old Trafford books, but his loan spell at perennial Europa League finalists Sevilla is expected to transition into a permanent move either there or elsewhere for a player Erik ten Hag does not fancy.
Nemanja Matic
‘Man Utd reject’ is probably too strong a phrase for Matic, who joined for £40m in the summer of 2017 and played 189 games in the subsequent five years before leaving of his own accord.
But those trophyless seasons of drift within which Matic was wholly intertwined helped sum up the post-Ferguson fallow years, with every false dawn providing fleeting relief from a bleak outlook and the experienced leaders’ Man Utd tried to rely on being pulled as far as anyone into the vortex of mediocrity.
Those occasions on which Matic rose above it all with his characteristic calm, composure, and control were pierced by the realisation that his body could not consistently cope with either the workload or the responsibility. Italy and yet another reunion with Mourinho was precisely what the 34-year-old needed.
Chris Smalling
The thought of Smalling and Mourinho being back together in a Europa League final brings to mind the latter’s withering but well-natured takedown of his center-half before they won the trophy against Ajax in 2017.
“I told my players that, for me, beautiful is not giving our opponents what they want,” Mourinho said. “I even joked with Smalling – ‘With your feet, we’re for sure not playing out from the back!’”.
That reputation has stuck for Smalling, with Gareth Southgate once admitting “regret” and “fault” for making “unfair” comments which were perceived as a slight on the defender’s ball-playing abilities. Not enough remorse to equal an England call-up in the last six years, but still.
Away from the spotlight, Mike has thrived and, at points, returned to the excellent form he showed under Van Gaal since emigrating in 2019. Roma supporters adore Smaldini almost as much as the 33-year-old enjoys proving his critics wrong.
Jose Mourinho
Number of finals Man Utd have reached since sacking Jose Mourinho: Three
Number of finals Jose Mourinho has reached since leaving Man Utd: Three
Trophies Man Utd have won since sacking Jose Mourinho: One
Trophies Jose Mourinho has won since leaving Man Utd: One and a half
Times Man Utd have conceded seven goals in a game since sacking Jose Mourinho: Once
Times Jose Mourinho has ever conceded seven goals in a game: None
That’s heritage.
David Moyes
“One of my main feats was to get Man Utd to the quarter-final of the Champions League, which is probably not good enough for Man Utd but still not a bad place to get to,” said Moyes after dragging West Ham to the final of the Europa Conference League with a dogged away performance against AZ Alkmaar.
The Scot might have been a little too harsh on himself in that instance; Man Utd has not reached beyond the Champions League quarters since reaching the final in 2011. And that remained the deepest Moyes himself had ever gone on the continental stage before making the Europa League semis in 2022 and the Conference League final a year later.
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