Players named in United’s best post-Fergie chant represent everything wrong with the club – opinion

What wouldn’t Manchester United fans give for a time machine? With the Ruben Amorim era feeling like a waking fever dream, imagine bending time and space like Beckham to relive, say, the Treble-clinching Nou Camp comeback in 1999. And perhaps in this little daydream there’s just enough juice left in the flux capacitor to visit one post-Fergie moment. There’s been guts and, by most other clubs’ standards, glory in the shape of FA Cup wins for Louis van Gaal and Erik ten Hag and a Europa League triumph for Jose Mourinho – but rarely much feelgood factor. For that, set the faders for 2019 and ready the battered engine for one last warp to see the false dawn heralded by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ole’s at the wheel He may not have won any trophies – although was one penalty kick away from bagging a Europa League – but the club legend had United pulses racing in the most genuine way since the last title win during his time in the dugout. And it may have ended in tears but it’s a hard heart indeed that doesn’t flutter at hearing the Stretford End belting out “Ole’s at the wheel” after some seriously bleak years at Old Trafford. But scratch beneath the surface of that iconic chant six years on and it reads like a summary of all that was wrong at United at the time, if only we could have seen it – capturing a fleeting moment of synergy in an otherwise malfunctioning machine. We’ve got Sanchez… United signed Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal in a straight swap deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan in what felt for all the world like a genuine transfer coup. The dual satisfaction of pinching one of the best players in the league from their arch-rivals, and pipping Manchester City to the post in the process, was meant to be another Robin van Persie moment. But all Sanchez was good for was one infamous unveiling video and providing another contender for worst-ever United signing. I see your Di Maria and raise you a Sanchez. It was United at their worst, going all-in with astronomical wages for footballing tinsel rather than spending any time assessing whether the player would work for them – tactically or literally. It’s a habit that thankfully seems to be dying out, especially with INEOS’s penny-pinching approach, but that the Chilean was lionized in a chant for the ages shows how well the con worked. …Paul Pogba and Fred… Paul Pogba and Fred were both drafted in as solutions to United’s ailing midfield, but in their own way each is another example of mismanagement in a key area. Bringing Pogba back to Old Trafford was much more defensible than signing Sanchez, and the mercurial Frenchman did more good in a United shirt than his critics will ever acknowledge. But viewed in the round it once again feels like the marketing department saw pound signs and the managers just needed to find a way to make it work. United were patently not a team able to accommodate luxury players, and while Pogba has many admirable traits grabbing a team by the scruff of its neck and forcing it into form is not one of them. Fred, meanwhile, was a midfielder from the other end of the spectrum – Pogba had style and class, Fred had running. Ultimately the Brazilian would find his feet at the club as a midfield workhorse, and around the time this chant was echoing through Premier League grounds he was one half of the infamous McFred pivot. But it’s hard to argue he was worth the money, and is another example of United’s frivolous spending. …Marcus Rashford is Manc born and bred This one is harder. Marcus Rashford was the golden child, a Carrington graduate with one foot in United’s history books already. The Englishman’s breakthrough was complete, and he was firmly established as an electrifying presence in Solskjaer’s dynamic attack, a local lad come good who was understandably adored in the stands. At the time, few could have predicted how spectacularly his relationship with the club would fall apart. Whether it was the fat contract he was handed, a shift in mentality or frustration with his managers, Rashford’s performances fell off a cliff to such a point that he was sent on a mid-season loan to Aston Villa last year. Now on a successful season-long loan at Barcelona there is little doubt he has played his last game for United. His fall from grace certainly shouldn’t be read as a reason to be cautious in being excited about academy talent, but is a sobering reminder that even the surest things can go south. If the rest of “Ole’s at the wheel” can be looked back on with an eye roll, the reference to Rashford still stings. Full lyrics Ole’s at the wheel, Tell me how good does it feel, We’ve got Sanchez, Paul Pogba and Fred, Marcus Rashford is Manc born and bred, The Greatest of English football, We’ve won it all, Du, du, du du, du, du, du du du … [repeat indefinitely]. The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social Joe Ponting Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried. He cut his teeth working in print media for local newspapers and entered football journalism covering the grassroots game for the Non-League Paper. Here he achieved a career high, interviewing United legend Sir Bobby Charlton to get his views on the lower echelons of the football pyramid. To kill time during international breaks Joe writes album reviews and has strong views on post punk for Plus One Magazine.