Every Man Utd Record Signing Since the Club's First £1m Transfer

Manchester United face the prospect of breaking their club transfer record this summer if they are to land primary target Jadon Sancho, who is priced at £108m by Borussia Dortmund.

United are no strangers to paying big fees and bought their first £1m player back in 1980. The transfer record has tumbled 14 further times since then.

Here's a closer look back at all the record breaking deals over those 40 years.

Garry Birtles (£1.25m)

Transfer: October 1980 from Nottingham Forest
Appearances: 64
Goals: 12
Honours: None

Garry Birtles won the League Cup and two European Cups in the space of 14 months with Nottingham Forest between 1979 and 1980. He then started the 1980/81 season flying, prompting United to make him their first £1m transfer that October.

United paid £1.25m for the 24-year-old, who then remarkably failed to score a league goal for the remainder of the campaign with his new club, scoring only once in the FA Cup. Birtles did find the net 11 times in his second year with United, but return to Forest in 1982.

Verdict: Miss

Bryan Robson (£1.5m)

Transfer: October 1981 from West Bromwich Albion
Appearances: 461
Goals: 99
Honours: Premier League (x2), FA Cup (x4), UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup

A year after signing Birtles, United went big in the transfer market again, backing new manager Ron Atkinson with the £1.5m British record signing of midfielder Bryan Robson – the pair had already worked together at the Baggies prior to the player’s arrival in Manchester.

Robson went on to become the longest serving captain in United history and remains fondly remembered as an Old Trafford. Although it came towards the end of his spell, he co-lifted the inaugural Premier League trophy in 1992/93 to end a 26-year title drought.

Verdict: Hit

Mark Hughes (£1.8m)

Transfer: May 1988 from Barcelona
Appearances: 353*
Goals: 116*
Honours: Premier League (x2), FA Cup (x2)*, European Cup Winners’ Cup

Mark Hughes started his career at United after joining the club as an apprentice in the late 1970s and was soon a key source of goals when he broke into the first-team in 1984. But that form brought him to the attention of Barcelona, who paid £2m to take him to Spain in 1986.

Unlike fellow British expat Gary Lineker, Hughes struggled at Camp Nou. The following season he was loaned to Bayern Munich, before a club record move back to Old Trafford in 1988. He went on to become a central part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s first great United side.

Verdict: Hit

*denotes second spell only – after record transfer

Gary Pallister (£2.3m)

Transfer: August 1989 from Middlesbrough
Appearances: 437
Goals: 15
Honours: Premier League (x4), FA Cup (x3), League Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup, PFA Players’ Player of the Year

At the time he left United in 1998, Gary Pallister was actually the most decorated player in the club’s long and distinguished history, having won nine major trophies in nine years. He was also a five-time pick for the top flight PFA Team of the Year and the 1991/92 PFA Players’ Player of the Year.

Pallister was a physically commanding centre-back who also played with a certain technical grace. His partnership with Steve Bruce is revered as one of the greatest in Premier League history and was the rock in which United’s dominance in the early 1990s was built.

Verdict: Hit

Roy Keane (£3.75m)

Transfer: July 1993 from Nottingham Forest
Appearances: 480
Goals: 51
Honours: Premier League (x7), FA Cup (x4), Champions League, Intercontinental Cup, PFA Players’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year

How United signed Roy Keane in the summer of 1993 is a tale of ultimate opportunism from Sir Alex Ferguson because the midfielder had infamously already agreed a deal to join Blackburn. But with the paperwork not ready, United stole in to snatch him instead.

Keane was initially a junior member of an established side but soon went on to captain the club and lifted eight major trophies as skipper. He was a born winner and refused to settle for second best, while his performance against Juventus in the Champions League in 1999 remains iconic.

Verdict: Hit

Andrew Cole (£7m)

Transfer: January 1995 from Newcastle United
Appearances: 275
Goals: 121
Honours: Premier League (x5), FA Cup (x2), Champions League

Andrew Cole’s transfer to Old Trafford in January 1995 was worth £7m in total, but saw United send £1m- rated Keith Gillespie and £6m cash to Newcastle to land the explosive forward. Within a few weeks of his arrival, he became the first player to score five goals in a Premier League game.

Cole emerged as United’s leading marksman following the departure of Eric Cantona in 1997 and later struck up a season-defining partnership with Dwight Yorke that drove the club’s charge towards the iconic treble in 1998/99.

Verdict: Hit

Jaap Stam (£10.75m)

Transfer: July 1998 from PSV Eindhoven
Appearances: 127
Goals: 1
Honours: Premier League (x3), FA Cup, Champions League, Intercontinental Cup

In many ways, Jaap Stam was a perfect signing for United, even if his time at Old Trafford was relatively short-lived. The Dutchman was the first eight-figure player in the club’s history, won six major honours in three years and was then sold for a profit.

Stam was the defensive rock on which the foundation of United’s treble campaign was built and remained crucial during the following record-breaking Premier League season. He was limited to only 23 appearances in 2000/01 because of injuries and left for Lazio.

Verdict: Hit

Dwight Yorke (£12.6m)

Transfer: August 1998 from Aston Villa
Appearances: 152
Goals: 65
Honours: Premier League (x3), FA Cup, Champions League, Intercontinental Cup

Dwight Yorke proved to be the final piece of the puzzle for United’s treble winning campaign, bought from Aston Villa having previously performed well against the club in years gone by. He particularly benefited from David Beckham’s pinpoint crossing ability.

“We knew Yorke was a good player from Aston Villa, but you didn't think he would be the one to come into United. I don't think anybody realised how good a player he was - I never realised how good he was,” Gary Neville said of the striker on Sky Sports earlier this year.

Verdict: Hit

Ruud van Nistelrooy (£19m)

Transfer: July 2001 from PSV Eindhoven
Appearances: 219
Goals: 150
Honours: Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, PFA Players’ Player of the Year, Premier League Golden Boot

Ruud van Nistelrooy was initially supposed to join United in the summer of 2000 for £18.5m, only for the transfer to be put on hold when suffered ACL damage during a training session. The £19m move when it eventually happened in 2001 was therefore something of a gamble.

But the Dutch front-man soon quashed any doubts and scored 36 goals in his debut season. He then improved to an astonishing 44 in all competitions in his second year and by the time he left in 2006 had averaged 30 goals a year for five years.

Verdict: Hit

Juan Sebastian Veron (£28.1m)

Transfer: July 2001 from Lazio
Appearances: 82
Goals: 11
Honours: Premier League

Barely had the dust settled on Van Nistelrooy’s Old Trafford arrival when United broke the British transfer record for the second time in one summer, landing Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron from Lazio. Another £9m was added to the record in one swoop.

Sadly, a few flashes aside, Veron was not a success. He had a reputation as one of the best midfielders in the world and had shone in Serie A, yet there didn’t seem to be a place for him at United. As such, he was sold to Chelsea for half the money after only two years.

Verdict: Miss

Rio Ferdinand (£30m)

Transfer: July 2002 from Leeds United
Appearances: 455
Goals: 8
Honours: Premier League (x6), League Cup (x3), Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup

Following a somewhat rocky start to his United career that saw him serve an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test at the start of his second season, Rio Ferdinand proved to be worth every penny of the £30m that made him the most expensive defender in the world.

As a genuinely world class centre-back, Ferdinand naturally assumed a leadership role in one of the most concentrated periods of success in United’s history. At his peak, he won three back-to-back Premier League titles and formed a legendary partnership with Nemanja Vidic.

Verdict: Hit

Dimitar Berbatov (£30.75m)

Transfer: September 2008 from Tottenham Hotspur
Appearances: 149
Goals: 56
Honours: Premier League (x2), League Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, Premier League Golden Boot

After Ferdinand it was another six years before United broke the £30m barrier again, beating nouveau riche Manchester City to the signature of elegant Spurs striker Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian was quickly a fan favourite, even if his languid style didn’t always fit.

Berbatov effectively replaced Carlos Tevez in United’s starting XI and did enjoy plenty of success in his first three seasons. He was never truly prolific but was mesmerising to watch and did win the Premier League Golden Boot in 2010/11 when United broke Liverpool’s league title record.

Verdict: Hit

Juan Mata (£37.1m)

Transfer: January 2014 from Chelsea
Appearances: 255
Goals: 48
Honours: FA Cup, League Cup, Europa League

Likeable and generally still popular as a person, Juan Mata has been actively okay during his six years as a United. The Spaniard is far from a downright flop and has had plenty of fine moments, but he has never quite done enough to justify being a club record signing.

Mata was at his best for United between 2014 and 2017, which is a shame because the team as a whole was decidedly poor. He has become less and less effective during increasingly sporadic appearances and failed to score a league goal for the first time in his career in 2019/20.

Verdict: Miss

Angel Di Maria (£59.6m)

Transfer: August 2014 from Real Madrid
Appearances: 32
Goals: 4
Honours: None

Angel Di Maria was electrifying in 2014, both for Real Madrid in the Champions League and Argentina in the World Cup. He was exactly the type of signing United needed after a disastrous campaign under David Moyes, except he never fitted into Louis van Gaal’s system.

Long before United established a long-term plan or direction, it was a case of round hole, square peg for Di Maria. He started well enough with a demolition of QPR at Old Trafford, but he soon fell away and the damage was irreversible by the time burglars attempted to break into his house.

Verdict: Miss

Paul Pogba (£89m)

Transfer: August 2016 from Juventus
Appearances: 157
Goals: 32
Honours: League Cup, Europa League

Despite nine British transfer records over the years, six of them in the Premier League era, United had never broken the overall world transfer record until Paul Pogba re-joined the club for £89m in the summer of 2016. He had previously left in 2012 for nominal compensation.

The Frenchman has been heavily criticised ever since. But he has never, until now, been able to lean on quality teammates, while he led United in goals and assists in 2018/19 as a central midfielder. He was also the only non-Liverpool or Manchester City player in that season’s PFA Team of the Year.

Verdict: Hit

For more from Jamie Spencer, follow him on Twitter and Facebook!