Paul Scholes has admitted he was alarmed at Manchester United’s first two signings in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era as he felt neither player was suited to playing for the club.
After Ferguson announced his retirement in 2013, David Moyes was appointed from Everton and the Scotsman raided his former club to make Marouane Fellaini his first signing in a £27.5m deal that summer.
Following an indifferent run of results in the first half of the 2013-14 campaign, Moyes attempted to rectify some of United’s issues by spending £37.1m on Juan Mata in January after the playmaker had lost his place under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.
Both of those deals were sanctioned by United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, who himself was new to the role and Scholes believes his predecessor David Gill would not have been interested in either Fellaini nor Mata.
‘When you look five or six years ago when Sir Alex Ferguson left, the only person that’s probably going to get the credit he deserved was David Gill [former chief executive],’ Scholes said. ‘He was a football man. From the day he went, as well as Sir Alex, it’s been difficult.
‘I think there were alarm bells straightaway really when David [Moyes] took over and he signed Juan Mata and Fellaini for something like £70m. They’re good players in their own right, but I don’t think they were Manchester United players.
‘I don’t think Sir Alex or David Gill would have signed those types of players, so I think from then on, alarm bells have rung and we’re in the position we are now because of buying players who we don’t really think are Man Utd players.
‘Ole’s come in and he’s got the opportunity to put that right.’
Despite amassing 177 appearances for United, Fellaini was much-maligned during his time at Old Trafford, although he proved a useful player to have around during Mourinho’s spell in charge.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer didn’t have room for Fellaini in his plans after replacing Mourinho, though, and allowed the Belgian midfielder to join Chinese Super League side Shandong Luneng in January, shortly after taking charge.
Mata has played 228 times for United, scoring 45 goals, but he has struggled to replicate the form he demonstrated at Stamford Bridge, becoming a fringe player under both Mourinho and Solskjaer in recent seasons.
Woodward acknowledged that mistakes had been made in terms of player recruitment during an address to United staff yesterday when he said: ‘We’ve expanded our recruitment department in recent years and we believe this now runs in an efficient and productive way.
‘Player recommendations and decisions are worked on by this department and by the first-team manager and his staff, not by senior management.’
The club appear to have shifted their transfer philosophy towards acquiring young, British players since appointing Solskjaer as manager with Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James arriving in the summer.
