It has been six years since Manchester United hosted a Player of the Year awards dinner at Old Trafford. The Sir Matt Busby Statue can remain in its current abode.
Barring a case of force majeure, Bruno Fernandes will be named United's player of the year for a fourth time in May. Only Cristiano Ronaldo and David de Gea have won it that many times.
Fernandes has been, by a distance, United's best signing since Robin van Persie in 2012 and their best player in the era of United AD (after dominance). When Gary Neville ranked United's outfield signings since Sir Alex Ferguson retired via a traffic-light system in August 2022, the only greens were Fernandes and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
They remain the only post-2013 recruits who have been out-and-out successes: starters who brought success to United.
Here are all ten:
Sergio Romero
You can tell how dire United's recruitment hit rate is when a back-up goalkeeper is among their best signings over a 12-year period. Romero was a free transfer in 2015 and he was entrusted with United's run to the Europa League final in 2017, conceding only four goals in seven knockout games. Not retaining Romero for the Europa League semi-final in 2020 was an error that killed United's chances of silverware and his United career.
Even though Romero was not a regular after De Gea signed committed to the club in September 2015, the Argentine qualifies as a successful signing. United only lost six of the 61 games Romero started in. Apart from an early howler at Swansea in August 2015, he rarely made a costly error.
For a few years, United had the best No.1 and best No.2 goalkeepers around.
Amad
Fernandes might have had to return the Busby statue had Amad not injured his ankle last month. The winger was United's player of the season until then and he has had a progressive 15 months since Erik ten Hag belatedly utilised him in the second half of last season.
Amad scored one of the goals of the century at Old Trafford in that FA Cup quarter-final for the ages against Liverpool last year and he notched a winner against City in December. For an up-front fee of £19m, rising to £37m, Amad now looks a snip. The club rightly tied him down on a new long-term deal in January.
Nemanja Matic
You will see a theme developing of agricultural or artisan midfielders faring best as United have descended from also-rans to mid-table fodder over the past 12 years. Matic was technically more adroit than many gave him credit for and his steadiness has possibly drawn retrospective appreciation amid United's struggles to identify a long-term defensive midfielder.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looked to phase out Matic in 2019-20 but midway through acknowledged his value and Matic was integral to a positive end to the campaign.
Marouane Fellaini
It did not augur well for Fellaini that he was an Everton player joining an Everton manager and Everton coaches at United, who then brought United down to an Everton-style finish of seventh in 2013-14.
But Fellaini overcame catcalls from United supporters to have a good career at the club over five-and-a-half years, operating effectively in defensive and attacking capacities. A scorer in cup semi-finals and starter in three victorious finals, Fellaini was appreciated by every United manager until Solskjaer.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Football's pseudo-intellects disapproved of Ronaldo scoring goals in his homecoming season as he was not a renowned presser. United have never properly replaced him up front and, in a season where he turned 37, Ronaldo tallied 24 goals in the Premier League and the Champions League. Two of them were hat-tricks.
He was singlehandedly responsible for keeping Solskjaer in a job for a few more weeks and for United's progression to the Champions League knockout stage. After United went out of the Champions League, Ronaldo wanted out and, eventually, forced his way out.
Fred
So valued that he played the most in his final season when he appeared 56 times. Despite a hefty £52m fee, United got reasonable value from Fred over five years, despite having one trophy to show for it. Fred started in the 2023 League Cup final win against Newcastle.
Fred properly got going in his second season under Solskjaer, who almost always turned to him in his hour of need. The Brazilian is possibly more celebrated now than when he was at United but he had some storming games, particularly against Paris Saint-Germain, Tottenham and Barcelona.
Ander Herrera
Wanted by Moyes but signed by Louis van Gaal as a box-to-box midfielder, Herrera was reinvented as a holding midfielder by Jose Mourinho. He underpinned United's first Europa League triumph in 2017 and Herrera was the man of the match in the final against Ajax.
A player more in Mourinho's image than Van Gaal's or Solskjaer's, Herrera won the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year statue in 2017 - his peak at United. Herrera memorably shadowed Eden Hazard when United beat Chelsea 2-0 that season in what remains one of United's best post-Ferguson performances.
Juan Mata
An Ed Woodward signing for a David Moyes team yet United played their best football under Van Gaal and Mourinho with Mata in the side. Like Herrera, he underwent a positional change and often excelled from the right wing, particularly in the spring of 2015, a run crowned by Mata's scissor kick winner at Anfield.
Mata got 51 goals and hit the 10-goal mark in three consecutive seasons. Beyond his elan, he was idolised by teammates young and old during his eight years at United.
"I need Mata's brain," Mourinho said on the eve of the 2017 Europa League final. Mata started in all three cup final victories in 2016 and 2017. The Spaniard was underused by Solskjaer in his final years, though his mother's illness in 2021 contributed to a prolonged absence.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Three of United's most prolific frontmen post-Van Persie arrived in their mid-30s. Ibrahimovic chiselled another year onto the honours' board in the 2017 League Cup final and he would almost certainly have hit the 30-goal barrier had he not ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the Europa League quarter-finals.
Beyond his goals, Ibrahimovic brought presence to a timid squad. He was a bona fide world-class signing and operated at a world-class level for almost all of his first season. The less said about his truncated second the better.
Bruno Fernandes
Such a decisive signing in his first season he made his debut in February and won the Busby statue. Fernandes has been a big-game player, captained United to League Cup and FA Cup final wins and has played some of his most consistent football in some of the club's worst teams in 50 years.
