Manchester United's top 10 worst January window signings ranked

Wout Weghorst looks set to join Manchester United, but will he be a success or join the rank amongst their other bad January signings.

Even a few days ago the idea of Weghorst moving back to the Premier League would have seemed extremely unlikely, considering his last spell in England's top tier.

He joined Burnley just under a year ago, as they looked to replace Chris Woods and find the goals to keep them in the division, but the Dutchman only scored twice in 20 games.

It's no wonder that even his fellow countrymen aren't too impressed with the idea, with Wesley Sneijder assuming it's a joke and Marco van Basten thinking Luuk de Jong would be a better signing.

Despite the trepidation, it does look like the loan move is getting ever nearer, with Erik ten Hag in need of a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo, whose move to Al Nassr may have even facilitated Weghorst's loan to Old Trafford.

When he does put pen to paper the 30-year-old will join United list of January signings since the winter window was brought in ahead of the 2002/03 season.

That has seen the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Bruno Fernandes make huge impacts at the club but there's been some poor signings too.

We've run down the 10 worst January signings in the transfer window era for United, and there's some massive misses.

10. Rodrigo Possebon - 2008 - Internacional - Spotted whilst scouts were checking up on Rafael and Fabio da Silva, Possebon never reached any sort of level expected for someone with such promise. Was unlucky in the fact he had his leg broken by Emanuel Pogatetz in a League Cup game.

9. Amad Diallo - January 2021 - Atalanta - United agreed the deal for the young forward in the previous October but he joined for an initial €25 million in January. The Ivorian could come good, and is impressing on loan at Sunderland, but so far it hasn't been money well spent.

Diallo has a Europa League winner against AC Milan on his CV and could come good in the future. Image: Alamy

8. Anders Lindegaard - 2011 - Aalesund - Not an expensive signing but Lindegaard's presence meant Sir Alex Ferguson couldn't pick between the Dane and David de Gea for first choice goalkeeper, which couldn't have helped the Spaniard with his early troubles. Lindegaard never looked like he had much authority at the back either, played 29 times.

7. Zoran Tosic - 2009 - Partizan Belgrade - United secured the double signing of hot young prospects Tosic and Adem Ljajic from Partizan. Tosic never lived up to the hype and left two years after with just five appearances to his name. Ljajic didn't even make it to the club, having the deal cancelled due to worries about his work permit, the whole deal was a bit of a disaster.

6. Odion Ighalo - 2020 - Shanghai Shenhua - It wasn't exactly a secret that United needed another striker and on a mad deadline day they were scrambling. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side tried desperately to sign Josh King from Bournemouth. When that didn't happen Ighalo arrived on loan. He had to isolate when he arrived because of Covid, which was still very much a Chinese problem at the time. He did score a cracker against LASK in the Europa League, the final day any football was played for some time because of Covid. He scored five in 23 but only four of those appearances came in his final six months.

United fan Ighalo was indicative of the club's poor planning. Image: Alamy

5. Victor Valdes - 2015 - Barcelona - It's easy to forget that Valdes was ever a Manchester United player, and it's no wonder considering he only ever played twice. The World Cup winner arrived after a long spell on injuries, came on in the penultimate game of the season, conceded an own goal, and started in the final game. Fell out with Louis van Gaal after and never played again.

4. Dong Fangzhuo - 2004 - Dalian Shide - Not spending much money on transfers certainly doesn't mean they aren't complete garbage. Dong is most famous for getting a guard of honour from Chelsea, after United had won the league in 2007 and then rested all their players for a game against the Blues. The Chinese forward played three times in total for the club, across three competitions, and they got a refund for him!

3. Manucho - 2008 - Petro Atletico - Dong was still a teenager when United signed him, Manucho was 24-years-old and never looked like he could develop into a striker good enough. He impressed at that year's African Cup of Nations, even being named in the team of the tournament, but never did anything that impressive for his English club.

2. Wilfried Zaha - 2013 - Crystal Palace - Some sympathy for Zaha due to the fact he signed for Sir Alex Ferguson in January 2013, stayed at Palace on loan, and by the time he arrived in the north west the legendary Scotsman had retired. He didn't make a single league appearance until December, played just four games for the club in all competitions and was back at Palace by summer 2014, via a loan spell at Cardiff City which couldn't help Solskjaer's side avoid relegation.

Zaha did win the Community Shield with United but his time at the club wasn't great. Image: Alamy

Sanchez is easily United's worst January recruit. Image: Alamy

1. Alexis Sanchez - 2018 - Arsenal - There's been very few transfers as disastrous all round as United move for Sanchez, which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan go the other way. Manchester City were desperate to sign the forward in the previous summer but a move never materialised. Jose Mourinho's decision to up the wages to get the Chilean felt like some sort of power grab. Sanchez never worked out at all and scored just five times in 45 games for the club, having scored 80 goals for the Gunners. He played well in the FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur, and that's pretty much it. Sanchez himself said that he wanted to leave after one day of training, he should have!