3 expensive Manchester United defenders who were successful at Old Trafford

3 expensive Manchester United defenders who were successful at Old Trafford and went on to have a trophy laden career at the Theatre of dreams.

Manchester United have completed the high profile signing of Harry Kane from Leicester City for £80 million, a world-record fee for a defender! With this signing he has now eclipsed the previous record of £75 million held by Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk. Fans of the club are excited at the promise of resurgence now that they have seemingly fixed their back four.

With Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelöf, Luke Shaw and Maguire taking charge of the backline, United’s supporters are convinced that manager Solksjaer has fixed one of their problematic areas that cost them a top four spot last season.

The Centre back must currently be euphoric after making his big money move. However, he will soon feel the brunt of expectations that comes one’s way with wearing the Red Jersey of United. Here are 3 expensive defensive signings who had a stellar career at Old Trafford, that Maguire can take inspiration from.

Honourable mentions

Before we get into the list. Here are a couple of names who could have made the list but missed out for a reason or other. The legendary Steve Bruce and Patrice Evra. Both of these defenders would go on to have memorable careers at Manchester United and became living legends.

Steve Bruce

Bruce joined the club in the December of 1987 and stayed with them till 1996. He was notorious for his goal scoring and even ended up as the highest goal scorer for the club in the 1990/1991 season with 19 goals. It’s a shame, he never played for England.

At United he would go on to win twelve trophies including three Premier League titles, three FA Cups, one League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup. He also became the first English player of the 20th century to captain a team to the Double. However, his transfer fee of merely £800,000 is the reason why he didn’t make it into this list.

Patrice Evra

Patrice Evra moved to United in January 2006. While he had a rough first season with United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson saying “Maybe it was a bit of a gamble playing Evra”. Evra himself confessed that he was not prepared to play for United. However, he soon developed under the watchful eyes of Ferguson and soon became one of the best Left-backs in the world.

In his 8 years at United, the Frenchman won five Premier League titles, one UEFA Champions League title, one FIFA Club World Cup, three League Cups and four Community Shield titles. He was also included in the PFA team of the year on three different occasions. However, he misses out on the list because the others on the list have simply had slightly more impact on the team than Evra did.

With that out of the way, let us look at 3 expensive Manchester United defenders who were successful at Old Trafford.