Manchester United enjoyed a decade of dominance in the Premier League between 1993 and 2003, winning eight titles while adding three FA Cups and a European Cup to their trophy haul during that spell.
Sir Alex Ferguson built two incredible teams in the decade-long spell and rarely made any transfer blunders. However, post-2003, his side began to disintegrate and the great man signed players who weren’t of the standard required to compete at United’s level or missed out on excellent talent altogether.
Of course, during the 80s and 90s, Fergie missed out on the likes of Paul Gascoigne and Alan Shearer most notably, yet in the summer of 2003, the Scot could have secured a player who was about to take off and it may have altered the course of English football.
How did Man Utd miss out on Ronaldinho?
With David Beckham leaving Manchester to join Real Madrid, Fergie needed to sign a replacement and was encouraged by Ronaldinho’s displays for both Brazil – who he won the World Cup with the previous year – and Paris Saint-Germain.
With personal terms agreed upon, negotiations were proving to be more than a nuisance with PSG and this prompted Barcelona to swoop in and secure one of the finest signings this century, with the Brazilian claiming “ it was a matter of 48 hours” for a move to the Old Trafford side going through.
Ronaldinho transformed a stagnating Barcelona side, winning two La Liga titles and the Champions League while making over 200 appearances, scoring 94 goals and registering 70 assists his spell at the Catalan club enabled him to win the FIFA World Player of the Year Award twice.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who played with the Brazilian at AC Milan, lavished praise on his former teammate, saying: “Ronaldinho was phenomenal. He made his opponents look like children.”
And how may United’s fortunes have changed during that barren run between 2003 and 2006 had they signed the forward?
It wasn’t all bad, as missing out on Ronaldinho led to United eventually securing a deal for a talented 18-year-old prodigy going by the name of Cristiano Ronaldo, going to show that every cloud has a silver lining.
Although the legendary manager didn’t make many blunders during his 26-year tenure at United, when he did, they proved to be colossal.