Jaap Stam at Manchester United: Briefly glorious but disastrously cut short

Stam only played 15 games in 2000/01 after suffering with an achilles problem that wouldn’t leave him alone. Despite his absence the club still won the league, and of the bright points, which proved to be a mixed blessing, was the development of a young Wes Brown. Brown played 25 games and seemed to be on his way to becoming a key part of United’s future.

Also at this time, Ferguson was very keen on his young Irish central defender John O’Shea who he wanted to ease in to the team. He also had his eye on 36-year-old Laurent Blanc who was available for free. Blanc did OK at United, but was retired when Stam was playing on for three more years at a high level. This confidence in the options available coincided horribly from United’s point in retrospect, with the publication of Stam’s controversial autobiography.

After he said some unfortunate things about other players and how he was recruited, Ferguson was furious. Now, contrary to what is normally reported, this is not what caused him to force Stam out of the club alone. Also in the mix was United’s big money pursuit of Juan Sebastian Veron of Lazio and Ferguson’s concern over whether or not Stam was viable as a long term option after injury.

When Lazio’s offer of £16m came in, Sir Alex thought that it was too much to refuse given that he was 29 and recovering from injury. Of course, this may have been added to because he was furious with Stam over the autobiography. The critical factor though, was his belief in his ability to replace Stam.

His belief in Brown and O’Shea and signing of Blanc, gave him an artificial confidence in the talent available. Given the club also needed to recoup something towards the £28m laid out on Veron they allowed him to leave. But it was a disastrous decision.

The loss of Stam took away the world class middle of the United defence, and the only reliable player in the back five other than Gary Neville. The erratic Barthez, slowing Blanc and young homegrown options couldn’t offer enough resistance to win anything. The attack plundered goals, but the defence conceded 45 in the league. Ferguson realised his error and spent £28m on Rio Ferdinand in 2002 which brought the title back, but when he struggled with injury in 2003/04 they finished behind Arsenal’s Invincibles and the newly monied Chelsea.

It showed that Ferguson’s faith in Brown and O’Shea to become elite performers had been misplaced as they continued to accrue game time in a defence which was always the club’s weakness. Despite boasting one of the best attacks in Europe between 2001 and 2006 they won the Premier League once and didn’t make any significant impression in Europe.

Even with perhaps the club’s best ever midfield and a series of strikers getting over 20 goals, the vacuum created by the sale of Stam set the club back massively. The presence of a Stam type defender in Nemanja Vidic from 2006 has not coincidentally brought about a return to the trophy laden years.

Although the likes of Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson and Bebe always get mentioned as Sir Alex Ferguson’s biggest errors in the market as United boss, these had no impact on the progress of the team. United paid a club record to get Stam and he was a catalyst in winning the club’s first Champions League title for 31 years and three league titles in three years.

After he left, because of a strange conflation of circumstances, United suffered their only real dip in Sir Alex’s reign. It was his only major blip in an otherwise glorious tenure.