Manchester United's 10 Worst Premier League Signings

#5 Bebe

Ajax Cape Town v Manchester United - Pre-season Friendly

Famously, Sir Alex Ferguson never actually saw Bebe play before bringing him to Manchester United in 2010. The legendary manager has stated that that was the one and only time that he’d signed someone without ever having seen him kick a ball.

As Fergie himself explained, “This was a first for me, but we rate our scouting department very highly and our scout in Portugal was adamant we needed to do something, and quickly.”

To give some background on all of this, Bebe had played for some lower level and amateur teams in Portugal – even competing at the 2009 European Street Football Festival – before he somehow ended up at Old Trafford. An average-at-best 2009/2010 season for Amadora saw him offered to clubs for an initial $125,000, before he was then offered to certain European clubs for free. Vitoria de Guimaraes took up the offer, although his stay there didn’t last all that long - a good pre-season seeing Bebe’s release clause set at €9 million, and then word of mouth saw Fergie splash out £7.4 million on him.

Ferguson claims that former assistant Carlos Queiroz had tipped him off about a hugely special talent that Real Madrid were about to move for – yes, that was Bebe – while Queiroz himself has since denied such allegations.

Either way, Bebe was way out of his depth at the Theatre of Dreams, and his United career was largely spent out on loan before finally departing the club in 2014.

Now 28, Bebe has recently made the permanent move to Rayo Vallecano.