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The shirt with the Number 7 that has been blessed by players like George Best, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and more recently, Cristiano Ronaldo seems to have been contaminated with a distinctive curse.
On Saturday, Alexis Sanchez, the current United No7, scored his first goal of the season and his fourth in his career as a United player. That goal against Newcastle was only the 14th to have been scored by a Red Devils No7 in the Premier League, following Ronaldo's transfer to Real Madrid back in 2009. Before the Chilean, 4 players tried, unsuccessfully, to lift the heavy weight of the Number 7.
Michael Owen (2009-2012)
Owen was the first to try to live up to the legacy of the Number 7 at Manchester United. He arrived at the Theater of Dreams from Newcastle United but clearly failed to make an impact. He made 31 appearances scoring only 5 goals in the Premier League.
Up to his exit as a free agent in 2012, Owen had scored a total of 17 goals for Manchester United in all competitions.
Antonio Valencia (2012-2014)
On July 2009, United paid £17 million to acquire the services of Antonio Valencia from Wigan Athletic. In his early days at Manchester, Valencia was used as a right winger but his record of having scored only 1 goal in 30 league appearances got him moved back to the defence where he remains as of today.
Angel Di Maria (2014-2015)
Di Maria made good of his exceptional performance for Real Madrid in the 2014 Champions League final with a transfer to Manchester United. The Red Devils paid £67.5 million to secure his services. Everybody thought that, at last, United had found their next superstar.
However, Di Maria scored only 3 times in 27 league appearances and one year later, he was on his way to Paris Saint-Germain.
Memphis Depay (2015-2017)
Manager Luis Van Gaal urged Manchester United's administration to pursue a deal with PSV Eindhoven for the young Dutch. Eventually, the meeting price was set at £30.6millions.
In his first season at England, Depay made 29 league appearances scoring only twice. In the next season, with the arrival of Jose Mourinho, Depay, used mainly as a substitute, featured in only 4 Premier League games with a total of 20 minutes playing time. On January 2017, he moved to Olympique Lyon where he remains as of today.
Alexis Sanchez (2017-)
United fans could not be happier when the club announced the signing of Alexis Sanchez from rivals Arsenal in a swap deal that saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan on his way to London. In fact, not only United snatched a prolific forward and one of the best players in Arsenal's latest history, but they did so by winning the battle with Manchester City.
However, the reality today is arguably quite different. In his first season as a United No7, Sanchez scored only two times in the Premier League (a penalty rebound against Huddersfield and a right-footed shot against Swansea) and provided 3 assists in a total of 12 appearances.
During the current season, the Chilean has remained at the center of severe criticism. He has featured in 6 league games so far and managed to break the deadlock on Saturday completing an impressive Manchester United comeback against Newcastle. That goal ended an approximate 6month goal-drought period.
Sanchez's goal against Newcastle was only the 14th to have been scored by a United Number 7 since Ronaldo left the club in 2009.
In particular, Michael Owen, Antonio Valencia, Angel Di Maria, Memphis Depay and Alexis Sanchez featured in a total of 139 league games for the Red Devils failing to continue the legacy that players like George Best, Eric Cantona, David Beckham, and Cristiano Ronaldo had built. In fact, only Ronaldo himself scored 84 goals during the 6 seasons he remained at the Old Trafford.
