Barthez was a player who was number one for club and country and had only recently just won both the World Cup 1998 and the European Championship in 2000, but even he struggled to fully take hold of the number one jersey, making many high-profile errors that would cost his club dear.
In between these periods, there was also the Italian, Massimo Taibi, purchased from Venezia for £4.5million. Whether he was bought to cover the injured Bosnich or Ferguson had seen that he had made a mistake in signing the Australian so was looking to permanently replace him is anyone’s guess.
Taibi had a good reputation in Italy’s Serie A and B leagues, but he has gone down in English football folklore as one of the ‘Worst Buys’ in Premiership history or for that matter any period of football history. Having played four league games including letting in a soft shot from Matthew Le Tissier that was straight at him squirm through his legs in a 3-3 draw with Southampton and a menial display in a 5-0 defeat by Chelsea, he was sent out on loan in January of that season having not played again and was eventually sold in the summer of 2000 for nearly half his original fee.
Having dispensed with Barthez, Roy Carroll, who was signed prior to the Frenchman’s departure, and Tim Howard were next on the hit list. They more or less shared duties in between the sticks at United for the two season’s before Van der Sar’s arrival in the summer of 2005; one would get a run of games, make a mistake, then the other one would deputise.
The most notable error of course, was Carroll’s mishandling of the ball from a shot from the halfway line against Tottenham Hotspur, a mishap that led to a ‘goal’ only for it to not have been judged to have crossed the line by the match officials contrary to the replays that clearly showed that it indeed had crossed the line.
These were all highly respected shot stoppers with reputations as being some of the best in the land, but even they could not mark their territory on Manchester United’s number one jersey. David de Gea certainly has the attributes to be a top keeper, but will it be at United? We’ll find out in the coming season.
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