On This Day – 11th July
Every manager, no matter how good he is, will sign a complete dud over the course of his career.
As an Arsenal fan, I still can’t work out why Arsene Wenger invested a single penny of Arsenal’s money on Latvian Igors Stepanovs. Somehow, Stepanovs managed to win the League and Cup Double in the 2001/02 season. There is a picture of him sitting in the dressing room at Highbury, holding on to the Premier League trophy and FA Cup. It angers me just looking at it, because he was absolutely awful. He just shouldn’t have had the opportunity to play for Arsenal!
Rant over and back to the topic! Sir Alex Ferguson was on the lookout for a replacement for Peter Schmeichel in 1999. ‘The Great Dane’ retired after the famous Treble winning season and finding a new number one wasn’t going to be an easy task.
Ferguson signed Massimo Taibi as a third choice goalkeeper behind Mark Bosnich and Raimond van der Gouw. The 29 year old Italian goalkeeper joined United from Venezia at a cost of £4.5 million.
The signing was a strange one, as Taibi had never been capped by Italy and had played for smaller Italian clubs. It was definitely an underwhelming signing.
Taibi’s United debut came against fierce rivals Liverpool. He made an error with a free-kick but won the Man of the Match award.
He was given the chance to prove himself against Southampton in a league match at Old Trafford. Somehow, he let a tame shot from Matt Le Tissier slip through his grasp and under his body and his confidence never truly recovered. You can read about this slip up here.
One of his last appearances in a United shirt came at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea. United lost 5-0 and on this day back in 2000, Ferguson decided to make a £2 million loss and sold Taibi to Reggina.
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