United's mishandling of Tosic led to anti-Glazer green and gold protests

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Manchester United's mishandling of Tosic led to anti-Glazer green and gold protests

by Samuel Luckhurst
MEN 19 Oct 2015


He played fewer games than Bebe but as Zoran Tosic prepares to face Man Utd, it is worth reminding he left an indelible mark.

A 21-year-old international left winger, Zoran Tosic appeared to be a potential successor to Ryan Giggs at Manchester United yet Bebe had a more productive impact.

"Manchester United didn't give me a chance to prove myself," Tosic complained 18 months after he left Manchester in 2010. Unfairly, he is bracketed among Sir Alex Ferguson's worst buys with Ralph Milne, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Dong Fangzhuo and Bebe.



Tosic returned to Manchester with CSKA Moscow last year, but will face United for the first time on Wednesday since he joined the Russian side from Old Trafford five years ago.

The Serbian played just 79 minutes for United and, ultimately, was the archetypal United signing in the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo's 2009 transfer to Real Madrid.

A young and frugal buy with potential sell-on value at a time Ferguson lamented there was 'no value in the market', Tosic embodied the maligned Glazernomic transfer policy (see also: Mame Biram Diouf, Bebe, Angelo Henriquez and Alexander Buttner) United are still playing catch up from.

"We have been watching Tosic for over a year and in that time," Ferguson said in January 2009.

"He's a winger and we like wide players here at Manchester United, so we are very hopeful that he will do well for us.

"Once he gets himself accustomed to the pace, then I am sure he will play a part for us this season."

Despite his five cameos, each more forgettable than Quentin Tarantino's in Django Unchained, Tosic and his compatriot, Adem Ljajic, left invaluable legacies at United.

Ferguson bragged Ljajic, whose signing was jointly announced with Tosic in a £16.5m deal, was 'the star of the tournament for Serbia at the Uefa Under-19 Championship', yet in December 2009 United exercised a get-out clause and terminated their agreement to sign him.

Ljajic's development over the year had ostensibly not met United's expectations and a spokesperson said the club took 'into consideration the young players emerging through the ranks at the club, and we have not chosen to pursue the transfer.'

However Ferguson's assistant, Mike Phelan, contradicted the club's statement and blamed work permit problems.

"We made a tentative approach to get a work permit and the word we got back from the Home Office was that we couldn't get that through in time to get Adem signed in January," Phelan said.

Earlier that year, Ljajic was described as 'Serbia's brightest young talent' and had visited Manchester regularly, most recently in November, when he was given no indication that United would pull the plug on the deal.

It was suggested Tosic was bought as a makeweight to ensure Ljajic, nicknamed 'the little Kaka', joined United. Tosic never played for United again following the collapse of the Ljajic deal.

United supporters had seen the club sign Michael Owen on a free in the summer and were suspicous. The club had debts of £600m, the Glazers had imposed financial cuts, Ferguson was operating under tighter restraints and appeared unprepared to compete for proven talent or take a risk on raw potential.

The club's transfer policy seemed unambitious, considering Ronaldo and the influential Carlos Tevez had left in the same summer, which did not go unnoticed by Wayne Rooney.

Then, in January 2010, League One Leeds dumped United out of the FA Cup in the third round and the Glazers tried to raise £500m through a bond issue, when it emerged Malcolm Glazer and his children had borrowed £10m from United. Ljajic would have cost £9m.

"We've got more money than you," Burnley fans chanted at Old Trafford. "Love United, hate Glazer," the Stretford End hollered.

A week later, Old Trafford was peppered by green and gold for the 4-0 defeat of Hull.

Tosic had made an impact, after all.



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