Sir Alex Ferguson enjoyed a glittering 26-year spell as Manchester United manager, winning everything that there was to win and becoming arguably the greatest football manager of all time in the process.
Even he was culpable of poor judgement on occasion, though, with one signing that he made in 2011 following his 12th Premier League title with the Red Devils still costing the club dearly to this day.
How much has Phil Jones cost Man United?
During the summer before what would go on to become his penultimate season in the Old Trafford dugout, Ferguson signed Phil Jones from Blackburn for £16m, which seemed a bargain at the time for a highly-rated 19-year-old talent.
The legendary Scot even lavished high praise on the defender, saying in April 2013: "Jones, arguably, the way he is looking, could be our best ever player."
Sometimes even the greats get things wrong, and after solid first impressions in Manchester – making 105 appearances during his first three seasons while earning a league winner's medal – things soon turned sour for Jones following Ferguson's departure and then David Moyes’ sacking.
He would never go on to make more than 26 appearances in a single season from the start of the 2014/15 campaign, while he has missed a staggering 205 matches throughout his United career due to a succession of injury problems.
Writer Denise Evans previously dubbed Jones “woeful”, and he has made just 13 appearances in the three seasons prior to the 2022/23 campaign, all while picking up a weekly wage of £75k-per-week. Having not even made a matchday squad all season, Erik ten Hag clearly doesn’t have the 30-year-old in his plans for either this season or the future.
Indeed, over the previous 11 years up until the summer of 2022, the Englishman has cost the club a grand total of £51.8m (£16m transfer fee plus £35.8m in wages). This is quite an eye-watering amount, especially given his lack of any real impact on the pitch over the past decade.
He only scored six goals for United in nearly 12 years at the club, which has led to him costing £8.6m per goal when his transfer fee and cumulative wages are taken into account.
It resembles a colossal waste of money from the club, and even though it appeared to be a wise move at the time, it soon turned into a nightmare. Frankly, the quicker that Ten Hag gets the injury-plagued defender off United's wage bill, the better.