Everything changed when Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United.
That’s according to former club translator Debora Gomes, who has slammed the current philosophy at the club.
Gomes, who began working with the Red Devils when Angel Di Maria was signed from Real Madrid for a then-British record transfer fee of £59.7 million.
Di Maria was handed the club’s iconic No. 7 jersey but the Argentine winger struggled to impress at Old Trafford and left the club after just a season.
And Gomes has revealed that Di Maria was actually brought to the club for non-footballing reasons as the higher-ups simply recognised that he would sell a lot of jerseys so splashed out for that reason and that reason alone.
“IÂ noticed a lot,” Gomes told Esporte Interativo. “So much so that I had the opportunity to talk to him. And he was unhappy at the club.
“Firstly, he couldn’t communicate with anyone. And second because he realised the club bought him not because the club thought ‘oh, he will bring titles to us because he is a good player.’ No. Because they simply wanted to sell his shirts.
“This I heard inside the club, the people talking. ‘Di Maria sells T-shirts, so let’s buy him’. So he was not happy.
“Then I realised, after Sir Alex Ferguson left the club, the club lost interest in football. It’s money, money, money. It’s making money and that’s it.
“So the players, when they try and decide who to buy, they will meticulously say: ‘what will bring more money?’ They are not thinking of bringing joy to the fans. They are thinking of selling.”