Yahoo Sports Juan Sebastian Veron claims leaving Manchester United was a mistake
Former Manchester United midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron claims that one of his few regrets in football was leaving the Red Devils.
The Argentine arrived to Old Trafford in 2001 for a then record British fee of £28.1 million.
He played 82 times for United in two seasons, scoring 11 goals in the process.
La Brujita won the Premier League in 2003 but could never fully settle in United’s midfield despite his incredible talent and highly successful track record in Italy for Sampdoria, Parma and SS Lazio.
He finally left United in the summer of 2003 for rivals Chelsea but only made a total of 14 appearances for the Stamford Bridge side.
According to The Manchester Evening News, Veron regrets making the decision to abandon United for their Premier League rivals.
Speaking on his decision to leave he claimed, “at Chelsea, the reality is that I had very little time. I had a major back injury and I was out for practically six months. I was already thinking more about going back to Italy than staying there in England.”
“With United, the truth is that there are few things, very few, that I regret. But one is to have left Manchester. They never pushed me or told me ‘you have to go’, but they gave me the chance, the possibility.”
Veron asserted that those around him believed he was making an error to leave the highly successful United but he erroneously chose to ignore them.
“I had talks with my former colleagues at that time telling me that I had to stay. And at one moment I decided to leave because I wanted to play, because I didn’t know… I should have stayed.”
Veron went on to leave the West London side and joined Inter Milan on loan for a couple of seasons before playing out his final campaigns for Estudiantes in his homeland.
The failure of the creative midfielder to truly settle in England is one of the great ‘what if’ moments for the club, because if he had been able to settle, he could have formed a mouth-watering midfield partnerhip with Paul Scholes and Roy Keane, that could have propelled Sir Alex Ferguson’s side to more European crowns.
