Everton paid a club-record fee in the January transfer window for a player who regretted leaving Manchester United
Morgan Schneiderlin became Everton’s most expensive January signing back in 2017, though the midfielder would ultimately regret leaving Old Trafford.
The Frenchman had established himself as one of the Premier League’s finest defensive midfielders during his Southampton days and still retained much of that reputation when he joined the Toffees in a deal worth up to £24million. Schneiderlin’s displays for the Saints had convinced United to snap up the midfielder in 2015. He featured 39 times under Louis van Gaal in 2015 during his first campaign, which ended with FA Cup glory.
His influence at United diminished under new manager Jose Mourinho, who used Schneiderlin just eight times before sanctioning his departure in January. Everton had been monitoring Scheiderlin, who reunited with former Saints manager Koeman at Goodison Park, but the midfielder later confessed that leaving United had been a major error.
“I learned a lot from my departure from Manchester United,” Schneiderlin told L’Equipe in 2022. “I had played 40 matches the previous season with Manchester.
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“When I come back from the Euros, I take 10 days off and I play very little for three, four months. Then, I have Ronald Koeman and Everton who are pushing hard to get me, every day, from October.
“I will remember it all my life: I should have played against Liverpool, starter, and the coach (Mourinho) comes to see me. He tells me he doesn’t feel me inside the group. I tell him that indeed, with what has happened in the last three months, I am not in it and I want to go to Everton. I regretted it very quickly.
“Even if it went very well at Everton, when you play for Manchester United, when you’re at a club like that, it’s not for a moment of doubt that you have to question everything. Look at Ander Herrera: the first year I arrived, he was on the bench; he persevered, and today he is at PSG.”
The French midfielder’s stint at Everton lasted three-and-a-half years, during which he featured 88 times, though he never quite recaptured the form he’d shown at Southampton. The Toffees offloaded Schneiderlin to Nice in 2020, and it was during his three seasons in France that the midfielder reflected on how his United experience had impacted him.
“I was too affected by what Louis van Gaal was asking from me,” he told the Daily Mail in 2023. “I lost me as a player. It was not me on the field.
“It was not just the manager’s fault; it was my fault, too. My role was not the one I had at Southampton. I felt restricted in my game. I felt they wanted to change things in me.
“I was not thinking as me, I was thinking about what pleased the coach. When you reach that point, every pass you make, everything you do, you don’t play free.
“Something stopped me from being who I was. I wanted so much to do well, and it is one of the most frustrating things ever.”
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Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle for the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
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2026-02-02 10:30:00
