Ronaldo, Antony, Pogba: Man Utd's most expensive signings since 2000

Manchester United took their summer transfer spending to almost €240 million this week with the signing of Brazilian winger Antony from Ajax.

The 22-year-old cost United €95m, making him one of the most expensive players in club history.

Time will tell if Antony can justify his considerable transfer fee, but United’s success rate when spending big money on players has very much been a mixed bag over the last two decades – as a live graphic recently put together by the folks over at Transfermarkt proves.

Back at the turn of the century, the Red Devils’ transfer record belonged to 1999 treble-winning striker Dwight Yorke.

At €19.7m, the former Aston Villa man cost United roughly 1/5th of what they’d paid for Antony this week.

Yorke was worth the investment, too, scoring 48 goals in 96 Premier League outings for the club and winning the title on three occasions.

Juan Sebastian Veron claimed the record following his 2001 switch from Lazio – in a deal that few at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ remember fondly.

One year later, Sir Alex Ferguson took a €46.3m punt on 24-year-old Leeds centre-back, Rio Ferdinand.

A world record for a defender at the time, Ferdinand ranked as United’s record purchase throughout the remainder of Sir Alex’s time in charge.

During that period, Ferguson also completed deals for the likes of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick, Robin van Persie and David de Gea.

None broke the United transfer record, but each man left a lasting impression on the Old Trafford faithful.

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The same can’t be said for Angel Di Maria, who snatched Ferdinand’s transfer record in August 2014.

United didn’t see much for their €75m outlay. The Argentine international played