Ranking Manchester United's 2014 Transfer Window Signings on Last Season's Form

As Manchester United fans' collective attention turns to the latest glamorous players linked with their club, we take a look back on last season's acquisitions.

A summer window unlike any other in the club's history saw not one but two established world superstars arrive alongside useful squad talent, an exciting young Englishman and an out-and-out central-midfielder, something for which United fans had been calling for nearly a decade.

Sadly, the excitement generated by the window was, for the most part, not translated onto the pitch.

Let's take a look at the six men who arrived and rank them in order of the success of their respective first seasons—and in one case, only season—at Old Trafford.

6: Radamel Falcao

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Radamel Falcao should have been the one. Here was a striker who had torn through defences since his teens. Proven in European competition against some of the continent's best defenders, he is a man who has scored every kind of goal.

In 2012/13, when Robin van Persie was the finest out-and-out striker in England, Falcao would have had a very good claim to the title of best out-and-out striker in the world. In the 2014/15, United had both on their books.

Sadly, last season made it very clear that it is not 2012/13 anymore. Falcao worked so hard, received endless love and support from the stands, but it simply did not work. Never able to recapture form, always looking short of confidence, the once-brilliant Colombian ended the season looking like a liability.

He is bottom of this list not just because of the huge disparity between expectation and output but because, frankly, he played the worst of any of United's new signings. The beautiful dream of a fit-and-firing Falcao never came to pass.

5: Luke Shaw

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The game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in April showed a glimpse of why United had paid such a huge sum for such a young man.

The boyhood Chelsea fan turned in a superb performance against the club he supported. However, that was almost immediately followed by yet another injury.

Ultimately, Shaw is down in fifth not because he was poor—he was rarely that when he played—but because injury was the story of his season. He pips Falcao because at least he can do something about his disappointing first season in the future.

4: Angel Di Maria

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Angel Di Maria, speaking with Argentinian newspaper Ole (h/t the Independent) has said of his first season at United:

"

Not everything goes as I want, because I don’t play. Because I came with an intention and end up on the bench. It’s hard to tell how I feel there.

I started well, with goals and assists. I was having a good time, until I was out. It’s a little hard to explain why I do not play.

"

Fortunately for those United fans hoping their record signing stays, when asked whether that meant he wanted to leave United, he added: "No, because I’m not thinking like that. In Madrid there were times when I was whistled around the stadium but faced it and then it turned around. I like to deal with things."

This is good news. Although Di Maria's first season was a disappointment, the feeling that there is more to come from El Fideo is hard to shake. He is right that he started well, but for most fans, it was quite easy to explain why he was left out of the side after the team improved in the wake of his sending off in the FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal.

Lots of assists, lots of promise but also plenty of lacklustre performances—Di Maria's first season will hopefully be remembered as groundwork for what was to follow.

3: Marcos Rojo

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Marcos Rojo pips his compatriot to third place by virtue of greater consistency of performance. Like Shaw, he missed a good chunk of the season through injury. However, his injury problems were not as wretched, and when he played, he was often United's best centre-half. 

Forced into a leadership role early in the season as a result of United's injury crisis, Rojo stepped up, helping to guide Paddy McNair through his debut against West Ham United, for example.

He is an aggressive defender without being reckless. In possession, he is remarkably calm under pressure. Many a time he has caused the crowd anxiety as an onrushing attacker attempts to win the ball back off him as he looks completely unhurried.

The outcomes are usually good, though, as they have been defensively. A good first season for a versatile defender whose position in the squad looks pretty assured.

2: Daley Blind

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Like everyone mentioned so far, Daley Blind had a mixed season.

He caught the eye of many football fans with his fine performances at left-wing-back during the Netherlands' run to the World Cup semi-finals under Louis van Gaal. What always seemed odd about Blind's arrival, though, was that it happened so late in the window. Was the late arrival a sign Blind was a back-up option for Van Gaal, signed after the potential acquisitions of preferred targets failed to materialise? 

Whether his signing was proactive or reactive, though, Blind's addition has definitely benefited United. He put in a couple of good performances in midfield—Queens Park Rangers and Sunderland at home, for example—and some very good performances at left-back.

He played at full-back when United played their best football of the season and gave Van Gaal something of a selection dilemma if all his left-backs are fit.

Almost by default, having simply played more often than anyone below him, Blind takes second spot.

1: Ander Herrera

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The class of the summer of 2014 may have been generally underwhelming during its first season at Old Trafford, but there is one notable exception. It took him a while to break into Van Gaal's first XI—for reasons known only to the Dutchman—but when he did, he made a huge difference. 

Ander Herrera is the midfielder for whom United fans have been crying out. A tough-tackling, all-action midfielder who is superb in possession, he even added goals to his game last season. His debut campaign in United red featured his first brace in professional football, which he bagged against Aston Villa at Old Trafford. 

Playing in an advanced-midfield role for most of his best games, Herrera looks like a superb fit for the Red Devils. Fans will be hoping he sticks around for a long time to come.

He was the easy choice for No. 1 here—the only unequivocally successful signing of last summer's transfer window.