Juan Mata Becomes Manchester United's Most Expensive Player - Win or Flop?

It was one of the most protracted and elongated transfer sagas in English Premier League history but after weeks of speculation, Juan Mata will now don the red of Manchester United after Old Trafford agreed to pay 37.1 million pounds for Spain's goalscoring hero in the EURO 2012 Final.

The former Chelsea fan favourite and club player of the year has struggled to get into Jose Mourinho's side with Willian and Oscar preferred to Mata and Mata failing in his few chances to impress this season. After saying he'd fight to keep for his place in the Chelsea lineup, the former Valencia man has decided that he'd have more chance of regular football at a Manchester United side set to undergo major change.

Manchester United's midfield has been a massive disappointment this season and the main reason why the champions will not be so come May. Shinji Kagawa, Anderson, Ashley Young and Tom Cleverley haven't quite developed as well as Moyes would have liked and Michael Carrick, Phil Jones and Ryan Giggs cannot be expected to be the creative outlet for Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie - Carrick prefers to sit deep in midfield, Jones is a converted defender and Giggs really is past it.

The signing of Marouane Fellaini - another member of the top ten list of Man Utd's most expensive signings - could still work out but we probably won't really see the best of Fellaini in a red shirt this season due to injury meaning that Man Utd are desperately short of a dynamic individual to manage midfield.

Juan Mata in blue no more

Juan Mata has obviously been brought in to solve that problem but the reason why Mata wasn't starting at Chelsea was the fact that he's not a very good player tracking back and forth, needing the likes of Ramires, David Luiz or Lampard to track back and pass the ball to him to work.

Nevertheless, it does ease some pressure on Cleverley and Carrick as an attacking outlet for Man Utd and no doubt Mata should help to ignite the attack and maybe finally get Robin van Persie's season of scoring underway.

Manchester United don't have a particularly good record when it comes to expensive signings. Here's a look at the top ten of United's most expensive signings.

10. David de Gea - slow start, but now definitely one of the best, if not the best keepers in the Premier League.

9. Ruud van Nistelrooy - seems a bargain now at 19 million, but definitely a big win for United.

8. Anderson - hasn't really quite lived up to his big price tag

7. Robin van Persie - another relative bargain at 24 million, definitely a big win for United and will be key for some time.

6. Wayne Rooney - nuff said

5. Marouane Fellaini - as mentioned above - could still come right, but needs to soon.

4. Juan Sebastian Veron - definitely a flop, just never got the hang of the English game whether in red or blue

3. Rio Ferdinand - United legend, worth every penny of that 29.3 million

2. Dimitar Berbatov - a bit of a flop, very talented player but just plain lazy.

1. Juan Mata - win or flop? United fans will be hoping a very big win right now.