“I feel like I am living a dream,” Javier Hernandez said after agreeing to join Manchester United in April 2010. “All the impressions I have of the club are good and Sir Alex Ferguson is a great person, maybe the best coach in the world.”
Heads were turned when United’s search for a new striker led them on a trip across the Atlantic to Mexico. Ferguson already had Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen and Danny Welbeck among his forward options but he was hungry for more quality.
Hernandez, who was commonly known as Chicharito, was playing for Chivas de Guadalajara at the time and he was making a good impression as a talented 21-year-old. He had also scored four goals in four games for Mexico at senior level.
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Just as United so often did in Ferguson’s day, they ensured they got themselves ahead of the curve, moving for his signature as quickly as possible. The Reds agreed a deal to sign Hernandez in April, subject to approval, and he officially joined in July when the summer transfer window opened.
The Mexican’s final season at Guadalajara, who he rejoined for a second spell in January this year, saw him plunder 21 goals in all competitions, meaning he moved to United with the bit between his teeth. He quickly offered United supporters an insight of what he would bring to Old Trafford, scoring two goals during the club’s pre-season schedule.
Once the competitive action commenced, United, who had a Premier League title to try and wrestle back after finishing second to Chelsea in 2009/10, immediately found out even more about their summer recruit when he netted on his debut at Wembley against Chelsea in the Community Shield.
Helping United win the season curtain-raiser 3-1, that was the first of 20 goals the now-36-year-old scored in his debut season at Old Trafford, meaning he played a starring role in helping them reclaim the Premier League title and reach the Champions League final.
Hernandez fully justified United’s decision to add him to their crop of attacking talent. He scored 13 goals in 27 Premier League appearances and plundered four goals in nine Champions League outings, an average of nearly one in two.
Hernandez became a fans’ favourite and went from being an unknown quantity to one of the Premier League’s most eye-catching forwards.
Despite scoring six goals in his first 12 league appearances of the next campaign, Hernandez was guilty of having missed several good opportunities, not least against Newcastle United at Old Trafford in November 2011. Having scored three goals in his five previous Premier League outings prior to the visit of the Magpies, Hernandez’s confidence was on the up.
However, he was still missing the mark when chances presented themselves, leading to the Mexican having a dispute with Ferguson. Speaking back in 2020, Hernandez said: “We were playing against Newcastle. I had a lot of options and he told me ‘you needed to score’.
“I wanted to say to him: ‘Do you think I wanted to miss those options? I want to score them, of course! I don’t want to miss them’.”
Fortunately for Hernandez he did score against Newcastle, firing United ahead shortly after half-time, albeit with a shade of good fortune. After a Rooney free-kick cannoned into the wall, the former England captain was quickest to the rebound and his shot cannoned off a Newcastle boot, onto Hernandez’s thigh and in.
The Mexican, still reeling from his earlier row with Ferguson, refused to celebrate in a way he normally would have done when giving United the lead.
He added: “I remember I then scored a goal, they went to kick it out and I just covered it it, it hit my thigh and it went in. I didn’t even celebrate. I was completely p****d off.”
Hernandez only scored four more Premier League goals this season after that, meaning he fell well short of equalling his tally from the previous campaign. However, he marked Ferguson’s final season in charge by scoring 18 times, meaning he netted 50 goals in 117 appearances under the Scot – the most he has ever scored under any coach in his career.
As angry as he might have been with Ferguson against Newcastle, the opportunity to play and develop under a manager of the Scot’s ilk was clearly the key to getting the very best out of him.
