Poor Bebe will spend the rest of his career on a list of the worst ever Manchester United signings.

Sir Alex Ferguson broke his tradition of watching any new signing play with his own eyes and in hindsight, he should never have trusted his scouting team so much on the Vitoria striker.

According to the Guardian, the legendary manager said at the time: "Sometimes you have to go on instinct and sometimes you have to trust your staff as well.

"This was a first for me, but we rate our scouting department very highly and our scout in Portugal was adamant we needed to do something, and quickly."

However, Bebe would only go on to make seven appearances for the Red Devils, all of which came during his first season at Old Trafford.

The memory of Bebe

Ferguson dropped some pretty big transfer clangers across his career, but few were ever bigger than Bebe and he's been the butt of numerous jokes over the years.

So, it might come as a surprise to hear that Bebe actually had a solid scoring rate at the club, despite only finding the net against Wolves and Bursapor during his time in England.

Two goals isn't a bad return when he only played 334 minutes in the famous red jersey, making just two appearances in the Premier League and one in the Champions League.

Bebe vs current United forwards

That means that Bebe averaged a goal every 167 minutes and that proves particularly interesting when you compare it to the current batch of United forwards.

In fact, Bebe actually has a better scoring rate than Alexis Sanchez, Anthony Martial, Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford all managed in the 2018-19 season.

Check out the statistics break down below:

1. Bebe - 167 minutes

2. Anthony Martial - 177 minutes

3. Romelu Lukaku - 178 minutes

4. Marcus Rashford - 236 minutes

5. Alexis Sanchez - 542 minutes

The less said about Sanchez's goal-scoring touch, the better.

Sure, Bebe had the advantage of making brief appearances against weak opposition, but it still underlines how badly the current United attack misfired last season.

It doesn't exactly look good when one of the worst United signings in history was averaging a goal more often than highly-rated players like Rashford and Martial. 

While there is definitely a need for improvements in the defence, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must also encourage the same sort of ruthlessness that typified his own playing career.

United are a long way from recovering their top four status and can't afford for their strikers to be poorer in front of goal than a player who has been ridiculed for eight years.

Either that or Bebe is actually a United legend we're not giving enough credit. Somehow, we think the former is the case.

Who do you think is the worst signing in United history? Have your say in the comments section below.