The 26-year-old departs Old Trafford and heads back to London as he joins an ever-growing West Ham side under new boss Julen Lopetegui.
He leaves United on a reported £15m despite the club signing him for £47m from Crystal Palace in 2019. He spent fives years at United and gained much love from the majority of the United faithful.
AWB made his debut in United's 4-0 thrashing of Chelsea on the opening day of the 19/20 season and became such an important player for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during the Norwegian's time as manager.
Spider-Wan played a total of 190 matches for United scoring twice and assisting 13 times for the Red Devils.
2 may be quite low (even for a full-back) but who can forget his strike at Newcastle in the 20/21 campaign? That was a beautiful finish and the knee slide celebration to go with it 👌.
Of course, he was more known for his last-ditch tackling and one-v-one defending, of which, there are hardly any better in world football, with those tackles becoming a trademark of the defender's.
Wan-Bissaka saved us on multiple occasions thanks to his ability as a one-v-one defender and those spider legs of his.
On his Instagram, Aaron Wan-Bissaka had this to say about his time at the club:
"To everyone associated with Manchester United, thank you. You’ve helped me fulfill so many dreams of mine and I leave the club with memories to last me a lifetime.”"I’m so grateful for the love, help and support I’ve had from players and staff during the last 5 years and wish you all nothing but the best.”"Thank you to the fans, you’ve stuck by us throughout the ups and downs. Appreciate you. Thank you so much, Reds. ♥ 🕸"
Final Thoughts
Good defender is AWB. He did have some good moments at the club and gave us some fond memories over the five years he spent at Old Trafford.
At 26-years-old, he still has much of his career ahead and I do believe that this is a good move for him.
But I don't think he would've gotten much game time at United as he was second choice to Dalot and with the club looking at Noussair Mazraoui (who should be unveiled soon), it was clear that MUFC were wanting to bring in a full-back who is more suited to Erik ten Hag's style of play.
And that is exactly it.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka is a solid defender although he did have his deficiencies when marking the back post and appear somewhat languid when it comes to tracking back.
However, in terms of where Erik ten Hag wants to go with this team, that defensive solidity just wasn't going to cut the mustard.
To play in a ten Hag system, the full-back needs to be good at many things: good and calm in possession, ability to play out from the back, inverting into midfield, and strong in attack.
These aren't attributes that one would associate with Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
While I never mentioned a defender in that ten Hag style has to be a great defender, it seems that that part of it is sort of put in the back seat. A trademark of a full-back from yesteryear.
In a side that is more defensive, AWB is your guy. We saw this quite a few times in a United shirt whenever we came up against the better sides. His best example was the recent FA Cup final in which he kept City's Phil Foden and then Jeremy Doku relatively quiet.
But let's be brutally honest, as much as everyone likes Wan-Bissaka and he seems like a nice guy, he simply just isn't the quality we need moving forward. A player who is more dynamic and more suited to the modern game is what we're looking for.
I've personally never rated AWB in terms of his all-round game as a full-back. Other than his last-ditch tackling, what has he got? Diogo Dalot may not be the player for us in the future but out of the two, he is more capable of playing the modern game than Spider-Wan.
I feel like a lot of people put sentimentality above all us when it comes to certain players. Simply because they like them for who they are and a couple of good attributes clouds their judgement on the fact that they're just not good enough.
Many fans would want us to play like Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal or Erik ten Hag's Ajax sides but would want us to keep the likes of Wan-Bissaka who obviously cannot play that way.
We cannot have both a great play style and players who can't play it. It's one or the other.
A lot of people will then complain about ten Hag not playing entertaining front-foot football yet he's had to keep players who aren't capable of it.
If we want to improve, we just have to move these players on.
I don't hate nor even dislike Wan-Bissaka, I just don't think he's good enough, although he isn't the only one at the club like this.
I wish him all the best and believe that he will find it a lot more suitable at West Ham. That is more his level.
Background Image: Aaron Wan-Bissaka | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal