Current Sunderland boss David Moyes couldn’t believe his luck when he was chosen as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at Manchester United in 2013. But the Scotsman claims he was under the impression Manchester United were going to spend big in the summer transfer window.
In his first and only season in charge, United fumbled to a 7th place finish and Moyes was given the sack even before the season ended after a run of poor results left the Red Devils out of contention for a UEFA Champions League spot.
Moyes makes his first return to Old Trafford on Boxing Day and he gave his side of the story as to what actually happened during one of United’s worst summer transfer windows in recent seasons.
According to the manager, United were supposed to spend huge sums of money to acquire top targets.
Speaking ahead of the game he said, “When I first went in my real target was Gareth Bale. I felt all along that Gareth Bale was a Manchester United player. I fought right until the last minute. We actually offered a bigger deal than Real Madrid. But Gareth had his mind made up on going to Real Madrid. That was, in my mind, the player I really wanted to bring to Manchester United.”
“The other one was Cesc Fabregas, who we thought we would get right up until the last minute.I remember when I first met Sir Alex and he always said there was a chance Ronaldo might come back.”
“So that was the level we were targeting. I was not going out to bring in seven, eight players, because we had a squad which had just won the league. Toni Kroos was agreed to come in the summer. I had agreed it with Toni himself and his agent.”
United failed to live up to the promises Moyes claims the club had made before appointing him as the manager which he believes is partly the reason for their poor season.
In the end, they only managed to sign Marouane Fellaini on the very last day of the transfer market, a player who looks very likely to leave in the next summer transfer window after being booed by the Old Trafford faithful in their last home game.
Moyes was disappointed with Cesc move
Moyes feels that he might still be Manchester United manager right now if he had landed at least one of those four targets but the one that pains him the most is the Cesc Fabregas deal that fell through.
“Sometimes you don’t get deals done. Gareth Bale we were probably behind all along, Real Madrid were well in for it.The Cesc one was disappointing. It was very close. And Toni Kroos came up in January - it was done.”
“A lot of players come into Manchester United and have not necessarily made the difference. But I think that, given time and having got to this period, I would have hoped I would be working with a successful team now.”
The story of Manchester United’s last three years could have been a very different one if even a couple of the transfers Moyes has mentioned would have come to fruition. Now he has to figure out a way for his relegation-threatened Sunderland side to take points of his former employers who are currently flying in the league.
