Manchester United may have to settle for the next best things to Frenkie De Jong and Antony. Sometimes in the past, it’s worked out for the best.
Here are five occasions when they missed out on their primary target and who they signed instead…
Who they wanted: Patrick Kluivert
Who they signed: Dwight Yorke
It was the summer of 1998 and United were reeling from losing the title to Double winners Arsenal. Sir Alex Ferguson wanted more firepower in his attack and he settled on Kluivert.
AC Milan entertained United’s interest and a £9million fee was agreed. But the Holland star didn’t fancy United or Manchester. Sound familiar?
“Maybe he doesn’t know how big a club Manchester United is,” Ferguson reflected at the time. “I’m surprised he didn’t give himself the opportunity to speak to us and now we hear he wants to go to London. If that is where he wants to live, there is nothing we can do about it.”
Kluivert made do with moving to Barcelona, leaving United to find another striker. Fergie focused on attention on Villa centre-forward Yorke, much to John Gregory’s chagrin.
Yorke was rather more eager to join United and once there, after a £12.6million deal had been done, the Trinidadian formed a lethal partnership with Andy Cole that fired the Red Devils to the Treble.
Fergie made sure to remind Kluivert what he could have won when he wrote his autobiography: ‘I had no trouble believing that he was likely to be the bigger loser than we were. As I write, there is a growing mountain of persuasive evidence that the Dutchman’s indifference indirectly did us a huge favour.’
Who they wanted: Eden Hazard
Who they signed: Shinji Kagawa
Ferguson speaking at the unveiling of Kagawa and Nick Powell in summer 2012…
“I see some values on players, like Hazard for instance. To me it was a lot of money. He’s a good player, but £34million?
“What we’re finding anyway, the climate for buying these top players – not just the transfer fees, the salaries, agents’ fees – is just getting ridiculous now. In the Hazard deal, Chelsea paid the agent £6million. The Nasri situation was the same. It’s all about what you think is value for a player.
“I am not envious of those deals at all. We placed a value on Hazard which was well below what they were talking about. So if it doesn’t work well we’re not worried about that. We think we’ve got good value in Kagawa.”
The United boss was trying to hide his disappointment at…
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