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Originally Posted by MrMarcello
Think SAF mentioned him after the 2002 World Cup but the Rio transfer saga took quite a bit from the coffers. The board wasn't willing to give SAF another 15-20m to sign a player that would sit behind Beckham and Giggs after having spent some 80m net in the previous 12 months. And then in 2003 Chelsea offered 17m to trigger the buyout clause. By that time SAF had already identified other options like Ronaldhino and Ronaldo (ended up signing Ronaldo that summer, one year ahead of time).
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So we basically didn't want Duff at the time of a signing. We can hardly bear any grudges towards Chelsea regarding that transfer, as we weren't the ones following Duff that Summer.
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This is not true. He and onother youth player from Nigeria both were on trial with United, 2 years before Mourinho was at Chelsea. We had some permit problems with them I think, so were couldn't sign them, but were tracking them.
Anyway, Kenyon left for Chelsea, and next thing we know all out targets are ending up at Chelsea... including Obi Mikel.
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Thing is, we never offered him a deal then. We waited for Lyn to sign him and then made a move, when Mourihno had already known of him (he was on trial at Chelsea as well) and had spoken highly of him.
Essien and Robben - these are the two players they took from under our noses, but Essien wasn't even our target at the time of Kenyon's departure. Robben was a deal screwed up on our side, we bid 10 million and then lowered it by 5 million for no reason - PSV got angry and agreed terms with Chelsea. Barcelona and Inter were interested at the same time, unsurprisingly, as Robben was one of the brightest prospects of European football.