Players you're glad we didn't sign

[Kag]

Xhaka*. I remember RedCafe telling me that he was one of the best midfielders in Europe.

* This could be applied to a whole host of midfielders who turned out to be terrible.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

Renato Sanches
Fabio Coentrão
Issa Diop

 

[groovyalbert]

Gaitan

Never say never

*Thiago looks like a Schweinsteiger.2 signing for Liverpool right now

 

[Cloud7]

Willian
Morata
Bale (The post Madrid, crocked version that Jose was interested in)
Baines
Milinkovic-Savic
Belotti
Jerome Boateng
Arnautovic

Come to think of it a great many players I consider as bullets dodged were all strongly associated with United under the same manager

 

[Mo Caine]

Hirst & Shearer of Southampton, both above Eric on the wanted list

Collymore, arguably a better player than Cole, but it may have changed the look of our trophy cabinet

Dybala, seems a real favourite of the hipsters, personally find him overrated and Bruno would probably be at Spurs

Sancho, the transfer thread was hard work during the summer, he's worth half the fee Dortmund wanted and i enjoyed the disappointment the muppets suffered

 

[AndOr Hererra]

Andre Gomes
Renato Sanches
Ashley Williams
Josh King
Thomas Meunier
Keylor Navas
Alex Sandro
Andrea Belotti
Jonny Evans
Ezequiel Garay
William Carvalho

Some are more subjective than others but this is just my personal opinion

 

[buckooo1978]

surprised to see Sancho in here when Dan James is starting games and Diallo and Pellestri look like Under 23 players this year. There's an open league this year and Sancho could make the difference in spite of our defensive issues

Di Canio was a fantastic player- think he would have been great for us

A lot of mine come from the Van Gaal era - thankfully we didn't spend 80m on Strootman or Savic

 

[sparx99]

I’m surprised so many are saying Milinkovic-Savic. He had a poor season a couple years back but I thought he bounced back last season as Lazio finished 4th.

I don’t watch Lazio very often but he’s always seems a good player to me. Maybe a poor mans Lampard. An old-fashioned goal scoring midfielder if you like.

 

[WakeAndBeek]

Jordy Clasie, Michu, Fabio Coentrao.

 

[jderbyshire]

Eriksen, you could see in his last few months with Spurs he'd be another Sanchez with us

Absolutely this.

Imagine if we'd have signed him and not Bruno??

Would've held us back massively. Dodged a bullet there.

 

[DWelbz19]

Dier, Eriksen, Dybala are all good shouts.

Beyond that, mostly anyone Jose wanted.

 

[sillwuka]

Absolutely this.

Imagine if we'd have signed him and not Bruno??

Would've held us back massively. Dodged a bullet there.

Imagine Spurs got Bruno and we settled with Eriksen. Nightmare..

 

[TrustInOle]

Eriksen and Dybala in 2019, not sure either were ever that close to actually happening but the club did good by pulling the plug on both before it got too far down the line

We'll never know for sure but of course many feel had we got Ronaldinho in 2003 we wouldn't of gone for Cristiano

Ronaldo.....Rooney.....Ronaldinhio

 

[sun_tzu]

Lewendowski

If saf had got him instead of rvp then probably he'd have banged in 200 Premier league goals for us by now and we would have won a few more trophies... but he's so good he would.probably have kept moyes in the managers job and I cant imagine much more soul destroying than moves having time to build a team of fellainis

 

[sun_tzu]

Imagine Spurs got Bruno and we settled with Eriksen. Nightmare..

I have visions of Jose berating Bruno for not tracking back and trying things where he might loose possession

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Definitely Vermaelen under LvG. He'd been plagued by injuries forever. He went to Barca, somehow, and continued to be forever injured. No idea why he seemed to want him so badly

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Alvaro Morata

would have preferred him than who we got instead.

. Ozil
. Willian
. Bale this summer (although I’m honest enough to admit I’d have given him a chance on a loan).
. Aldervierald
. Danny Rose

 

[gormless]

Andre Gomes
Renato Sanches
Ashley Williams
Josh King
Thomas Meunier
Keylor Navas
Alex Sandro
Andrea Belotti
Jonny Evans
Ezequiel Garay
William Carvalho

Some are more subjective than others but this is just my personal opinion

Starting to live up to his potential at long last from what I’ve read.

 

[Spark]

Ronaldo.....Rooney.....Ronaldinhio

Imagine having the Two Ronnies. Probably would have been declared illegal.

Slightly on topic, but I’m just glad Mourinho didn’t flog Martial and whoever else he wanted to in order to replace them with older shitter players (e.g. Perisic). As raw and frustrating Martial can be, this would have been a disaster.

 

[EverReddy]

Anyone who Bayern wants to sell

 

[Robbie Boy]

Obi Mikel

Yeowwww.

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

Zaha or Depay again.

Griezmann probably would have been a big let down too.

 

[FrankDrebin]

I wouldn't have minded Renato Sanches. I think he would've progressed well with us.
Unsurprised that he's now developing well at Lille.

 

[Scarecrow]

This thread illuminates the number of average players that use our name to get a move or a contract. I doubt we were ever interested in signing half of them.

 

[paulscholes18]

Willian
Ozil
Arnautovic
vermaelen

 

[2cents]

David Hirst

David Hirst

We badly needed a goalscorer

He was one of the best strikers around at the time

If we got him that would've meant no Eric though

Yeah Hirst was the first that came to mind. Hard to contemplate how things might have gone if we’d signed him that time.

 

[sillwuka]

Benatia is another one.

I have vivid memories of Jim White tweeting this one was a done deal.

 

[sillwuka]

Zaha or Depay again.

Griezmann probably would have been a big let down too.

Yes, i suspect Griezmann would have flopped spectacularly.

 

[ThinkTank@Cafe]

Gareth Bale

 

[Zlatan 7]

Yeah Hirst was the first that came to mind. Hard to contemplate how things might have gone if we’d signed him that time.

Most players mentioned would have changed the team at the time for the worst maybe, Hirst could have prevented the signing that changed the future and history of the club. Hard to be beaten

 

[Sunny Jim]

Perisic ...whatever his name was.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Gareth Bale (2020)
Joshua King (2020)
Douglas Costa (2020)
Christian Eriksen (2020)
Kai Havertz (2020)
Antoine Griezmann (2019)
Sean Longstaff (2019)
Ryan Sessegnon (2019)
Jerome Boateng (2018)
Alvaro Morata (2017)
Eric Dier (2017)
Odion Ighalo (2016)
Otamendi (2015)

 

[Bobade]

The Longstaff rumour was one of the best. Some people on here seemed convinced that he was essential to the team and would have been the final piece of the puzzle to bring us back to title winning ways. 50mil for him.... dodged a bullet.

Also glad we did not get Dybala, didn't seem massively keen and I echo another poster who said he would likely have gone the same way as Pogba.

I was one of the fools who thought Bale might not be so bad on a short loan. Openly admit I had not seen him play much for a while - he has massively declined.

 

[Champ]

Ron Vlaar and ezequiel garay

 

[ThinkTank@Cafe]

Not a player. Mauricio Pochettino

 

[davidmichael]

David Hirst as we got Cantona.

Ronaldinho as we got Ronaldo

Collymore as we got Cole

Shearer in hindsight

Recent ones,

Garay

Gaitan

Benatia

Renato Sanches

Arnautovic

Gundogan

Willian

 

[red_de_pologne]

Lewendowski

If saf had got him instead of rvp then probably he'd have banged in 200 Premier league goals for us by now and we would have won a few more trophies... but he's so good he would.probably have kept moyes in the managers job and I cant imagine much more soul destroying than moves having time to build a team of fellainis

You're glad we didn't sign one of the best strikers in the world because we would win trophies and that would mean keeping Moyes in the job longer.. ok.

 

[FrankDrebin]

I would've taken Lewendowski over RVP.

 

[devilish]

Collymore
Anderton
Celio Silva
Vermaelen
Arnaoutovic
Alderweireld
Dier
Boateng
Gundogan

 

[pascell]

Am I the only one who wouldn't have taken Koulibaly for the fee that was touted?