Transfers you were genuinely gutted we missed out on

Sneijder and Robben who we could have asked for in part exchange for Ronaldo, they both left Madrid when they signed Ronaldo from us in2009. What replacements they would have been. Instead we signed Owen and Valencia.

Cantina, RVN, Ronaldo, Vidic, Rooney etc do balance things out however
 
Mikel actually for me.
Had watched him some times in Norway and even met him a couple of times as i knew people in his circle. Thought it would be free tickets at Old Trafford and similar. I also thought he was a good player and the way he ended up in Chelsea seemed strange.
 
Ronaldinho was the first one I really felt shit because I genuinely believed he was coming.

Robben
Modric
Varane
Benzema
Batistuta
Neuer
 
Trequarista10 said:
These two stand out for me. When we sold Ronaldo I felt we needed two top players to replace him, a striker and a winger. Benzema seemed like a United striker to me, and Ribery also moved that summer iirc.

Ronaldinho likewise was a blow after losing Becks, plus he was someone who could have made Fergie's early dabble at 4231 more effective. We did sign Ronaldo later that summer and Rooney the year after though so all was well.

There's also about 10 centre mids that spring to mind from 2008 onwards as well. I liked the look of Modric at the Euros before he moved to Spurs in particular. Moyes or LVG supposedly turning down Kroos and Fabregas, Jose not moving for Fabinho, not going for Kante (LVG?), a handful of others too.
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To be fair. LVg had plans to sign Kante but didn't survive his fa cup triumph to make it happen...
 
Van Gaal pulling the plug on Kroos when the deal was basically done still makes me angry.
 
Modric, Benzema and Hazard. Would have won a few more CL titles and of course the PL every year with these lot.
 
Ronaldinho


Robben
Bale
Hazard
Thiago

Honorable mention for Shearer, oh what could have been..
 
Ronaldinho. First transfer saga I followed. I was convinced we had him :(

Recently I’ve tried not to get invested in transfer sagas due to them almost always being disappointed and when we do get the player, they usually disappoint :lol:
 
Summer of '98 we were linked with Kluivert all summer but he signed for Barca and we signed Yorke instead. I was properly gutted at the time, shows what I know about football.
 
Mahrez, what a player in a position of massive need, reckon he'd of been a massive success.

Benzema, tremendous player, think if he came to United, he'd of broken CF records.

Kante, for a few years was just dominant in a position of need. United should of spent £150m on him and Mahrez.
 
Definitely Ronaldinho as that was only my second muppet saga (Rio the year before!). I was glued to teletext ffs :lol:
 
Gazza
Ronaldinho
Robben
Benzema
Thiago
David Silva
David Villa
Hazard
Bale
 
I thought we were getting Ronaldinho and Kluivert in 2003. We ended up with someone called Cristiano Ronaldo. Whatever happened to him?
 
Rivaldo I felt was a missed opportunity to really cement ourselves in Europe after the treble win but, though I think United certainly showed interest, any deal seemed out of bounds due to the financial element and whether Rivaldo would acclimatise to England culture.
Though, there were strong rumours in 2001 that United and Barcelona would discussing a potential major swap deal involving the Brazilian and England's Golden Balls Beckham.

Celio Silva in 1997. Didnt know a great deal about him other than he was a tough , experienced and composed centre back. What made this a novelty was , he would've been the first Brazilian player to represent Manchester United. The deal brokedown due to Silva unable to get a work permit.

Ferguson on not signing another Silva here in the form of David Silva.
"We watched Silva a lot when he was at Valencia," the Scot, who retired in 2013, is quoted as saying by The Mirror. "And the other player they had, the same type, years before it, played in that No.10 role.

"My problem with that was you have to be very, very good to play in that position, because there's no defensive duties for them. So if you're wanting to be be really successful, everyone has to do their turn, has to work, you know?

"So I had a difficulty with that. But, in the end, of course, there's the greats. You could say Lionel Messi was a No.10 type, Maradona, some fantastic players, and I don't dispute that. But at United we always found it difficult. The kind of No.10 I used came from my experience as a footballer."
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David Villa when he was just breaking out for Real Zaragoza. I remember there being strong links that United were religiously scouting the Spanish forward.
Obviously we didnt follow up our interest. Villa signed for Valencia, continued to be a success and eventually was sold to Barcelona and the rest ,they say, is history.
 
Gabriel Djemba-Bebe said:
You beat me to it. That 2009 window was a shambles, but missing out on Benzema was what pissed me off the most.
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I think it really stung as we saw him directly against us and how good he was. It's sometimes easy to get over when they don't play against us or come to the prem, but to dispatch some of the best CBs in the league in the way he did. He felt like a must sign.
 
Lash said:
I think it really stung as we saw him directly against us and how good he was. It's sometimes easy to get over when they don't play against us or come to the prem, but to dispatch some of the best CBs in the league in the way he did. He felt like a must sign.
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He was brilliant for such a young age and had the arrogance needed that you felt he’s slot in well at United.

The only thing that softened it for me was the venom with which Rooney took the main man role.

Benzema for me would have been the perfect partner for Rooney as we then had Berbatov as the 2nd man.

Still can’t believe we lost Ronaldo and thought we’d be fine with Valencia, Owen, Diouf and Obertan.

That window really stung.
 
I remember us haggling on the deal for Benzema for sometime. Jean-Michel Aulas was always a tough cookie to crack.
And just when we seemed to have a break-through, Madrid rushed in, matched our offer and then some and got the deal over the line in no time.

But the 2009/ 2010 transfer window was rubbish.
 
Mexes (Fergie used to send him birthday cards)
Ricardo Quaresma (didn’t amount to much in the end but I recall an u18 match where him and Ronaldo absolutely destroyed England between them. What a pair of wingers!)
David hirst (had it all! Pity about the injuries)
Batistuta (what a striker!!)
Ronaldinho (what a miss!)
Zidane (remember we scouted him heavily but it was him or Cantona and we can’t be too upset with the outcome!)
Shearer (obvious)
Stuart Pearce (linked but never happened. Loved his style)
 
Hazard to Chelsea, Haaland and Bellingham to Dortmund, De Bruyne to City and Thiago to Bayern for me.

Honourable mentions:
Torres to Pool, Gundogan to City, Lucas to PSG, Ballack to Chelsea, Sneijder…

MiceOnMeth said:
I thought we were getting Riquelme in 2006.. we got carrick instead and I was gutted
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This one too, big time. That Carrick guy was decent in the end.
 
If we are just talking about disappointment in the moment and without any hindsight, I remember being gutted that Aaron Ramsey chose Arsenal over us. Thought he would be the next big thing - potentially a new Scholes, at the time.
 
MiceOnMeth said:
I thought we were getting Riquelme in 2006.. we got carrick instead and I was gutted
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The the Marco Senna links were more stronger during that period.
Now he would've been a top signing, a short-term one granted.
 
At the time, Ronaldinho but we ended up with Cristiano so all good there.

Wesley Sneijder was one. I was adamant we'd get him. Sadly never happened.

Gaitan. I'm sure we'll be linked this summer though.
 
Arjen Robben was a shit pill to swallow at the time. I’m taking it to my grave that the fecking marketing man from Stalybridge fecked us out of that and took our shortlist of players with him and fecked us out of them too when he turncoated.
 
Outside of Chile-Vision, I dont think there were any actual strong links to Vidal.

And SAF seemed to quickly come to the conclusion that Wesley Sneijder wasn't the type of profile he was looking for in a midfielder.
Didnt stop the media churning out rumour after rumour for months though.
 
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