Transfers you were genuinely gutted we missed out on

bosnian_red said:
Lewandowski. Loads of rumors for him in summer 2012. Ended up getting RvP who obviously gave 1 class season.. but could've had Lewa. Hazard as well. He only went there because they won the CL. Thiago in 2013.
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The recruitment around that time is a massive reason we went to shit imo. Obviously Fergie leaving was the biggest one, but from 2009 onwards we were so bad in the market it left us with a massive black hole once the likes of Rooney, Scholes, Carrick etc left. If we’d actually got the likes of Lewandowski, Thiago and Kroos over the line, and hadn’t made marquee signings out of the likes of Owen, Ashley Young, Phil Jones and Kagawa then we’d have been in much better shape for the transition.
 
2 man midfield said:
The recruitment around that time is a massive reason we went to shit imo. Obviously Fergie leaving was the biggest one, but from 2009 onwards we were so bad in the market it left us with a massive black hole once the likes of Rooney, Scholes, Carrick etc left. If we’d actually got the likes of Lewandowski, Thiago and Kroos over the line, and hadn’t made marquee signings out of the likes of Owen, Ashley Young, Phil Jones and Kagawa then we’d have been in much better shape for the transition.
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Summer 2009 was the worst transfer window of all time to be honest. A team that won 3 leagues in a row, 2 consecutive CL finals... Sold Ronaldo, lost Tevez, brought in Owen, Obertan and Antonio Valencia on a low cost deal. Crazy how bad that was.
 
FrankDrebin said:
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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Apparently in the end LVG decided against spending the money for a 27 year old with a knee issue. But unless Sampaoli is a liar I think it was a bit more than just Chilevision links.

Earlier this month Jorge Sampaoli, Vidal’s national team manager told the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio: “United want Vidal but Van Gaal has doubts. Vidal was a great example during the World Cup in Brazil of not playing in the best of conditions. Manchester United want him, but what restrains his move to England for $80million is Van Gaal, who has doubts over his [knee] condition.”
 
harms said:
I'm pretty sure that Kanté only had eyes for Chelsea for whatever reason.
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Aye, found the article where he says Mourinho directly called him about the move.. It also states we were ready to offer 25 million while he ended up in Chelsea for 30 million. Fair enough, although it was a case of Chelsea moving quicker with negotiations being well ahead by the time Jose made the call.

“But at that time I was hesitant between staying at Leicester or leaving for Chelsea. My discussions with them were already well underway."
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Ronaldinho is easily the worst, and I still think it was dodgy as feck.

Lucas Moura. At the time SAF wasn't retiring and i reckon a few years under him and Moura would have lived up to the hype. Instead he went to PSG and became an also ran.

Thiago. Desperately wanted him and the dithering was the first big red flag over Moyes.


I never wanted Shearer all that much.
 
colombianmancunian said:
Hazard to Chelsea. Instead we got Kagawa who didn’t accomplish anything. Fergie’s fault.
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I thought Kagawa would be good after he and Lewandowski destroyed Bayern. I'm still not really sure why he didn't work out.

But yeah, Hazard was gutting. Unclear who he was gonna choose, and his record for his age in Ligue 1 was special. Only Mbappe has really bettered it since when you count assist and consider Hazard was a winger who didn't hurt the #9s he played with by crowding their space and needing them to drop deep or wide more.

Would have fit beautifully on the left with Valencia defending more on the right and Van Persie and Rooney to create centrally. Sort of like how Madrid play with Valverde doing 2 jobs on the right and then quality at LW and #9, though a 2nd striker instead of a #10, so less control of games but more goal threat. Would have needed to bring in some quality, hard working CMs, but we needed those anyways and instead got a decrepit Schweinsteiger, Fellaini and Schneiderlin (Herrera would have worked as the #8 with the right manager to replace Fergie, so really just a decent #6 like N'Zonzi, and then lots of money on a quality player who could play both like Thiago Motta or Vidal).
 
Fabregas who went to Chelsea instead because Louis was hesitant and Thiago for I think 25m went to Bayern because we were too stingy.
 
r3idy said:


What a team we could have had back in the 90's but we had this ridiculously low wage structure compared to Serie A and La Liga at the time.

Batigol had everything in my opinion
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He would scored dozens with the service he would have got here.
 
Hazard because he was clearly a huge talent.

Robben I am not too sure. At the time of transfer, he was still too raw. He didn't perform very well for Chelsea and mainly performed at his peak in Bayern.

I think Ronaldinho would only give a few good seasons before he gets into some disciplinary issues and want out.

Lewandowski is a good shout.

I think you might as well include Haaland. Have the money to secure CR7, more money to buy Antony, Martinez and Malacia but no money to challenge City for Haaland?
 
Hazard.

And I feel that Mudryk will end up tormenting us for years and years too. I still can't believe we didn't get that deal done.
 
Gascoigne
Hirst
Anderton
Shearer
Batistuta
Sol Campbell
Ronaldinho

John Obi Mikel is a good shout. I remember more pissed off than gutted. Chelsea and Kenyon stealing another player under our noses!

I would say Modric but like Bale the cnut didnt even want to know. His heart was set on Madrid.
 
Charlie Nicholas in about '82/83.
Platini in about '85 (I'm sure I remember links!)
Batistuta
Shearer
Ronaldinho
Torres
 
Alves (~2007)
Agüero (~2010)
Neymar (~2012)

All three seemed to be very close at one point, Neymar perhaps a bit less so compared to the other two.
 
De bruyne, we finished above man city the season before the summer city signed him, his talent was so obvious.

Sanchez was another one, why weren't we interested in him when barca were flogging him off.

Same with kroos, kante and thiago

Genuinely believe we could have signed all these players had we attempted to.
 
Ronaldinho is the one that stands out. He was by far the most exciting player in the world at the time and I was convinced he was ours.
 
Lee565 said:
De bruyne, we finished above man city the season before the summer city signed him, his talent was so obvious.
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When he was at Wolfsburg? I wanted him too, but dont think we were ever linked. Same with players like Bernardo Silva, they dont seem to be our type, despite us having Jose at the time iirc.
 
It really didn’t matter as much under Fergie because he kept building winning teams whoever came or went.

Post Fergie there have been lots of players we missed out on that would have improved us. Thiago, Kroos, Vidal, Bellingham, Haaland, Enzo F, Caciedo. FDJ, De Ligt. At one point most were available for relatively small money and looked really very good.
 
Thiago when he went to Bayern
Hazard to Chelsea

Ronaldinho but in retrospect we wouldn’t have signed Cristiano who would have probably gone to Arsenal so it worked out.
 
Missing on Hazard, Modric, Robben and Ronaldinho were not just because of us so it is easier to get over that. But what we did with Haaland (twice!!) is so amateurish that it hurts.

First time we were late for a meeting.
Second time we were "to big club to put release clause in contract". I am still fuming about that. Especially because of chain reaction. With Haaland, we wouldn't buy Ronaldo. City wouldn't buy Haaland. City will be stuck with diva no7.
 
Hazard, Thiago and Vidal sagas hit me hardest. I was also way more invested in transfers in those days.

also, love how everyone just keep pretending they're perfectly fine with Malo Gusto going to Chelsea.
 
Recent one is so obviously Alvarez. Exactly what we needed in terms of our weakest position and style of play, excellent value & known low price tag and already with quite a few games and goals under his belt before the transfer to City. He ticked all the boxes and was such a no brainer.
 
Zetrio2002 said:
Hazard because he was clearly a huge talent.

Robben I am not too sure. At the time of transfer, he was still too raw. He didn't perform very well for Chelsea and mainly performed at his peak in Bayern.

I think Ronaldinho would only give a few good seasons before he gets into some disciplinary issues and want out.

Lewandowski is a good shout.

I think you might as well include Haaland. Have the money to secure CR7, more money to buy Antony, Martinez and Malacia but no money to challenge City for Haaland?
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You think Robben didn’t play very well for Chelsea? While I agree his peak was clearly Bayern there’s a reason Madrid went after Robben years before Ronaldo. The only issue he had was being a bit too frail for the league and once everyone caught on he was hacked down in every game. His stats as a young left footed left winger are very respectable and his pace frightened teams.
 
Ali Dia said:
It really didn’t matter as much under Fergie because he kept building winning teams whoever came or went.

Post Fergie there have been lots of players we missed out on that would have improved us. Thiago, Kroos, Vidal, Bellingham, Haaland, Enzo F, Caciedo. FDJ, De Ligt. At one point most were available for relatively small money and looked really very good.
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Yeah we have been disastrous on these small money deals since Fergie left
 
Bole Top said:
Hazard, Thiago and Vidal sagas hit me hardest. I was also way more invested in transfers in those days.

also, love how everyone just keep pretending they're perfectly fine with Malo Gusto going to Chelsea.
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I am definitely not fine with it at all
 
Recent events with Neuer publicly declaring his unhappiness with Bayern's board decision to sack of goalkeepers coach Toni Tapalović brought me back to 2011.

Edwin van der Sar was retiring at the end of the season and we were looking for a long-term replacement with Neuer on his way out with only one year left on his deal with Schalke and his obvious talent.

During and after those semi-final games against Schalke we all as local lads in our academy wanted to become a goalie just to scream "Manuel Neueeeer" when making a save or intercepting a pass higher on the pitch, that's how badly we all liked him at that moment.

Sir Alex Ferguson also admired him but unfortunately for us, he was already a Bayern bound even before those two semi-final games.
 
It's still not too late to sign Milinković-Savić and Sneijder. (Vanja & Rodney respectively, that is).
 
I remember Aaron Ramsey - I had watched him rip Sweden U21 apart for Wales a few months earlier - and it was even reported that he had agreed to sign for Man United, before hours later he had agreed to go to Arsenal.

I still think Ramsey at United would have been better than he ever was at Arsenal.

And I cursed when we lost out on Gazza
 
And even if we didn't end up missing out on RvN - I felt sick when the transfer collapsed because of his knee injury. He was probably the only favourite I had with another club, who ended up at United.
 
Ronaldinho is the obvious one since the deal was apparently all but done. If we had pulled that off we would have had an absolutely phenomenal player for a few years.

Shearer could have been fantastic for us too if we could have beaten Newcastle to his signature. The number of goals he would have scored in that team would have been insane
 
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