Former Manchester United boss David Moyes claims that he was extremely close to signing players like Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kroos. The former Everton manager endured a disappointing spell with the Red Devils before ultimately being sacked. After enjoying impeccable stability with Everton, Moyes decided to make the switch to Manchester United as it seemed the natural progression. The Scot had built a similar reputation as Sir Alex Ferguson, who enjoyed more than two decades at United, after strong spells with the Preston and Everton team. However, his time at United did not last a full season as he was sacked a few months into the job.

Results were extremely poor at Manchester United under David Moyes and the manager never really recovered since then. He had spells with Real Sociedad, Sunderland, and West Ham with none of those jobs seeing him last for more than a year. Now, he has been out of work since leaving West Ham towards the end of the 2017-18 campaign. Even though his time with Manchester United produced his best success rate of almost 53%, it was not good enough for a club like United. Moyes has since claimed that he was unfortunate not to be backed by the board, as Marouane Fellaini was the high-profile signing he had to work with.

“Marouane Fellaini was to be part of a group of players to come in. By the time we got to the end of the transfer window, we always thought we had a chance of getting Gareth Bale. We hoped we could talk him out of going to Real Madrid because it was already half done. We had offered more money, we tried to entice him. We did [have a helicopter ready] and we tried. Cesc Fabregas was very close. “I spoke to him" and hoped to bring him from Barcelona,” said Moyes.