Former Manchester United manager David Moyes says Marouane Fellaini was the last player he wanted to sign when he took over the club, and had instead targeted Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas.
The Scot did not even last a full year at Old Trafford after being picked as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at the start of the 2013/14 season, with the club languishing in seventh place when he was fired.
Moyes was only able to make one major signing during his only summer window at the club, waiting until deadline day to spent £27.5m on his former Everton charge Fellaini.
But now Moyes says he never really wanted to be reunited with the Belgian, and had targeted a host of bigger names first – including a player who would end up at Old Trafford four years later.
‘I never wanted Marouane Fellaini to be my first Manchester United signing,’ he told BBC 5 live.
‘If you brought my staff in here and sat round with them and asked them what we planned to do, the last thing I wanted to do was sign Fellaini.
‘I knew, coming from my old club, the look of him was never going to be [right for United].
‘I’ve got to say, we looked at Matic as well. Matic at that time hadn’t done so well for Chelsea, had gone back to Benfica, and he was a consideration.
‘We looked at him, and in a way we did really need a more defensive type, maybe someone who would sit and play and make passes from the middle of the park.
‘But we didn’t get a lot of the things we hoped for, and in the end we only got Marouane on deadline day otherwise we would have had no signings at all that summer.’
Moyes had even phoned up two potential superstar additions, with Cesc Fabregas agreeing to move to Old Trafford on one condition.
‘I spoke to Cesc Fabregas on the phone too and he was not sure of his place in the Barcelona team. He said, “I will join you if I do not start my first game of the season at Barca”… and he did start.
‘I spoke to Gareth Bale a couple of times and tried to convince him to join us, we even offered Tottenham more money but he had his heart set on joining Real Madrid. They were the two who looked like Manchester United players.’
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