Former Manchester United manager David Moyes has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, and Cesc Fabregas were some of the players on his wish list when he took over as the Red Devils manager in 2013. Moyes spent less than a season in charge of the club before being sacked for a string of poor results that put the club’s Champions League hopes in jeopardy. United were indeed linked with several big names when the former Everton boss was appointed. However, the lack of experienced David Gill, who was replaced by current chief executive Ed Woodward, resulted in the club missing out on a number of transfer targets.

Moyes says that his only regret from his time at United is that he was not provided enough time to make an impact. Despite targeting some of the best players in the world, United ended up getting Marouane Fellaini from Everton for £27 million even though they could have secured him for much less than this figure only a month prior to the actual transfer. Juan Mata was a significant signing made by Moyes, but it was not until his final stages at the club. Speaking ahead of the trip to Old Trafford as the Sunderland boss, Moyes said (via Manchester Evening News):

“I remember when I first met Sir Alex and he always said there was a chance Ronaldo might come back. So that was the level we were targeting.

“I was not going out to bring in seven, eight players, because we had a squad which had just won the league.”

There was support for Moyes during the first few months in charge of the club, but the manager soon lost the faith of supporters once they become aware that he was unable to make a difference on the pitch. The inability for United to keep their success going after having just won the title was directly seen as a sign of the manager’s incompetence. It was not surprising that the ‘Chosen One,’ as he was christened by United faithful, soon became the ‘Sacked One’.

Gareth Bale moved to Real Madrid in an £85 million deal, but Moyes says that United were ready to offer an even bigger package for his services. The move to the Santiago Bernabeu was largely down to the player’s wish, according to Moyes. Toni Kroos was coming to the end of his contract with Bayern Munich and he was available on a cheap, but once again, Moyes and his team failed to convince the player to move to Old Trafford despite the club’s incredible history and heritage.

“When I first went in my real target was Gareth Bale,” continued Moyes. “I felt all along that Gareth Bale was a Manchester United player.

“The other one was Cesc Fabregas, who we thought we would get right up until the last minute. Toni Kroos was agreed to come in the summer. I had agreed it with Toni himself and his agent.”

At the end of the day, it was the story of a manager failing to work within his means for long. Moyes had failed to even achieve top four qualification with a team that had won the league title 12 months ago. Even though he may criticise United’s decision to sack him without even giving him 12 months, there is unlikely to be any sympathy for the former Everton man.