Former Manchester United boss David Moyes has revealed the three big name transfer targets he missed out on while in charge at Old Trafford.
Moyes was appointed as United manager following the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2013.
However, the Scot failed to see out the season, losing his job with four games to go as United finished seventh, comfortably their worst ever Premier League performance.
Things might have turned out differently had he had his way in the transfer market, though.
"Toni Kroos would certainly be the one who if I'd got to Manchester United he'd have been winning," Moyes said. "And at that time as well we were very much after Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas."
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In the end, Bale left Tottenham for Real Madrid, where he would be joined by Kroos a year later, and immediately won the Champions League, while Fabregas stayed at Barcelona for one more season before returning to England to help Chelsea win the title.
Moyes, meanwhile, had to settle for Marouane Fellaini as his only significant signing, before Juan Mata was brought in in January.
It wasn't only at United where Moyes just missed out on some high-profile arrivals.
"I’ve got to say prior to that, at Everton, we were really close to close to a lot of good players," he told beIN SPORTS’s Keys & Gray Show, available on YouTube. "One of them would be Michael Essien.
"We just couldn’t quite get them over the line on several occasions."
