Remember when Didier Drogba was almost a Manchester United player? That’s right, he almost was. But Chelsea swooped in and the rest, as they say, is history. But what other big name players did Sir Alex Ferguson have on his radar during his illustrious tenure at Old Trafford?
The managerial legend has been spilling some secrets while promoting his new book. Here some of the names.
Petr Cech
“I went to see him in 2003 for Rennes. Petr was a bit young for the bruisers in the Premier League.”
Would Cech have been the perfect replacement for Peter Schmeichel? The Big Dane was never truly replaced until the arrival of Edwin van der Sar.
Similarly, if Cech had signed for United would Chelsea have had so much success without him between the posts? It would have been an interesting transfer for sure.
The big-Czech has managed to hold his own against the bruisers of the Premier League – his scrum cap testement to his ability to do so after he suffered the horrendous head injury against Reading.
Didier Drogba
Another Premier League superstar, another what if. Drogba made quite a name for himself in French football which unsurprisingly caught the attention of the Premier League’s top clubs. Manchester United were very much in the mix to sign Drogba but as Sir Alex explained, things didn’t quite work out.
Sir Alex said:
“We went to check him out (at Marseilles) but the club wanted 25 million and Chelsea moved into the kill before we had made up our minds.”
Having Rooney partner Drogba would have been a lethal combination. Still, United did perfectly fine without Drogba. Strikers who have played for United since Drogba signed for Chelsea included Christiano Ronaldo, Henrik Larsson, Dimitar Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Michael Owen. Not bad company.
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Raphael Varane
Real Madrid beat United to the chase, even as Sir Alex was on the move to try and complete the deal.
“In 2011, I hurtled down to Lille. Zinedine Zidane got wind of this and somehow scooped him up for Real Madrid.”
Seen as one of the top players around now, and the star defender of the future, Varane could have led the youth revolution at Manchester United but as Sir Alex said; Real Madrid beat him to it. The fee was believed to be around 10 million euros and since then he has become the second youngest-player to score in an El Clasico.
Varane also had a memorable pair of performances against Manchester United and Barcelona in the Champions League in 2013. His showing was dubbed “extraordinary” by former World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu. Oh well. United still have Chris Smalling, who isn’t doing too bad at the moment either.
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Thomas Muller
The German forward is fast-becoming one of Germany’s greatest ever players despite only being 26 years old. He spent his entire career at Bayern Munich where he has won 12 trophies as well as the World Cup for his country and numerous personal accolades.
But United were interested when he was just ten years old, when nobody could have predicted just how good a player he would become.
“He was a ten year-old when we heard about him. We had him watched and the following day he committed himself to Bayern Munich.”
That shows how competitive youth football really is. There is so much pressure to snap up prospective talents before someone else does, regardless of the risk. Bayern Munich proved that here and it was their gain and United’s loss.
Ronaldo
The legendary, original Ronaldo who made his name in Europe for Inter Milan and Real Madrid could have been a Manchester United player before he exploded onto the world stage.
“We wanted to sign the Brazilian striker from Cruzeiro in 1994 but we could not get a work permit and he signed for PSV Eindhoven.”
That has to be one of the ultimate “what ifs?” in football. What if Ronaldo had played for Manchester United that early on in his career – would he have been better or worse? Would Real Madrid ever have turned into the ‘Galactico’s’ that they are today? An interesting one to ponder upon.
Next: Confirmation that key midfielder is back for Arsenal clash