Moyes' Transfer Disaster

Moyes' had much trouble in his first window as United boss.

David Moyes' first transfer window with Manchester United doesn’t seem terrible on the surface. He managed to keep Chelsea away from Wayne Rooney and Marouane Fellaini should shore up the midfield with a physical presence. However, when you factor in how the transfer for Fellaini happened (and the failed bid for Everton’s Leighton Baines), the saga around Ander Herrera in Spain, the failed bid for Fabio Coentrao and having Arsenal sign Mesut Özil, Manchester United can be seen as one of the biggest losers in the summer transfer window.

The double bid for Everton duo Fellaini and Baines went through many phases, with an initial £15m bid rejected, then later a £36m bid rejected. United finally split the bid up, offering £15m for Baines (which was again rejected) and £27.5m for Fellaini (which was accepted). While the multiple bids for the two players that were rejected may seem embarrassing enough, it gets worse. Fellaini had a buy-out clause in his contract that had expired earlier in the transfer window. Had United bought their man then, they would have saved £4m. It’s not like they had the man instrumental in signing Fellaini at Everton helping to sign him at United or anything. It's not like he would know those details of his contract.

The window got worse for United when they tried to sign Herrera from Athletic Bilbao. So the story goes, the three men who were conducting transfer negotiations with Herrera were not associated with the club in anyway. They then decided against the transfer and walked away from the table when they balked at Herrera’s buyout clause (£30.5m). It now appears that these men were sport lawyers who had previously worked on football transfers (such as Javi Martinez to Bayern Munich).

These two stories help to play into the failed loan bid for Coentrao and having Özil taken from right underneath United’s nose. One feels that if Sir Alex Ferguson was still manager at United, none of this would have happened. Instead, Coentrao, Özil and Baines might count themselves as Manchester United players and Fellaini would have moved earlier and for less.

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