City considered signing a number of players who ended up moving to Old Trafford instead – and the blue half of Manchester must be glad they did
In a parallel universe, Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish are getting fired up ahead of the upcoming derby Manchester City. Haaland followed his former coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from Molde to Manchester United, while Grealish moved from Aston Villa to the Red Devils in 2020.
Meanwhile, City defensive duo Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof, wearing light blue tracksuits, are discussing how they will stop Haaland and Grealish and are preparing themselves for the volley of abuse they will receive from the Stretford End.
Maguire joined City in 2019 along with Brazilian winger Antony, while Lindelof moved to the Etihad Stadium two years earlier. Raphael Varane is on the substitutes' bench for City after recovering from a niggling injury along with veteran Alexis Sanchez.
Paul Pogba, who controversially switched from the red half of Manchester to the blue half in 2022 as a free agent, will be lining up in midfield alongside Bruno Fernandes, who chose City over United in 2019…
Ok, let's head back to reality, even if it is fun to ponder what might have been been. Because, but for a few differences of opinion between sporting directors, chairmen and agents, a number of players involved in Sunday's Manchester Derby at Old Trafford could have been lining up on the opposite side of the divide.
With City still in the hunt to repeat last year's incredible treble success while United are looking increasingly likely to miss out on the top four, many of those players may have wished they chose a different destination. And City fans will be thanking their lucky stars they avoided some of the players who ended up flopping at Old Trafford.
Ahead of Sunday's Manchester derby, GOAL runs through all the players who were on the verge of moving to City but ended up joining United instead and had a far less happy time as a consequence…
Getty ImagesAlexis Sanchez
In January 2018, with just months left on his contract at Arsenal, Sanchez faced a choice between joining two of the best coaches in the world. One option was reuniting with Pep Guardiola, who had signed him for Barcelona and who he has said "was like my dad".
Then there was Jose Mourinho, who looked to be taking United back to the top. The Portuguese, who was already seeing his arch-rival run away with the title, could not bear the thought of another top player further strengthening City and made an appeal to Sanchez.
"I was about to go to City," the Chilean told earlier this year. "We talked every day, he sent me messages. Suddenly the phone rings. Mourinho tells me: 'Alexis, here is the number seven shirt available for you'. I wanted to leave at that moment, but I had Guardiola's word.
"That's when I said to myself, a Chilean footballer playing for Manchester United, something that has never happened. With the seven of Cantona, Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and now a Chilean had it, it was a dream."
That dream, though, quickly turned into a nightmare for everyone concerned. Sanchez later confessed that after his first training session with United, he asked his agent if he could rip up his contract and go back to Arsenal.
The Chilean, who earned a reported £400,000 ($485,000)-per-week, never came close to replicating his form for the Gunners at United, and when the Red Devils made a miserable start to the following season, he bore the brunt of criticism.
Sanchez left United for Inter after a miserable 18 months, scoring just five goals in 45 appearances and looking utterly devoid of confidence and verve, a shadow of the player he once was.
AdvertisementGettyHarry Maguire
Maguire was regarded as one of the best centre-backs in Europe after a stunning 2018 World Cup, and both City and United vied for his signature the following summer. Guardiola was an admirer and the club were ready to match the Red Devils' £70m ($85m) bid for him, but turned away when Leicester, seeing the competition breweing between the two rival clubs, raised their asking price to £80m ($97m).
"We were interested but we could not afford him. United could," Guardiola later admitted. While Maguire had a perfect debut at Old Trafford, a 4-0 win over Chelsea, things quickly unravelled for him. He recovered his form to steer United to consecutive top-four finishes, but when the team began to fall apart under Solskjaer, he was blamed for their spiral of horrendous results, among them the 5-0 home humiliation by Liverpool.
Erik ten Hag gave Maguire just eight league starts last season and wanted to sell him in the summer to West Ham for just £30m ($36m), but the defender refused to leave.
Maguire has staged an impressive recovery after facing merciless ribbing from all quarters and silenced his critics. However, he has continued to be rocked by injury problems and is set to miss the derby. And City, who signed Ruben Dias in 2020 for £64m ($77m), will have few regrets about not getting the deal for Maguire over the line.
GettyPaul Pogba
Pogba's second spell at Manchester United was a long-running and painful saga that finally came to an end when his lucrative, six-year contract ran out in June 2022.
Despite his many injury issues and the fact he had not managed to truly shine under Mourinho, Solskjaer or Ralf Rangnick, City were interested in signing him as a free agent. It was not the first time that Pogba had been linked with City, as Guardiola revealed that he had been offered the chance to sign the Frenchman in 2018 after he fell out with Mourinho, despite agent Mino Raiola calling the City boss "a coward, a dog".
Pogba, wary of the potential backlash from United fans, opted to move back to Juventus instead. But his second coming in Turin has been a nightmare in every sense, suffering two serious injuries, being subject to blackmail, and then failing a drugs test for elevated levels of testosterone. Another bullet dodged from City's point of view.
Getty ImagesCristiano Ronaldo
With his time at Juventus coming to a bitter end in the summer of 2021, Ronaldo was considering his next move, and City were one of the few clubs who could afford him. When word spread that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner was speaking to City, key figures from United, especially Sir Alex Ferguson, began to panic.
"Honestly, it [moving to City] was close. They spoke a lot and Guardiola said two weeks ago that they tried hard to have me," Ronaldo told Piers Morgan during his infamous interview in December 2022. "Sir Alex Ferguson was the key. I spoke with him… He said to me that, 'It's impossible for you to come to Manchester City'. And I said 'OK, Boss'."
Ronaldo made an immense start to his second coming, scoring twice on his debut against Newcastle and rescuing victories over Villarreal and Atalanta. But it was clear that United were a worse team as a result, as he slowed down their play and forced them to adapt their style of the past three years to suit him. Ronaldo ended the season as the team's top scorer but United registered their worst points total in 30 years in the Premier League, and his capacity to pull off escape acts slowly diminished.
His me-first attitude had also had a negative effect on the team, and in his second campaign he stunk out the place, leaving a friendly against Rayo Vallecano at half-time and refusing to come on as a substitute before full-time against Tottenham, incurring a brief suspension. His unauthorised sit-down with Morgan embarrassed United further and there was only going to be one ending – ripping up his contract.
City, meanwhile, won another title without a striker and then welcomed in Erling Haaland, who fired them to the treble. Yet another bullet dodged.