Manchester United: David Moyes wanted to sign Nemanja Matic instead of Marouane Fellaini

Former Manchester United manager David Moyes has reflected on his time at Old Trafford and revealed that he wanted to sign Nemanja Matic before he made his way to Chelsea. The Serbian eventually moved to Old Trafford but Moyes was left wondering what could have been if he had showed more enterprise in his transfer activity.

The former Everton manager was sacked midway through the campaign in his first season at Old Trafford, following his failure to qualify for the Champions League. Moyes got a second chance last season as manager of Sunderland, where he failed miserably yet again, finishing bottom of the table and were duly relegated and is currently without a job.

Moyes signed Marouane Fellaini on the final day from his old club Everton and the Belgian has now formed an integral part of the United setup, though he is unavailable for their clash against Liverpool through injury.

Despite sitting out of training for much of the week, Fellaini was cleared to play in Saturday's (7 October) penultimate 2018 World Cup qualifier against Bosnia and Herzegovina by manager Roberto Martinez. His evening lasted just 29 minutes, however, after picking up a knock that forced him to be substituted, with Anderlecht's Leander Dendoncker on to replace him.

"I never wanted Marouane Fellaini to be my first signing," Moyes told BBC Radio Five Live, as quoted by the Express. "The last thing I wanted to do was make Marouane Fellaini my first signing because I knew, coming from my old club (Everton) the look of it was never going to be [good].

"I've got to say we looked at Nemanja Matic as well. Matic at that time hadn't done so well for Chelsea [and] had gone back to Benfica and he was a consideration. To be fair, we looked at them (Fellaini and Matic) and in a way we probably did need a more defensive type, somebody who would sit and make passes from the middle of the park.

"But we didn't get a lot of things we hoped for and in the end we ended up only getting Marouane on deadline day as well or we would have had no signings in that summer at all."