The former Red Devils manager says he was told by the then-Bayern Munich midfielder he would be coming to Old Trafford
David Moyes says Toni Kroos had agreed to come to Manchester United prior to his eventual move to Real Madrid in 2014.
The 2013-14 season was Moyes’ only one in charge of the Red Devils after he took over for the retired Sir Alex Ferguson at the start of that campaign.
That season saw the Red Devils finish seventh in the Premier League, and Moyes axed prior to the conclusion of the campaign.
But the former Everton manager has now revealed that the Red Devils very nearly had landed one of the world’s best midfielders as Kroos told Moyes directly that he was coming to Old Trafford in the summer of 2014.
“Toni Kroos had agreed to come Manchester United with me,” Moyes said on talkSPORT.
“I met him and his wife and we agreed it all when he was at Bayern Munich. But it was only going to get done at the end of the season before he joined Real Madrid.”
But Moyes did not make it to the end of the season at the club, as he was sacked in late April, with Ryan Giggs taking over in an interim role.
Louis van Gaal took over the team following the Netherlands’ third-place finish at the 2014 World Cup, while Kroos, a champion with both Bayern and Germany, headed off to join Real Madrid in a €25 million deal (£22m).
Whether or not things might have been different for Kroos had Moyes had remained, the former Red Devils boss lamented not being given more time at the club, especially given the difficulties in following a legend like Ferguson.
“Do I feel I should have been given more time? Of course I do,” Moyes added. “To go to a club like Manchester United and follow someone like Sir Alex after the time he had been there, to stay for ten months…
“It couldn’t be a revolution at Manchester United, it had to be evolution. It had to take time.
“I wasn’t going to come in and change all the things Alex had done, but there were lots of things that had to be changed at the club.
“You look at the way Chelsea and Man City had been doing things and changing things along the way – Manchester United had been winning because they had a special manager and a special group of players.
“But when that all changed, it was going to take time to find its way.
“I still think they’re having difficult times at the moment.”
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