Transfer windows are starting to become frustrating times for Manchester United fans nowadays.
In the past, the Red Devils would get the bulk of their business done early, with Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill usually ahead of the curve when it came to emerging players.
But more recently there has been another pattern: United make a move for a player, the player goes elsewhere.
There have been some big-name signings in the past few years, of course, but there is a lingering sense that the biggest-name targets have slipped through the club’s fingers like sand, leaving United to scrape around for Plans B, C and D.
The fans say, “We never wanted him,” but even deep in their minds they dreamt about that player in a United shirt.
Big names like Thiago Alcantara, Manuel Neuer, Leighton Baines, Mats Hummels, Gareth Bale snubbed them in earlier windows.
In this season, the trend has not changed and they missed many players.
Here is a whole starting XI of players who they could not sign this window:
The list is so long we can even make a bench. The bench would consist players like Roberto Firmino, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mario Gotze.