Lewandowski would have been a more sensible transfer than Van Persie, in terms of long-term return on investment. RVP was always going to be a short-term signing. That said, no guarantee that Lewandowski would have delivered Fergie's farewell PL title, and despite his quality, he probably wouldn't have made a substantial difference to the decline of the complacently managed organisation. On the other hand, would Klopp have been tempted to leave Dortmund to be reunited with his protégé in 2013, and used his authority and force of personality to drive the total reorganisation of the club?

Can't imagine Dortmund would have sold us Kagawa and Lewy in one window?

Bit of a tangent, but... weirdly, I never really felt any affinity with RVP. Always admired him as a player but he was at Arsenal for such a long time that it just felt a bit incongruous that he was suddenly in a United shirt. A bit too deus ex machina. Obviously, we've poached a large % of our greatest players from other clubs, but in most cases they came to us before or on the cusp of their prime. For most of them, United occupied the key chapters of their story. With Van Persie I was really glad to have him in the team, but I didn't quite feel like he belonged to us. Obviously, he did get to have the most important chapter of his career at United, even if it was also a short one. Lewandowski would have fit more into the pattern of buying really good players who would go on to have their best years at United (Cantona, Keane, Cole, Yorke, Rio, Rooney, Carrick...)

comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 3 minutes ago
Can't imagine Dortmund would have sold us Kagawa and Lewy in one window?
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It backfired on them that they refused. Instead of getting a big transfer from us, they eventually lost him to their bitter domestic rival on a free.

comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 27 minutes ago
Can't imagine Dortmund would have sold us Kagawa and Lewy in one window?
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They lost him in the end for free. Nada. Ziltch.

At that time RVP joined us, Lewandowski only had 2 Bundesliga seasons behind him and only 1 was prolific.

RVP was probably the safer short term signing.

If Moeyes version of events is to be believed he had agreed deals for
Lewa
Cesc Fab
Kroos

All in that window but the board pulled the plug. Has he managed to get all those 3 over the line maybe it would have been a very different few years post SAF!

comment by UmaThurmans_BigToe (U22864)
posted 9 minutes ago
If Moeyes version of events is to be believed he had agreed deals for
Lewa
Cesc Fab
Kroos

All in that window but the board pulled the plug. Has he managed to get all those 3 over the line maybe it would have been a very different few years post SAF!
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that's got be one of the most impressive 'what ifs' ever...............but Moyes still not good enough to be a top level manager utimately

comment by UmaThurmans_BigToe (U22864)
posted 1 hour, 33 minutes ago
If Moeyes version of events is to be believed he had agreed deals for
Lewa
Cesc Fab
Kroos

All in that window but the board pulled the plug. Has he managed to get all those 3 over the line maybe it would have been a very different few years post SAF!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe Lewandowski was the window before Moyes took over - he could have joined when we ultimately signed RVP. And I guess it would have been Fabregas *or* Kroos, not both (we also attempted to sign Tiago Alcantara that summer, before he opted to rejoin Guardiola at Bayern). Nothing that has happened since suggests that Moyes would have been good enough for us, but the club really mangled the transfer window, at a time when (whoever the manager) all of our best players were ageing and on the decline.