Go to Blues to win... sign for Reds and flop!

THERE have been times in the last three years when it seemed that United’s transfer policy relied entirely on imitating City.

The Reds, who have no football director, seemingly no long-term strategy and no real clue when it comes to the market, have gazumped the Blues so many times that it cannot be coincidence.

There is even a wild theory that City’s efficient team of football director Txiki Begiristain, chief executive Ferran Soriano and manager Pep Guardiola, have been mischievously leading United up the garden path.

The story goes that they have feigned interest in certain players, like pranksters at an auction and then sat back, sniggering up their sleeves, as Ed Woodward suddenly appeared, red-faced and waving a cheque book. The theory does not stand much scrutiny – the Blues were definitely chasing Alexis Sanchez and the same goes for Harry Maguire this summer.

Fred is a stranger one. City had the chance to sign him, turned away from it – and then, when they showed interest again in the summer, quickly backed off when Woodward rolled up.

Of course, there is bound to be a cross-over in terms of transfer targets – both clubs are targeting players at the top of the range.

But while City’s signings have, by and large, turned out to be good ones in the last three years, United have floundered.

Is that simply because City have done their homework better and landed better players? Or would those United signings have done much better under Guardiola?

Imagining an alternative universe in which Sanchez, Fred and Maguire signed for City means straying into the realms of fantasy, of course.

But in two of the three cases, certainly, there is good reason to believe they would have been better players if they had chosen Blue glory over Red money.

Sanchez springs readily to mind.

City were sure they had him in the bag, but in the end he dashed off to Old Trafford when – in what can only have been blind panic at the thought of the Blues widening the class gap – they offered him a wage deal worth £505,000 a year and served up a tasty wedge for his agent, too. Bold, creative, hard-working City were clearly a much better fit, while pragmatic, cautious, conservative United under Jose Mourinho, clearly were not. Sanchez soon became a listless, isolated, confused figure at Old Trafford, who netted five in 45 and then departed, in the bin marked ‘flop.’

There are already signs of the old Sanchez returning, in his loan at Inter Milan. Fred is more impenetrable, but the fact that City quickly dropped him when they got a sniff of Jorginho’s availability perhaps tells its own tale. He was Fernandinho’s natural successor at Shakhtar Donetsk, and