The summer transfer window is fast approaching and, as ever, it promises to be a busy time for Premier League clubs looking to strengthen their squads.
While there are thousands of players out there, the market for elite players is actually quite small. It means that the big fish like Manchester United and Manchester City end up competing for the same players inside a relatively small pond.
Such a scenario could be set to play out this summer, with The Times reporting that both Manchester clubs are interested in signing Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong. Barca are reportedly open to selling the former Ajax man if £60million is offered.
City are looking for a successor to Fernandinho in the middle of the pitch, while United are attracted to the 24-year-old due to his experience of working under Erik ten Hag at his former club Ajax. It remains to be seen whether either club steps up their pursuits this summer, but if they both chase De Jong it wouldn’t be the first time the two rivals have gone head-to-head in the transfer market. Mirror Football has taken a look at seven other examples.
Eric Bailly
Bailly joined United from Villarreal for a fee in the region of £30m back in June 2016. The Ivory Coast centre-back was the first signing of the Jose Mourinho era at Old Trafford – but he could have opted for the sky blue half of the city.
Bailly later revealed that he spoke to his compatriots Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, who gave their recommendations, before opting to join Mourinho’s project. "I prefer Mourinho, in part because of Didier Drogba, who Mourinho worked with," Bailly said at the time.
"I have played with Didier in the Ivory Coast, he is a friend and he told me, 'Jose did this for me, Jose did that for me'. Yaya also called me and said come to City. But once Jose spoke to me and Didier gave me advice, I knew straight away I wanted to play for him."
Cristiano Ronaldo
The most recent – and most famous – example of City and United chasing the same player came last summer. Once Ronaldo had made it clear he was leaving Juventus, it appeared as though City were going to be the shock destination for the Portuguese superstar.
Super-agent Jorge Mendes had shopped around his client and discovered City were keen, having lost Sergio Aguero on a free transfer to Barcelona and failed to land Harry Kane. Once United got wind that one of their greatest players could be joining the enemy they jumped into action, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Rio Ferdinand and Sir Alex Ferguson all mobilising to convince Ronaldo of the merits of an Old Trafford return. Amid the onslaught of wooing, City, who were still considering Juve’s price, Ronaldo’s wages and playing style, dropped out of the race and the veteran signed a two-year deal to complete a return to his former club.
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Harry Maguire
"Maguire is a top-class player. We were interested but we could not afford him. United could afford him, congratulations to them.” So said Pep Guardiola after Maguire completed his £80m move from Leicester to United in August 2019. That was Guardiola’s stance publicly, but according to The Daily Star , City were willing to pay Maguire £278,000 per week – a package that was around £100,000-a-week more than what United were offering.
Dimitar Berbatov
Going back a bit further in time, to the summer of 2008, when the balance of power was quite different in Manchester, the two clubs both wanted Berbatov from Tottenham. Spurs were initially unhappy about the manner of Sir Alex Ferguson's approach, but they were able to negotiate a £30.75million fee in exchange for Berbatov – despite City trying to hijack the move late on.
“I can be really direct when I want to be, and as I said before, I follow my own path and along the way of course there will be people who are disappointed in my decision, like the Spurs fans were when I decided to go and follow my dream," Berbatov told the Talk Of The Devils podcast recently. "But then getting close to that dream, we get that call from City of course asking and giving their proposition to my agent. And he was looking at me like 'What do you think?'. And I'm like 'Just f***' off we're going to United.”
Rodri
United signed Bruno Fernandes in January 2020 for an initial fee of £47m. While they won’t be regretting that decision, given Fernandes’ contributions to the side since, it is interesting to think how differently things could have worked out.
That’s because, according to The Athletic , United actually wanted to sign Rodri. City signed the Spanish midfielder in July 2019 after paying his £62.6m release clause at Atletico Madrid and six months later United went for Fernandes. However, they also reportedly compiled scouting reports on Rodri and were in the market for him until City swooped.
Fred
United paid Shakhtar Donetsk £50m to sign Fred in the summer of 2018. That fee has been questioned by some since, but according to Fred’s agent, Fabio Mello, City had also been willing to pay it just six months before.
“He (Fred) was at a very high level at Shakhtar, called up for the Brazilian national team,” he told UOL. "There was a refusal to the Manchester City proposal in January 2018 because Shakhtar were in the Champions League quarter-finals. We held the deal, we lined up with Shakhtar and in the window, before the World Cup, we managed to close the deal with Manchester United, who at the time were led by Mourinho. The fact of closing a deal of this magnitude is very gratifying."
Alexis Sanchez
Sanchez was an expensive mistake for United, but – again – he could have been a City player. After swapping him for Henrikh Mkhitaryan with Arsenal, United gave Sanchez a deal worth £400,000 per week at Old Trafford in January 2018.
That only came about after protracted negotiations with Man City, who made progress on a straight £20m transfer that January after originally agreeing a £60m fee with Arsenal in the previous summer.
"We identified him as a player that would have been a good fit for this club," City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak later said. "Pep was very keen to have him join. But it didn't happen. Not for the wrong reasons. There aren't any regrets. There are reasons why that deal ultimately did fall through and it was out of our hands. We did everything we could."
He added: "We looked at it again in January, but the situation had changed for us compared to how we looked at it in the summer. The reality is that the economics simply didn't work for us any more. If it makes sense for us, we'll do it. If it doesn't make sense, we are perfectly comfortable walking away."
