Topics: Football, Manchester United, Premier League, Sir Alex Ferguson, Transfers
A transfer list from Sir Alex Ferguson's time at Manchester United once leaked online - and it includes some interesting names.
The leaked document shows the transfer plans following Fabian Barthez's move to Marseille in April 2004 ahead of the 2004/05 Premier League season.
In the season prior, United failed to defend the title after missing out to Arsenal's 'Invincibles' and finishing third behind Chelsea.
United also failed to win the Premier League title in 2003/04, and now it has been revealed that it could be because Ferguson didn't secure all of the signings that he wanted ahead of the season.
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According to the transfer list that leaked online, the legendary manager had picked five players that he wanted to sign ahead of the campaign, but only three were actually brought to Old Trafford.
The sheet also contained a list of every player in the senior squad, including those that were deemed as 'excess' by the manager.
The 'excess' column contained the likes of Diego Forlan and Nicky Butt, who were both circled.
And there was a 'youth potential' section, which featured the likes of David Jones and Chris Eagles, as well as Dong Fangzhou, who had joined the club in January.
That column also included Tom Heaton, the only player on the entire list to still be registered as a United player today.
And the final section belonged to Ferguson's transfer targets, of which four were defenders. He managed to sign Gabriel Heinze and Gerard Pique from PSG and Barcelona respectively, with Pique earmarked as a youth signing.
And he also signed Alan Smith, who made the controversial move to Old Trafford from Leeds.
His other two defensive targets were Philippe Mexes and Vincent Kompany. Kompany, though, stayed at Anderlecht.
Mexes joined Roma from Auxerre in June 2004, and spent seven largely successful years there before his move to AC Milan.
Kompany, meanwhile, made the switch to Hamburg in 2006 before moving to Manchester City, where he became a club legend, two years later.
As for United, they went a further two seasons without winning the league, before ending their short drought in 2006/07. They then went on to win two more league titles in a row.
