Leaked Man Utd transfer list showed four key targets and five players labelled 'excess'

A Manchester United transfer list from Sir Alex Ferguson's time in charge was once leaked - and it makes for interesting viewing.

The transfer list is from before the 2004/05 season, and after the sale of Fabian Barthez to Marseille in April 2004.

United had failed to defend their Premier League crown in the previous campaign, losing out to Arsenal's 'Invincibles' and even finishing behind Chelsea in third.

But ahead of the following campaign, Ferguson wasn't able to land all of his ideal transfer targets.

According to the leaked list, the Scot had five targets that he wanted to sign - three of which were actually acquired by the club.

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.

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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.

Topics: Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Premier League, Football, Transfers

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Darren Till. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

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