Morgan Schneiderlin admits he ‘tried my best’ to lure former Southampton team-mate Sadio Mane to Manchester United before the forward joined Premier League rivals Liverpool instead.
With hindsight, the entire Louis van Gaal era feels like a classic case of ‘what might have been’? What if the former Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Netherlands boss had succeeded in landing some of his top transfer targets at Old Trafford?
Van Gaal, speaking to FourFourTwo, rattled off a veritable Hollywood boulevard of top-level talent he tried and ultimately failed to get his mitts upon. Robert Lewandowski, Neymar, Riyad Mahrez, Thomas Muller, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Ramos and N’Golo Kante among them.
“I wanted to have quick wingers,” van Gaal adds. “For that reason, I also tried to get Sadio Mane.”
The sight of Mane forming a formidable partnership with Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino, helping fire Liverpool to Premier League and Champions League glory, only adds flesh to the bones of Van Gaal’s argument that he was left high and dry by Ed Woodword and United’s Glazer ownership.
Manchester United wanted Sadio Mane before Liverpool move
Mane eventually swapped Southampton for Liverpool to the tune of £36 million in the summer of 2016; Schneiderlin missed out on the opportunity to reunite with a former Saints team-mate.
“From the first day, you could see that he had something about him,” Schneiderlin tells Players Pod.
“It took him a bit of of time, a few months, to get really going. And then as soon as he started to score some goals, it was game over. It was amazing.
“I remember Louis Van Gaal asking me about him coming to Man United. I tried my best for him to come as well. But he wanted to stay one more year and go to Liverpool.
“I think the choice that he made was amazing. He arrived in Liverpool squad that was just untouchable at the time.”
Mane would go on to score 120 goals in 269 games under Jurgen Klopp, helping to turn the growing gulf between Man United and their old North West neighbours into a something more akin to a chasm.
Mane is now at Bayern Munich, but already facing an uncertain future at the Allianz Arena.
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