Cristiano Ronaldo, Alexis Sanchez and the eight transfer bullets Man City dodged that ended up flopping at Man Utd

In January 2018, with just months left on his contract at Arsenal, Sanchez faced a choice between joining two of the best coaches in the world. One option was reuniting with Pep Guardiola, who had signed him for Barcelona and who he has said "was like my dad".

Then there was Jose Mourinho, who looked to be taking United back to the top. The Portuguese, who was already seeing his arch-rival run away with the title, could not bear the thought of another top player further strengthening City and made an appeal to Sanchez.

"I was about to go to City," the Chilean told La Tercera earlier this year. "We talked every day, he sent me messages. Suddenly the phone rings. Mourinho tells me: 'Alexis, here is the number seven shirt available for you'. I wanted to leave at that moment, but I had Guardiola's word.

"That's when I said to myself, a Chilean footballer playing for Manchester United, something that has never happened. With the seven of Cantona, Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and now a Chilean had it, it was a dream."

That dream, though, quickly turned into a nightmare for everyone concerned. Sanchez later confessed that after his first training session with United, he asked his agent if he could rip up his contract and go back to Arsenal.

The Chilean, who earned a reported £400,000 ($485,000)-per-week, never came close to replicating his form for the Gunners at United, and when the Red Devils made a miserable start to the following season, he bore the brunt of criticism.

Sanchez left United for Inter after a miserable 18 months, scoring just five goals in 45 appearances and looking utterly devoid of confidence and verve, a shadow of the player he once was.

Maguire was regarded as one of the best centre-backs in Europe after a stunning 2018 World Cup, and both City and United vied for his signature the following summer. Guardiola was an admirer and the club were ready to match the Red Devils' £70m ($85m) bid for him, but turned away when Leicester, seeing the competition breweing between the two rival clubs, raised their asking price to £80m ($97m).

"We were interested but we could not afford him. United could," Guardiola later admitted. While Maguire had a perfect debut at Old Trafford, a 4-0 win over Chelsea, things quickly unravelled for him. He recovered his form to steer United to consecutive top-four finishes, but when the team began to fall apart under Solskjaer, he was blamed for their spiral of horrendous results, among them the 5-0 home humiliation by Liverpool.

Erik ten Hag gave Maguire just eight league starts last season and wanted to sell him in the summer to West Ham for just £30m ($36m), but the defender refused to leave.

Maguire has staged an impressive recovery after facing merciless ribbing from all quarters and silenced his critics. However, he has continued to be rocked by injury problems and is set to miss the derby. And City, who signed Ruben Dias in 2020 for £64m ($77m), will have few regrets about not getting the deal for Maguire over the line.

Pogba's second spell at Manchester United was a long-running and painful saga that finally came to an end when his lucrative, six-year contract ran out in June 2022.

Despite his many injury issues and the fact he had not managed to truly shine under Mourinho, Solskjaer or Ralf Rangnick, City were interested in signing him as a free agent. It was not the first time that Pogba had been linked with City, as Guardiola revealed that he had been offered the chance to sign the Frenchman in 2018 after he fell out with Mourinho, despite agent Mino Raiola calling the City boss "a coward, a dog".

Pogba, wary of the potential backlash from United fans, opted to move back to Juventus instead. But his second coming in Turin has been a nightmare in every sense, suffering two serious injuries, being subject to blackmail, and then failing a drugs test for elevated levels of testosterone. Another bullet dodged from City's point of view.

With his time at Juventus coming to a bitter end in the summer of 2021, Ronaldo was considering his next move, and City were one of the few clubs who could afford him. When word spread that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner was speaking to City, key figures from United, especially Sir Alex Ferguson, began to panic.

"Honestly, it [moving to City] was close. They spoke a lot and Guardiola said two weeks ago that they tried hard to have me," Ronaldo told Piers Morgan during his infamous interview in December 2022. "Sir Alex Ferguson was the key. I spoke with him… He said to me that, 'It's impossible for you to come to Manchester City'. And I said 'OK, Boss'."

Ronaldo made an immense start to his second coming, scoring twice on his debut against Newcastle and rescuing victories over Villarreal and Atalanta. But it was clear that United were a worse team as a result, as he slowed down their play and forced them to adapt their style of the past three years to suit him. Ronaldo ended the season as the team's top scorer but United registered their worst points total in 30 years in the Premier League, and his capacity to pull off escape acts slowly diminished.

His me-first attitude had also had a negative effect on the team, and in his second campaign he stunk out the place, leaving a friendly against Rayo Vallecano at half-time and refusing to come on as a substitute before full-time against Tottenham, incurring a brief suspension. His unauthorised sit-down with Morgan embarrassed United further and there was only going to be one ending - ripping up his contract.

City, meanwhile, won another title without a striker and then welcomed in Erling Haaland, who fired them to the treble. Yet another bullet dodged.

Fred always got attention for the wrong reasons during his five-year spell at United, where he was not so much a scapegoat but more of a comedy figure, provoking laughter more than scorn for his unusual running style and his apparent lack of ability.

The joke was all the funnier for rival fans given Fred had cost United £50m ($60m) back in 2018. But the Red Devils were not the only club willing to pay a high price for the midfielder, who was on the verge of joining City in January 2018.

His agent, Fabio Mello, has revealed that he had arranged a deal with Guardiola's side, but Shakhtar Donetsk blocked the move as they had reached the knockout stages of the Champions League and Fred was crucial to their hopes of progressing further.

Mello said that he and Shakhtar "held up" the deal with City until the summer transfer window, and that was when United expressed interest in him and eventually got the transfer done. Fred joined Fenerbahce for £8m in the summer, a loss of more than £40m for United with very little gained in memories, particularly good ones.

The Brazilian winger is United's biggest transfer mistake of the Ten Hag era and, so far, one of the biggest flops in the club's history. He cost a staggering £86m ($108m), making him United's second-most expensive signing of all-time after Pogba. But he had nothing like the reputation or marketing value of the Frenchman, and it has become very clear that United paid far, far too much for him.

Antony is at best a one-trick pony, only capable of cutting in from the right wing and fizzing shots into the far top corner with his left foot. But even his capacity to pull that trick off is fading, and he has had a terrible second season, registering no goals or assists in the league.

As well as that, he caused the club huge reputational damage after being accused of assault by three women in September, leading him to be parted from the squad for three weeks. However, he could have turned into a problem for City rather than United.

According to The Telegraph, Antony attracted City's attention in 2019 when he had just broken into the Sao Paulo first team. He was offered the chance to join City permanently, but would first move to Sporting CP on loan. The winger, aged 19 at the time, did not feel ready to move to Europe at that point and waited another year before joining Ajax and working under Ten Hag.

The Swede was on United's radar for a while before they eventually signed him for £30m ($36m) in the summer of 2017 having tried to get him in during the preceding January transfer window. Benfica resisted a mid-season sale, and reports were rife that City were hoping to hijack the move later in the year.

Lindelof did indeed join United, who appeared to be in the ascendancy under Mourinho while Guardiola endured a trophy-less debut campaign with City. But ever since Lindelof moved to Manchester, City have been the dominant force in town, and the Swede has not exactly covered himself in glory.

Sancho belongs in a slightly different category to the rest as he did join City, spending two years in their academy before heading to Borussia Dortmund. As he developed into one of the most exciting wingers in Europe while in Germany and his value rocketed, it looked as if City had made a huge mistake by letting him go for only £8m ($10m).

But City have been vindicated now his United career is in tatters, spending the latter half of the season on loan at Dortmund following two seasons of flat performances and a fallout with Ten Hag. The Blues were aware of some of the negative aspects of Sancho's character that soon became clear to United, such as his problems with time-keeping and his tendency to sulk when things do not go his way.

After being left out of City's pre-season tour in 2017 and being upset that team-mate Phil Foden had been selected, Sancho refused to turn up for training with the youth team. The winger's attitude had also been called into question by England, but United did not heed the warnings and made another expensive blunder, with the £74m ($90m) man set to leave once and for all in the summer for a far lower fee.

City were interested in signing Varane in 2020 as they searched for a new centre-back, although they may have been put off by his two glaring errors for Real Madrid which handed Guardiola's side victory in the Champions League last-16 second leg.

City signed Dias instead that summer, although according to reports they were still interested in Varane the following year when he had only 12 months left on his contract with Madrid. United, though, eventually signed the Frenchman for £50m ($60m) and he has been a solid purchase, even if his time at Old Trafford has been frequently interrupted by muscle injuries and he is likely to leave for free in the summer when his contract runs out.

City won't be regretting missing out on him, though, due to the consistency of Dias and the success of Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake.

The one player United can be pleased about beating their neighbours to is Fernandes. The Portugal midfielder was heavily linked with a move to City in the summer of 2019, with Fabrizio Romano reporting that sporting director Txiki Begiristain discussed a deal with Sporting CP and offered players to the Portuguese side in order to lower their price.

Guardiola has denied that City were ever close to signing Fernandes, however, and that same summer they bought Rodri from Atletico Madrid. United had shown interest in Fernandes that same summer, but it was not until the following January that they finally met Sporting's asking price.

Fernandes has proven to be United's best signing of the last decade and has raised his game in derby matches against City, including scoring a highly-controversial goal last season. But still, few Cityzens will be wishing they had signed him over Rodri.

Even if United have regrets about plenty of players who they signed ahead of City, perhaps it has all been worth of it for how they took Ryan Giggs from the blue half of Manchester many years ago.

Giggs, who was then known as Ryan Wilson, was gaining a reputation as the best teenager in the region but he was at City's Centre of Excellence. “We always had a few scouts who claimed they were the one who discovered Giggsy,” Ferguson recalled. “They probably did, but they never acted on what they saw. It was actually a steward who first told me it was a disgrace that this Manchester United fan was training down the road at City.”

Ferguson went to Giggs' house on the player's 14th birthday to sign him for United as a schoolboy and the Salford lad went on to become the club's longest-serving and most decorated player, feared by the Blues and loved by the Reds.