Thiago Alacantara will soon be wearing a Liverpool shirt. However, the midfielder could have landed in the Premier League seven years ago with Manchester United if it weren’t because of David Moyes.
On Thursday (9/17/2020), Liverpool reportedly agreed to a dowry of £ 20 million plus five million in additional to bring in Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich coach, Hans Flick, has acquiesced Thiago Alcantara’s departure to Liverpool. Thiago Alcantara’s departure to Liverpool made Hans Flick feel lost. However, he congratulated Liverpool for successfully recruiting quality footballers like Thiago Alcantara.
“Thiago is an extraordinary player and very important for us,” said Hans Flick ahead of the 2020-2021 Bundesliga match against Schalke. “The coaching team and I enjoyed working with him. We were very emotional when we said goodbye. I can only congratulate Liverpool because they have a great player as well as a great man,” said Hans Flick.
For Manchester United fans, Thiago Alcantara’s arrival in the Premier League will remind how the player could have become their son in the summer of 2013. Thiago Alcantara should be one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s last legacy to Man United.
As quoted from ESPN, before deciding to retire in May 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson had prepared everything so that Man United brought in Thiago from Barcelona with a tag of “only” 17 million pounds.
According to Daniel Taylor of The Athletic, “Ferguson prepared a farewell gift for David Moyes in 2013. After years of monitoring, it’s all been agreed.” Thiago was only 22 years old at the time and he has expressed his desire to leave because he is not getting a prime spot at Barcelona.
However, Sir Alex’s retirement makes the final decision regarding the player’s transfer rests on the shoulders of the new coach, namely David Moyes. Red Devils management has told David Moyes that they are ready to sign a big name player. In fact, names like Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale were also mentioned.
Despite getting everything he needed for the transfer, Moyes postponed the green light for Thiago when he arrived in June 2013. Moyes actually told the Red Devils officials that he was more interested in another Barcelona midfielder who was also at ease: Cesc Fabregas. As a result, Moyes canceled Thiago’s transfer unilaterally because he felt he didn’t know much about the player.
The fact was Thiago is the captain of the Spanish national team who won Euro U21 in the same summer and he made his debut for the senior national team two years earlier. Moyes failed in his approach to Fabregas and instead brought in Marouane Fellaini from former club Everton on the final day of the transfer.
Now, Thiago Alcantara completed a € 20 million transfer to Bayern Munich where he won seven Bundesliga titles, four DFB Pokal titles and one Champions League title plus the Club World Cup title. Thiago Alcantara is also one of the players who led Bayern Munich to win the treble winners for the 2019-2020 season.
