Manchester United fans spent last summer hoping that all the rumours riddling the press about Wesley Sneijder were true. Most media outlets, from the tabloids to the loftiest broadsheets, were reporting United’s interest in the player. But there were no encouraging official comments from either club, which left many wondering whether this was all just idle, paper selling speculation. Only now has it been confirmed that Manchester United actually made a bid for the the Dutch playmaker.
In an interview with Turkish media the midfielder confirmed that Inter were offered £17m by Manchester United, but the bid was rejected.
‘Manchester United had offered €20million for me and the club rejected it,’
‘I wanted to go to United but Inter didn’t let me. And then they asked me to lower my wage. I didn’t accept it.’
Inter obviously felt, at the time, that they could command a much bigger fee for the player. But the overall cost of taking the midfielder has proved prohibitive to most and he recently joined Galatasaray for £8.5m.
If Manchester United had come in with a similar bid this time around then Sneijder would surely have been interested. Perhaps this tells us that, with the emergence of Tom Cleverley, the signing of Shinji Kagawa and the form of Micheal Carrick, Sir Alex Ferguson feels that he is now amply endowed in this area of the park. Still, for many Manchester United fans, the signing of Sneijder would still have been a coup for a player who should be rubbing shoulders with the elite players in Europe. It will be interesting to see if he can rediscover his form for the Turkish side or whether, after a long spell on the sidelines, his star is fading.
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