Sir Alex Ferguson made some inspired decisions during his time as Manchester United manager; nominating David Moyes as his successor wasn't one of them.

The so-called 'Chosen One' endured a nightmarish spell at Old Trafford and marked the beginning of a period which has since been dubbed 'empty' by Jose Mourinho. Only now does it seem United are recovering from the mediocrity of Moyes and Louis van Gaal's reigns.

Moyes failed to build upon the Premier League winning side of 2013, infamously only signing Marouane Fellaini in a barren transfer window that year. Although the Belgian has enjoyed success at the club since, his season under Moyes happened to be his worst.

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Results died something of a death, too. The club's form at Old Trafford capitulated with convincing defeats at the hands of Liverpool and Manchester City as the Red Devils nose dived to their lowest ever Premier League finish of seventh.

In fact, you could talk for hours about Moyes and his disastrous spell at the top.

But in defence of the Scot, in certain departments, you couldn't exactly fault him for trying. During his brief tenure, United were believed to be instigating serious campaigns to sign the likes of Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale.

According to Phil Neville, Moyes was also tailing a number of Borussia Dortmund players. The German side were on the back of a Champions League final appearance and two Bundesliga wins in three years, all under the wing of Jürgen Klopp.

Neville served as first-team coach at Old Trafford during the doomed 2013-14 campaign and shed light on said scouting trips.

Speaking on BBC 5 Live, he explained: "I was at Manchester United at the time when we were scouting players at Borussia Dortmund like Kagawa, like Reus.

"Lewandowski was there and there was always that doubt."

Wait, what about Kagawa?

Neville claimed he was at United when Kagawa was scouted by Moyes despite the Japanese midfielder playing at Old Trafford for the entirety of their respective spells.

When Kagawa was actually scouted, Neville was still a player with Everton and Ferguson was at the helm. In fact, the BBC pundit is a good two-years out with the 28-year-old switching Dortmund for Manchester back in June 2012.

Admittedly, though, the midfielder's spell with the Red Devils wasn't exactly rememberable and particularly underwhelming when Moyes was calling the shots.

Also, the ex-Valencia coach better hope he was talking about an early scouting trip to see Lewandowski because the Pole had agreed his move to Bayern Munich just four months into that season.

Some Dortmund scouting, Phil. 

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