David Moyes had one of the hardest jobs in football when he was charged with taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Talk about a poisoned chalice. No manager was ever going to top the legendary Scot's tally of 13 Premier League titles, but replacing him still should have been a great honour.

Unfortunately, far from his stint at Old Trafford being the highlight of Moyes' career, it actually kicked off a demise which he has never really been able to reverse.

Having been so well-respected for his work on a strict budget at Everton, he's now ridiculed by football fans up and down the country; his most recent foray into management saw him take Sunderland down with just 24 points.

Just as Louis van Gaal found after him, leading United through such a tricky period of transition was nigh on impossible.

Moyes has revealed, however, that things might have been different had he landed his biggest transfer targets.

Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata did arrive at the Theatre of Dreams for a combined £65million - hardly the sort of money Jose Mourinho has been allowed to spend.

Yet, it seems Moyes had his heart set on a spending spree of his own and just couldn't get deals over the line for two world-class players.

Moyes' big targets 

"Things would have been a lot different if we had landed our main transfer targets," he explained, per the Mirror.

“We were in for Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas. They were genuine targets, but for one ­reason or another, we didn’t get them over the line. Getting them would have been the perfect start in terms of reshaping the squad I ­inherited."

Bale is still thought to be a United target despite his injury woes at Real Madrid, while Fabregas has gone onto win two titles since joining Chelsea.

“Having said that, I accept ­totally that when you are ­manager of ­Manchester United, you have to win," Moyes added.

"I didn’t win enough. But I don’t think there is a manager out there who would have been able to do something better or quicker in the time I was given after Sir Alex ­retired. It was all about small ­margins.”

Maybe there's something in that. Football is indeed a game of small margins and luck just wasn't on the Scotsman's side at the helm of the 20-time champions.

Was Moyes unlucky at Man United? Have your say in the comments.