Man Utd sign Portugeuse Spurs left-wing target Nani, and also bag Brazilian Anderson. Nani will replace Giggs in the long run and Anderson will slot into midfield, probably as a long-term replacement for Scholes. As for us? We are left with a key to a room in Fawlty Towers contemplating another near miss in the transfer market while trying to explain to the Spanish porter that we were never interested in signing Nani in the first place or had the foresight to consider Anderson.

Qué?

Yeah, well Qué indeed.

I don't believe our failure to sign Nani to finally resolve the left-sided midfield problem is in fact a smokescreen. That's just an excuse for our failings. We went in for him. We failed to sign him. Manchester United got stronger.

Or did it really happen like that? Wool over eyes? Levy maybe able to over spend on young British youth but when it comes to continential quality we have fallen short. But the ironic thing is, we never stood a chance of signing him anway. Levy was piggy-backing on the hype so that we would be seen to be actively searching for top class players.

Not going for anyone and not signing anyone is obviously not as 'positive' as going for players, but still failing. And, as we know, if there's one team that excels at nearly signing someone, its us.