Man United 'tracked Julian Alvarez last year' before he joined rivals Man City

Manchester United were reportedly interested in signing Julian Alvarez before the Argentine forward completed a move to rivals Man City.

Pep Guardiola's side announced the signing of the 22-year-old on deadline day of last year's January transfer window for a fee worth £14million.

Alvarez, who last month won the World Cup with Argentina, could have been playing for the red-half of Manchester if they had pushed through a move.

As reported by the Athletic, the Red Devils 'tracked' Alvarez before the switch to Man City was confirmed.

However, they 'pulled the drawbridge' on the move when Ralf Rangnick was in interim charge after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's sacking in November 2021.

Alvarez, after staying at River Plate on loan for the second half of last season, joined up with Man City in the summer and has scored eight goals in 22 appearances.

He also scored four goals for Argentina on their way to winning the World Cup - including two in the semi-final against Croatia.

As reported by Sky Sports in May, Rangnick name-checked Alvarez when speaking about forwards United could have signed last January.

Rangnick revealed his late attempts to sign a forward in January were rejected by the club’s board, leaving them short of striking options in the second half of the season.

He said: 'The answer at the time was no there was no player on the market that could really help us - there were a few, (Luis) Diaz who is now at Liverpool, Alvarez who will be at Manchester City in the summer, (Dusan) Vlahovic who at the time still was with Fiorentina those are just three of them that come across my mind now.'

The report by the Athletic also stated that a move for Cody Gakpo was ruled out shortly before Christmas.

Owner Joel Glazer 'had made plain' in the summer that the spend of more than £200million on players would impact their winter business.

Therefore, they could not put together the move for Gakpo, which allowed the forward to make the move to Liverpool for a £44million deal.

Instead, United boss Erik ten Hag is resorting to having to bring in a player on loan.

United are still hopeful of signing Wout Weghorst despite Besiktas refusing to rip up his loan deal from Burnley.

United are in talks with Burnley over signing Weghorst until the end of the season, and the Holland striker has made it clear that he wants to move to Old Trafford.

But Besiktas will only agree to end the 30-year-old’s loan spell in Turkey for the right price, and dismissed suggestions it can be cut short for £2million as ‘fictitious’.