David Moyes has admitted that his first transfer window after taking over as manager of Manchester United in 2013 was 'terrible'.
The 61-year-old also revealed that Cesc Fabregas was close to joining the Red Devils from Barcelona that summer but a deal fell through.
The Scot took over from Sir Alex Ferguson as United boss 11 years ago but lasted less than a season, leaving the side languishing in seventh place in April 2014.
He has since gone on to manage Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham United and left the east London club this summer.
Now Moyes has described the struggle of the 2013 transfer window in an interview with the Up Front podcast and explained how he missed out on a string of targets including Fabregas and Tottenham's Gareth Bale.
David Moyes (pictured with Marouane Fellaini, left) has admitted that his first transfer window after taking over as manager of Manchester United in 2013 was 'terrible'
Moyes has described the struggle of the window in an interview with the Up Front podcast
He explained how he missed out on a string of targets including Cesc Fabregas
He also recalled how United had to wait until deadline day to secure the marquee signing of midfielder Marouane Fellaini from former club Everton.
'Both me and Alex Ferguson said "Cesc Fabregas" and we spoke about him and he said, "Yeah we'll bring Cesc Fabregas in".
'Cesc had been out the team at Barcelona at the end of the season - we spoke to Cesc and Cesc had agreed if he hadn't been selected in the first game for Barcelona he'd have joined Man United.
'And the other part then was that I wanted Gareth Bale. We had made a bigger offer to Tottenham, made bigger offers to him, his agent, we all done it.
'We had a helicopter waiting to try and get Gareth.
'We had also wanted to sign Leighton Baines but going back to Everton was so difficult because of Bill [Kenwright] and Bill was still angry that I hadn't dealt with things correctly and both in the end fell through. Gareth had his heart set on Real Madrid and I couldn't change it.'
Moyes was hand-picked as the successor to Sir Alex at United, taking over from his fellow Scot when he retired at the end of the 2012-13 Premier League season.
There were high hopes for his reign, with former Preston and Everton boss taking over a side that had just won the Premier League for a record 13th time.
Things didn't go to plan, however, with Moyes winning just 27 of his 51 games in charge and failing to see out a single season despite signing a six-year deal, leaving United seventh in the table when he was sacked.
Moyes had won the Community Shield with United, becoming the first Red Devils manager to win a trophy outright in his first season with the club, but things declined quickly for him as results went downhill.
Moyes said: 'And the other part then was that I wanted Gareth Bale. We had made a bigger offer to Tottenham, made bigger offers to him, his agent, we all done it'
Moyes has since gone on to manage Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham United and left the east London club this summer
Rio Ferdinand claimed Moyes' biggest failing was how he still 'thought like an Everton manager'
Earlier this year, Rio Ferdinand shed light on David Moyes' downfall as manager of Man United and insisted it was because of his 'different mentality'.
'As a professional I wanted him [Moyes] to do well and you're giving them that time and the chance, definitely,' he said.
'But there's a few things you see that aren't the same. I think the biggest thing for me was that there was always too much focus on our opponents in training. We're Man United, they're meant to worry about us more.'