David Moyes was left ruing the one that got away after Alvaro Negredo all but booked Manchester City’s place in the Capital One Cup final with a stunning hat-trick against West Ham.
While Moyes’ misfiring Manchester United side stumbled to a 2-1 semi-final first-leg defeat at Sunderland, Negredo made City’s return meeting with West Ham a formality with his second hat-trick of the season - and 15th goal in 15 home appearances this season - in a 6-0 win.
Yet the prolific Spain striker could have been wearing the blue of Everton, rather than City, after former Goodison boss Moyes despatched his transfer negotiators to Seville last January, with orders to bring him back to Merseyside.
The deal floundered when Everton officials arrived in Spain to find the asking price had soared from around £12million to nearly £18m, and the 28-year old ended up joining City in the summer instead.
Moyes also headed to Manchester, to replace Sir Alex Ferguson as manager, and was dismayed to discover United’s scouting network in southern Spain had allowed their City counterparts to outmanoeuvre them for both Negredo and lightning-quick winger Jesus Navas.
Negredo revealed he was aware of Everton’s interest but insisted it was always his intention to see out the season with Sevilla before testing himself in the Barclays Premier League.
‘There were some rumours, but I just wanted to finish the season with Sevilla,’ he said. ‘I wanted to wait until it got to the summer before I started looking at other options. I never really considered the possibility of moving in January.’
Known affectionately as The Beast by Etihad fans, he has terrorised opposition defences all season and is now just one goal behind Sergio Aguero in City’s scor‘But, the way I am feeling and the way my game is going, I do feel this could be my best moment so far. This could be the best season of my career. I’m feeling comfortable, I score a lot of goals and hopefully I can make some assists. This is how I want to continue for the rest of my time here. The only real target, though, is to grow, to improve as a player and become better as I go along.’
United have their work cut out to make it an all-Manchester final, with their tie balanced on a knife-edge, but Negredo is unconcerned about who City will face.
‘At the moment, we just want to be sure of booking our place,’ he said. ‘Maybe the fans are all thinking about United, but as long as we are in it, I don’t mind. I’ve never been to Wembley before, so that is all that matter
‘I am in a great moment, but I hope to get even better,’ he said. ‘I need to get more goals and catch Sergio up quickly, because I know that when he comes back from injury, he will score plenty.
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