It's never good to dwell on what might have been, but it's usually fun, so as the January transfer window slams shut on the fingers of Manchester United fans hoping for some exciting new signings, now's a good time to take a look back at players who, but for quirks of fate or circumstance, could have played at Old Trafford. Here are the top 5 signings that Sir Alex Ferguson missed out on

5. Gabriel Batistuta - Fergie had been linked to Batigoal a number of times but in 2000, the Argentinian confessed that if he ever left Fiorentina it would only be to go to Old Trafford. "If I leave Fiorentina, there is only one club I would like to join - Manchester United." he said. "I have had the chance to play in England but at the time it wasn't right for me. But if everything is right, I would play in the Premiership." Despite the tempting come and get me plea, the time wasn't right and instead Ferguson went for horse faced goal machine Ruud van Nistelrooy. Despite crocking himself for a whole season just before the transfer, Fergie resisted the urge to try and temp Gabriel to fill the void, and instead waited for the Dutchmen to regain his fitness. A wise move in hindsight.

4. Ronaldinho - Before the sale of human mannequin David Beckham to the evil empire that is Real Madrid, Manchester United had already lined up his replacement. His replacement was the then admired, but not yet world renowned Brazilian Trisha Goddard lookalike Ronaldo de Assis Moreira. Little Ronaldo (Ronaldhino in Brazilian Portugese) flew into Manchester to have talks with squashed Uncle Fester impersonator Peter Kenyon and a move seemed almost done and dusted. However when Beckham went to Madrid, Barcelona president Joan Laporta, who had spent his entire electoral campaign promising to sign the England captain, switched his attention to Ronaldinho. He out bid Kenyon, and promised the buck toothed wonder a better quality of life, and weather, in the heart of Catalonia. Ronaldinho accepted and United signed unknown spaghetti haired teenager Cristiano Ronaldo instead. Whether Ferguson would have tolerated his wayward party lifestyle for long (he had more in common with recently jettisoned striker Dwight Yorke than just his teeth) seems unlikely, and had United captured his signing, they may not have gone after Ronaldo, who was being watched heavily by Liverpool as well. Another defining moment in Ferguson's career, but hardly any United fans would deny they would have loved to have seen him trot out in a red shirt.

3. Paul Gascoigne - Around about the time he was calling himself G8, apparently completely unaware of the international government forum of the same name, I saw Gazza play a friendly for Boston United. He was about 38 by then, and he was magnificent. Although obviously playing well below his own level it was still clear how naturally talented this man was. He was also completely mad, compulsively tying and re-tying he shoelaces every 2 minutes presumably to avoid the apocalypse or whatever dreaded scenario his failure to do so instilled in his head. In 1988 Gascoigne had promised a pre knighthood Alex Ferguson that he would join Manchester United from Newcastle and the Scot went on his summer vacation content in the knowledge that he'd signed one of the games great young talents. However a few weeks later, his holiday was rudely interrupted by the news that Gazza had signed for Spurs, apparently negating on the verbal agreement the two had made only weeks earlier. Ferguson claims Gascoigne was lured to Tottenham after the club had bought his family a house, and still maintains that the collapse of this deal is his single greatest disappointment of his managerial career. Had G8 signed for United, his career may have been a far less controversial one. Under the protective fartherly wing of Ferguson, Gazza may have soothed the demons in his mind and won the trophies his talent deserved. Or however, he could have driven Fergie so far up the wall he'd of been shipped off to Siberia within a couple of seasons. Who knows, but the history of both club and player would have been very different.

2. Alan Shearer - Now busy desperately trying to hold on to the illusion he still has hair at the front and singlehandedly driving lapelled shirts out of fashion on the MoTD sofa, Alan Shearer was once a regular target for Man United. He was first approached while at Southampton but chose to go to Blackburn Rovers instead. His choice looked a wise one initially as he won the first, and only medal of his career as the cherry on Jack Walkers expensively created cake. As Blackburn fell out of the running he was strongly linked with United again, but again turned them down, much to Ferguson's ire, to return to boyhood love Newcastle for a then staggering record fee. His sermon on the mount style presentation also helped to instill the rather baffling Messiah complex at St James Park, a complex that remained until, rather biblically, he himself returned to ruin not just his own, but Newcastle's reputation last season. Big Al's multiple shunning's of United made him a hero to most neutrals and a constant bane to Ferguson. However some small part of him must reflect every now and then how different his career could have been had he taken the chance to join the club who would go on, and on, and on, to win everything under the sun and more whilst he is left to constantly polish his one and only honour in football like a demented prospector clinging to a tiny nugget of gold. Had Shearer signed for the Red Devils, a combination of him and Cantona, fed by Giggs and eventually Beckham, would have surely been one of the most awesome attacking forces in English footballing history. But we'll never know.

1. David Hirst - Hirsty makes the list not for what he could have achieved himself at United, but what he could have prevented them achieving. In the January transfer window of '93 Ferguson was desperately on the look out for a striker to partner Mark Hughes and bolster a team who weren't scoring freely and not looking like prospective title challengers at all. Such was Fergie's admiration of Hirst that the United boss apparently tried 6 times to temp Sheffield Wednesday to sell him, finally, and most aggressively, during that transfer window. However during a chance conversation with Leeds boss Howard Wilkinson, who'd phoned soley to ask about the availability of Dennis Irwin, a name popped into Fergie's head, and things were never the same again. The name was Eric Cantona, and had United succeeded in signing Hirst before that conversation, both they, and the Premier League, would be strikingly different today. If ever there was a catalystic moment in Ferguson's career to rival Mark Robins famous "saving of his job" then this was it. And for this reason, it's surely the most important transfer to never happen for man from Govan.