Wesley Sneijder has today confirmed that he was close to joining Manchester United this summer.

Despite Sir Alex Ferguson’s denials, the club had been working hard securing a deal with the Inter Milan midfielder.

Our manager had an off the record chat with Bob Cass from The Daily Mail, claiming the stumbling block was the player’s wages. Cass wrote a story on this, although didn’t directly attribute the quotes to Ferguson. However, a sub-editor changed the copy, much to our manager’s annoyance, as the cat was let out of the bag.

Sniejder today claims that the club had resigned themselves to letting either Samuel Eto’o or himself leave. Eto’o left for Anzhi Makhachkala last week, which Sneijder claims is one of the reasons why he wasn’t sold.

“I had felt that a move was close, yes,” Sneijder said to Dutch newspaper AD. “There were talks on several occasions. The situation was that Inter had to sell a player – Eto’o or me. There was interest, but due to a combination of things, it didn’t happen. They are one of the biggest clubs in the world, so it wasn’t a bad option. But at the same time I didn’t want to leave Inter. I’m in Italy and it’s been great for me. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have felt the same (at United), but for me it wasn’t a situation where I felt I had to move, and there were a few factors that meant it didn’t happen.”

On Twitter last night, Sneijder had a message for United fans.

“I respect all the Man Utd fans, who supported me the whole transfer window!”