Roy Keane has claimed that Manchester United's failures to land David Moyes's top transfer targets left him "snookered" from the start of his reign at the club.
The Red Devils were linked with Gareth Bale, Cesc Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara but they failed to land any of the trio, which led to a poor season and the Scot's departure after just 10 months at Old Trafford.
Keane feels that the blame lies with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward for not supplying Moyes with the talent he needed.
He told reporters: "I wouldn't be critical of [Sir Alex] Ferguson but sometimes when you're leaving, it gives the manager a chance to make their own mark and he brought in one or two players, didn't get the players clearly that he was after in the summer but I don't think that's the manager.
"It's the chief executive who can probably look at himself. I'm sure if you ask the chief exec he will say 'yeah, we missed out on a few deals'. There were two or three lined up that fell through and they ended up getting one or two on transfer deadline day, Mata in January but maybe the damage was done then.
"I was going to Old Trafford and there was a lot of negativity around. They got no momentum and it was as if David Moyes was snookered from the first few weeks."
Keane also revealed that he was unsure whether he could forgive Ferguson for remarks he made last year.
Simon Sinclair
