The failure to lure a world class star hampered his first season in charge that ended him being axed before the end of his first season.
Moyes said: “When I first went in my real target was Gareth Bale. I felt all along that Gareth Bale was a Manchester United player.
“I fought right until the last minute. We actually offered a bigger deal than Real Madrid. But Gareth had his mind made up on going to Real Madrid. That was, in my mind, the player I really wanted to bring to Manchester United.
“The other one was Cesc Fabregas, who we thought we would get right up until the last minute.
“I remember when I first met Sir Alex and he always said there was a chance Ronaldo might come back.
“So that was the level we were targeting. I was not going out to bring in seven, eight players, because we had a squad which had just won the league.
“Toni Kroos was agreed to come in the summer. I had agreed it with Toni himself and his agent.”