Axed former Manchester United scout Derek Langley has named three high-profile players who the club scouted but failed to sign.

Langley was sacked as head of youth player recruitment in July 2016 after 16 years scouting at Manchester United, because he wouldn’t “toe the line” with the United hierarchy.

Langley says United had scouted Matthijs de Ligt on numerous occasions but Ed Woodward and Co opted not to make a move on the centre-back, while his Ajax team-mate Frenkie de Jong was also on United’s radar.

The talented Dutch pair are expected to be sold for a combined £150million in the next 12 months – but neither player were deemed good enough for United’s ranks, while Dayot Upamecano was also rejected.

“Players that they turned down? Matthijs de Ligt. We had God knows how many reports on Matthijs de Ligt,” Langley told the Manchester Evening News.

“Frenkie de Jong and all these players now are sort of around Europe. Dayot Upamecano, who is now at Red Bull Leipzig, was another.

“This was one of the reasons why I had a meeting with Ed Woodward and I told him that I wasn’t convinced with the competency of certain people at the club.

“I told Ed Woodward quite straight: ‘If you think I’m going to sit here and just tell you what you want to hear, I’m not that man because I’m going to tell you exactly how I see it.’

“I think it was possibly part of my downfall as to why seven months down the line I was removed because I wouldn’t tow the line in relation to telling them exactly what I thought.

“It’s one of them things in football – you come to accept it. Manchester United thanked me for the time I spent there and the players I’d taken in, but ultimately we could have been so much better if people had listened.”