Ferguson ‘wanted Pep at United’

Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly wanted Pep Guardiola to replace him at Manchester United, not David Moyes.

Moyes, now at Real Sociedad, was appointed in the summer of 2013 when Ferguson retired but lasted less than a season.

Ferguson writes in his new book, the Daily Mirror reports, that he would have liked Guardiola as his successor but the timing never worked out.

“I had dinner with Pep Guardiola in New York in 2012, but couldn’t make him any direct proposal because retirement was not on my agenda at that point,” he revealed.

“He had already won an enviable number of trophies with Barcelona…and I admired him greatly. I asked Pep to phone me before he accepted an offer from another club, but he didn’t and wound up joining Bayern Munich in July 2013.”

Ferguson further adds that Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti were under consideration when he did decide to retire, but they too were unavailable.

“When we started the process of looking for my replacement, we established that several very desirable candidates were unavailable. It became apparent that Jose Mourinho had given his word to Roman Abramovich that he would return to Chelsea, and that Carlo Ancelotti would succeed him at Real Madrid.

“We also knew that Jurgen Klopp was happy at Borussia Dortmund and would be signing a new contract. Meantime, Louis van Gaal had undertaken to lead the Dutch attempt to win the 2014 World Cup.”

Tags Bayern Munich Manchester United Pep Guardiola Sir Alex Ferguson
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