Alex Ferguson lined up Pep Guardiola as his potential successor at Manchester United but the Spanish coach didn’t call him before taking the Bayern Munich job.
In his new book “leading,” Ferguson said the club “established that several very desirable candidates were unavailable” before David Moyes was hired in 2013 for an unsuccessful 11-month spell in charge.
After Guardiola left Barcelona in 2012, Ferguson had dinner with him in New York but, as his own retirement was not on the agenda yet, there was no “direct proposal” for the Spaniard to one day take over at United.
“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 writes in the book, which was published on Tuesday.
Although Ferguson publicly announced the end of his near 27-year reign as United manager in May 2013, he had decided in December 2012 to retire after his wife’s sister died. Guardiola announced in January 2013 that he would take over at Bayern for the next season.
“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,” Ferguson wrote. “We also knew Juergen 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.”
Here is a look at other highlights:
PAY POWER
To maintain his authority over the team, Ferguson says when Wayne Rooney’s salary was increased in 2010 he told the Glazers that it was not fair the striker earned twice as much as manager. “We just agreed that no player should be paid more than me,” Ferguson wrote. “I suspect most football managers get paid less — sometimes far less — than their star players.”
BECKS EClIPSED
Ferguson says only four players during his reign at Old Trafford were “world class” — Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes. One glaring omission is one of his biggest stars: David Beckham. But Ferguson says he isn’t trying to “demean” other great players by listing that elite quartet.
lUCKY ESCAPEIJ
Ferguson reveals that in 2010 he “briefly flirted” with the idea of signing Mario Balotelli before the Italy striker joined Manchester City that year. “The feedback I got confirmed it was too big a risk,” Ferguson wrote. “It was a godsend.”