Hindsight is a fabulous thing, especially when it comes to football. Within absolutely every avenue of football, there is always an opportunity to turn around and say I told you so.
For Sir Alex Ferguson, getting told this was not something that happened too often, but even he was prone to a mistake or two during his illustrious career as Manchester United boss.
Ferguson could well be remembered as the greatest manager of all time and his footballing decisions were very rarely questioned. However, former Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards – who was chairman between 1980 and 2002 – has revealed a number of occasions where the Red Devils missed out on some of the world’s greatest stars.
Edwards told United’s official website that Ferguson rejected the chance to sign Zinedine Zidane back in 1995, arguably one of the greatest midfielders ever, as well as revealing how the club missed out agonisingly on other cult heroes.
Ferguson was apparently made well aware of the then 22-year-old Zidane, who was at Bordeaux before joining Juventus and then going onto Real Madrid, but rejected the chance to sign him due to the Scot believing he was a similar position to forward Eric Cantona.
“When Zidane was at Bordeaux, Les Kershaw, the chief scout, was telling me we should be interested in him and I mentioned it to Alex.”
“Alex said that Eric [Cantona] had also mentioned Zidane to him but Alex felt Zidane played in the same position as Eric.”
“Having gone over to France to persuade Eric to re-sign for us, after the Crystal Palace incident [when Cantona was banned for eight months after clashing with a football fan at Selhurst Park in 1995], he felt that, if he had brought Zidane in, it may have affected Eric’s position, so he stuck with Eric.”
Edwards also revealed how the club were interested in signing four of England’s most reputable players – John Barnes, Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.
“Paul Gascoigne (Newcastle) was certainly one.” Edwards added.
“We thought he was coming but he decided to join Tottenham. I think there were certain last-minute inducements involved.”
“I’d done the negotiations for Alan Shearer and again, I thought he was coming. But Jack Walker (Blackburn owner) was very adamant he wasn’t coming to Manchester United.”
“It was a case of ‘over my dead body’ but he allowed him to go to Newcastle.”
“Gary Lineker (Leicester), as you know, was going to sign for Everton and his agent Jon Holmes rang me on the day and said: ‘We’re about to go on the train to sign for Everton but his first choice would be Manchester United, if you want him to come.'”
“I put it to Ron (Atkinson, manager 1981-86) and he said: ‘I’ve got four strikers already. The last thing we need is another striker.’ So we passed on that one.”
“With John Barnes (Watford), Graham Taylor rang Alex Ferguson to see if he wanted to take him before he signed for Liverpool.”
“Alex passed on him because it was his first season (as manager), he had Jesper Olsen in his squad and he wanted to see whether Jesper would make it.”
Of course, United’s history speaks for itself and no harm was done by not signing these stars. But it does fill you with a sense of wonder about what might have been.