Legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that he held a secret meeting with Pep Guardiola in New York, just months before his own retirement from the Old Trafford dugout. He recently had his say in his new book titled “Games of My Life,” and fans have been reacting.
Lifting the lid on a missed opportunity that could have fundamentally altered the modern history of MUFC, Ferguson admitted that the Spaniard could have succeeded him at Old Trafford if his retirement plans were already finalised during the New York summit.
SAF added that by the time they met in 2012, Guardiola had already committed to joining Bayern Munich.
His words, “Over the past ten years, I have often wondered what might have happened if the dinner I had with Pep in New York in 2012 had taken place a couple of months earlier.
At the time, I hadn’t decided for certain that I was going to retire.
And Pep was convinced that, after achieving huge success in just four years in La Liga with a Continental treble as well as a League and Champions League double, he wanted to try life in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.
If I could rewind time, we would have dined some months earlier, I would have poured plenty of Tignanello (Italian wine) and I would have tried my hardest to convince him that his future lay in Manchester. Unfortunately for us, it did. Enough said.
Pep has set a breathtaking standard for the current generation of players or anybody aspiring to become a manager. Draped in Barcelona’s blue and garnet from the time he was born, he had a brilliant club career and was one of the best creative midfielders in the game during the 1990s.
During his playing days, Pep had more than a taste of success – he positively feasted on it. He also had the opportunity to play for a series of strong personalities with different approaches to managing – Johan Cruyff, Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal.
Pep became manager of Barcelona when he was just thirty-seven years old. When I see some of the game’s biggest stars leave the field and immediately take a manager’s job without much preparation or experience, my heart sinks. It often ends badly, especially for the Premier League players.
The stakes are too high. You’re right in everyone’s crosshairs. The public expect that your success on the field will automatically transfer to the dugout.
Former players are impatient to make the transition to the top tier. Pep Guardiola is the most celebrated example of a manager who started with a top club when he was relatively young.”
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