Sir Alex Ferguson's opinion of Pep Guardiola says a lot after he ignored phone call request

Sir Alex Ferguson did everything he could to persuade Pep Guardiola to replace him at Manchester United - but the current Manchester City boss wasn't interested in hearing the Scot's final pitch.

Back in 2013, Ferguson was instrumental in choosing his successor. Despite David Moyes, whose Everton team face United on Saturday, being tasked with filling the shoes of the 13-time Premier League winning Scot, Guardiola was top of United's wish list.

Ferguson reached out to the Catalan, who was nearing the end of a year-long sabbatical after leaving Barcelona in 2012, in an attempt to lure him to Old Trafford. Guardiola had won three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and two Copa Del Rey trophies in four years at the Camp Nou.

Had Guardiola replaced Ferguson, it would have been one serial trophy winner replacing another. However, the Scot was not even given one last chance to stop Guardiola from choosing Bayern Munich.

In his 2015 book, 'Leading', Ferguson said: "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 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."

At one point, Guardiola also showed interest in the club, as revealed by the City boss' close friend and journalist, Marti Perarnau, in the book 'Pep Confidential'. A passage read: "The day after beating Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, Guardiola and [assistant Manuel] Estiarte travelled to Manchester to watch their next opponents in action.

Image: AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images)

"It was on May 4, 2011, when Pep Guardiola and his friend were in the stands at Old Trafford, watching Sir Alex Ferguson's team thrash Schalke 4-1. Guardiola turned to his friend and said: 'I like this atmosphere. I could see myself coaching here one day'."

When the chance to succeed Ferguson came about, Guardiola chose to move to Germany to take over Jupp Heynckes' Treble-winning Bayern side in 2013, without consulting the Scot. The allure of Old Trafford and Ferguson were not enough to lure him to United, with Guardiola perhaps understanding the enormity of the challenge Moyes would eventually face.

United attempted to secure other potential replacements but hit several roadblocks. Ferguson revealed: "When we started the process of looking for my replacement, we established that several very desirable candidates were unavailable.

Image: Photo by Michael Regan/Bongarts/Getty Images) Photo by Michael Regan/Bongarts/Getty Images)

"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. We chose David Moyes. He had been consistent in his job at Everton, had a good spell there - 11 years and showed appetite. Unfortunately, somehow it didn't work out for David. The process was perfect. It was a good process."

Nearly 11 years since Moyes was sacked by United, he's now back at Everton, hosting an under-fire Ruben Amorim. With eight defeats in his first 14 Premier League games, United are languishing in 15th place. Amorim is the latest manager to struggle at United after Van Gaal, Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick, and Erik ten Hag all tried and failed to differing degrees.

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