Barcelona director Carles Rexach claims Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova were offered the Manchester United job.
Rexach says they fell out after the two were offered the job of taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson at United.
He recalled to Regiò7: "Tito had a strong character. The conflict arose when he chose to take over [from Guardiola] as first team coach.
"At first Pep seemed to understand the decision but in the end it bothered him. They both had an offer to coach Manchester [United] once Pep's sabbatical had passed.
"Things got worse when Tito went to a clinic in New York to received cancer treatment and Pep, who was at the time living there with his family, never visited him. Pep knew [he was there] because the two wives had bumped into each other during his time there."