Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish has revealed he was priced out of a move to Manchester United while at Aberdeen.

Sir Alex Ferguson said he would return for him and take him south after leaving Pittodrie for Old Trafford.

"In the end Fergie left before I did," McLeish recalls. "But he phoned me to say he had an agreement with the chairman that allowed him to come back for a few of us. Jim Leighton, Willie Miller, myself.

"But when it came to bidding for me, I was 28 or 29 by then, he felt Aberdeen were asking too much, and two weeks later he bought Gary Pallister. And never looked back."