Former Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards has revealed how they could've missed out on Sir Alex Ferguson back in 1986. United weren't the first English club to move for the then Aberdeen manager.

Edwards recalled to the Daily Star Sunday: "I believe that he had talks with Arsenal and I think he had also given his word to Tottenham a few years before, that he was going there. But he changed his mind. He said his wife Cathy didn't want to move that far south or something.

"We knew - and I don't know how - that if we went in for him then he would be interested.

"And, of course, we made the phone call before we approached him."

Edwards added: "For some reason, I had heard that he had it in his contract that if a club or ­United came in for him, they would release him.

"So we were aware of that. He was our choice because of the success he had up at Aberdeen and Arsenal or Spurs could have taken him. But he turned them both down."