Former Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd has revealed they tried to sign Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson after Kevin Keegan.
Shepherd says they went for Fergie well aware he was in the middle of new contract talks with United.
He told talkSPORT: "We went for Sir Alex Ferguson, at the time he was negotiating a new contract at Man United and we spoke to Fergie's advisors but it didn't come off.
"His advisors encouraged us to wait a bit longer and further down the line it just died a death. It would have been a great signing after Keegan, he's always said that the only other club he'd come to is Newcastle. It was recorded at the time, if he ever had to move to. That was years ago.
"We spoke to Martin O'Neill, in fact we met him twice, once at Paul Stretford's house and once down in London. It never went any further though. I saw him in Barbados recently and we both agreed that we just never got on. I wouldn't say I didn't like him or he didn't like me, it was a case of us knowing that it would have never lasted.
Shepherd went on to state that Newcastle had turned down the chance to sign Jose Mourinho as an assistant at the club, saying: "Bobby wanted to bring Jose Mourinho to be his assistant manager.
"I hadn't even heard of the guy when Bobby wanted to bring him in 2001. Who knows what would have happened if. I didn't know the guy at the time and Bobby already had an assistant plus he didn't speak Geordie!"
