West Bromwich Albion caretaker boss Michael Appleton has revealed how he was tipped for management as a junior with Manchester United.
Appleton was a peer of Paul Scholes, David Beckham and the Neville brothers at Old Trafford.
He revealed: "Eric Harrison, who is famous for bringing the dream team through the ranks at United, turned around to me one day when I was 16 or 17 and said: 'You're going to have a really good career as a footballer but you're going to have an even better one as a manager.'"
Appleton added: "People may look at me and go 'he's only 35', but the positive that I've always said to myself is that when a fellow professional comes out of the game at 35, I've got seven years' experience on him as a coach and dealing with managerial situations. Every time an opportunity has come up [to manage elsewhere] the board have not been best pleased that teams have wanted me and they've told me that my future, as far as they are concerned, is with West Brom."
