Interesting bit of news today, a little evidence to back up one of those long standing (but infrequently confirmed) types of rumors that had Alex Ferguson on the brink of joining Tottenham in the early 80s before he eventually took over at Manchester United. Sort of like that one about Shevchenko not making the grade at West Ham, which turned out to be a load of bollocks.
In former Tottenham Chairman Irving Scholar’s book, he revealed that Ferguson even went so far as to shake hands on the deal,
“Keith Burkinshaw didn’t want to continue after the end of the season and I had been talking to Alex Ferguson. These conversations had reached the point of agreeing personal terms and we shook hands on a deal”
“However, he had second thoughts about the matter and decided not to accept my offer.
“He had a father-son relationship with the Aberdeen chairman and I think, on reflection, he felt he would be letting him down if he left.”
As far as near-signings go, this would be a pretty big one for any club although who knows how Ferguson’s career would have gone at Tottenham. The Scot also joins such illustrious names as Dennis Bergkamp, Zinedine Zidane, Fernando Morientes and Rivaldo as players who were either confirmed or rumored to have ‘almost’ ended up at White Hart Lane.
What a different Premiership we might be seeing today…theoretically.