Alex Ferguson had no doubt in his mind when asked what player he would have loved to sign as manager of Manchester United.
Speaking to a former captain of his Gary Neville, Ferguson recalled the moment when his club came close to landing the incredibly talented Paul Gascoigne.
Ultimately, the Newcastle United star opted to joined Tottenham Hotspur and Ferguson firmly believes it was a huge mistake to make on Gascoigne's part.
Paul Gascoigne, Tottenham HotspurDescribing Gascoigne as the most talented English footballer he had seen since Bobby Charlton, Alex Ferguson recalled how United were in with a chance to sign the young talent around 1988.
"Unfortunately, we didn’t get him and I think, looking back now, he made a big mistake," Ferguson told Neville for LADbibleTV. "He recognised it himself years later.
"But we had Geordies in the camp. We had Bobby Charlton, Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce, even Gary Pallister from Middlesbrough.
"We had people there who would have taken care of him, particularly Bryan Robson who is fantastic with players. Instead, he goes to an island in London, and you’re easily swallowed up there as a young lad."
Gascoigne would go on to light up the 1990 World Cup in an England team that came within a penalty shoot-out of the final.
However, Ferguson recalls one particular game when Manchester United travelled north to face Newcastle and he witnessed the player's brilliance first-hand.
"We played Newcastle up there and he had just come back from injury," he recalled. "As soon as he came back, they started winning games. I played three in the middle of the pitch – Whiteside, Robson and Remi Moses and he destroyed them.
"He nutmegged Moses right in front of the dugout and patted him on the head."
Despite Ferguson's pleas to the club that they go out and buy the player, it wasn't to be.
"He was unbelievable and I said to [former Man Utd chairman] Martin Edwards on the way home: ‘Sign this boy. Get on the phone to him on Monday,'" explained Alex Ferguson. "And by that time, he had already done a deal with Tottenham, which was really unfortunate.
"That was a disappointment because he agreed to sign and then Tottenham changed his mind by buying his mother and father a house."
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