In the memory of a New York dinner, Sir Alex Ferguson sees a Manchester crossroads that was never taken. Before leaving Old Trafford, the Scot met Pep Guardiola just as the former Barcelona coach was preparing for Bayern Munich, and Ferguson now believes Manchester United might have changed their own course had he acted sooner.
A missed opening in New York
- Guardiola ended a spectacular four-year spell at Barcelona in 2012 and was moving towards his next appointment in Germany.
- That same year, Ferguson met him in New York, although the United manager had not yet announced that his own retirement was approaching.
- Looking back in his book Games of My Life, Ferguson says the meeting came too late: Guardiola’s attention was already fixed on Bayern Munich.
- Ferguson writes that, with several more months available, he would have tried much harder to bring the Spaniard to Old Trafford.
His preferred method, recalled with characteristic humour, would have involved generous supplies of Tignanello, the celebrated Tuscan red from the Antinori family estate. The wine, first produced in 1971 and often sold at around €200 a bottle, was Ferguson’s shorthand for the kind of hospitality he feels he should have deployed.
Two Manchester paths diverge
The timing proved decisive for both men. Guardiola took charge of Bayern in 2013, while Ferguson ended his long United reign that year and David Moyes became his successor.
Guardiola eventually did arrive in England in 2016, but not at the club Ferguson had imagined. Across Manchester, he began an era at Manchester City that became one of the most dominant in English football’s history.
Ferguson’s reflection is not simply regret. He also offers warm recognition of Guardiola’s standing in the game, crediting him with turning the lessons of his playing years under Johan Cruyff, Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal into an exceptional managerial career.
Ferguson’s admiration for Guardiola
Guardiola has collected 37 official trophies as a coach, a total that places him second among football’s most decorated managers, two titles ahead of Mircea Lucescu. For Ferguson, that record underlines what he sensed at the New York table: United had been speaking with a coach of rare stature, even if Bayern was already calling.
