{"id":960077,"date":"2026-05-14T20:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/960077\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T20:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T20:56:20","slug":"former-leeds-manager-admits-he-once-had-talks-to-take-over-from-sir-alex-ferguson-at-man-utd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/960077\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Leeds manager admits he once had talks to take over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Man Utd"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Add as preferred source on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Former Leeds United manager David O\u2019Leary has opened up about how he potentially could have succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager at Old Trafford.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Alex Ferguson<\/a> sent shockwaves throughout football in 2001 after the iconic former Aberdeen manager announced his intent to leave the Red Devils in 2002.<\/p>\n

The 84-year-old legendary former Manchester United manager<\/a> planned to see out the 2001-02 Premier League campaign before he stepped down at Old Trafford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Ferguson made a U-turn on the decision to make his exit from the Premier League club and the United legend<\/a> also walked back on his call to potentially retire at the time.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Paul Scholes\u2019 prediction for Marcus Rashford\u2019s future at Man Utd speaks volumes amid Barcelona playing spell<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SirPhoto by Matthew Ashton \u2013 AMA\/Getty Images Sir Alex Ferguson won TWO Champions League titles in 1999 and 2008, but had several near-misses\u2026 <\/p>\n

\u2026 which Champions League run under Fergie was the ONE THAT GOT AWAY for you?<\/p>\n

\"TOPSHOT-FBL-EUR-C1-UEFA-MANUTD\"Photo by ANDREW YATES\/AFP via Getty Images Ex-Leeds Utd boss David O\u2019Leary was asked about the links of him taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Man Utd in 2002<\/p>\n

Sir Alex Ferguson had been in talks over a new deal at the Premier League club in 2001 before discussions collapsed and triggered the Scotsman\u2019s initial retirement decision.<\/p>\n

Peter Kenyon, the former chief executive at Manchester United<\/a>, had been on the hunt for Ferguson\u2019s long-term successor in 2002 in the event the Scot did leave.<\/p>\n

David O\u2019Leary had been at Leeds United during the time that Ferguson was set to leave in 2002 and the former Aston Villa boss admitted he was one potential candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Kennedy [solicitor and advisor at Leeds] did, yeah, about it [Man Utd\u2019s interest],\u201d he told The Overlap\u2019s Stick to Football<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex had recommended three people or something like that. So yeah, never went any further than that, but yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Bryan Mbeumo breaks down \u2018different\u2019 dynamic of playing alongside Bruno Fernandes and two more Man Utd stars<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Was this the worst XI Sir Alex Ferguson ever selected for a European knockout tie? <\/p>\n

What are your memories of the defeat to Porto in 2004?<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty Images Who were the two other managers that Sir Alex Ferguson picked to replace him at Man Utd aside from David O\u2019Leary?<\/p>\n

Former Celtic owner Dermot Desmond had previously claimed that Ferguson had also felt either Martin O\u2019Neill or Alan Curbishley could replace him at Man Utd.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Athletic<\/a> in 2020, he said: \u201cIn 2000, I went back and asked him if he was to pick his replacement at that time, who would it be.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said there were three people: Dave O\u2019Leary, Alan Curbishley and Martin O\u2019Neill. I said the one I\u2019m interested in is Martin O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had previously asked a prominent broadcaster if Martin would be interested in the job and I got a response in the negative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then asked Alex if he would speak with Martin, to see if he would meet with me, and the response was that he would be very interested in meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I met Martin for dinner and we got on very well. I introduced him to Pat and Brian and they also felt he was a remarkable individual, so we hired Martin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson continued on as Man Utd manager after U-turning on his planned 2002 exit and the former Aberdeen boss would later retire from management in 2013.<\/p>\n

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Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Former Leeds United manager David O\u2019Leary has opened up about how he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":960078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,1883,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-960077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-sir-alex-ferguson","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116574931723948240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}