Sir Alex claims Man Utd ‘were never interested’ in ex-Inter star

Lewis Oldham
Former Man Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that Man Utd “were never interested” in former Inter Milan and Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder.

The 134-cap Netherlands international was linked with a move to the Red Devils during his time at Real Madrid and Inter Milan between 2007 and 2012.

Sneijder shone during this period as he won the Champions League with Inter at the end of the 2009/10 season.


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Despite consistently being linked with him, Ferguson has revealed that Man Utd never looked to sign the midfielder. On the Utd Podcast, the legendary boss said he does not know “where [these rumours] came from”:

“Well, you mention the boy Sneijder, that’s come up a lot of times but we were never interested in Sneijder.

“I don’t know where that came from but you get a lot of them. Every Sunday, in The People, when I first came, they were throwing names in all the time, you know.”

Later on in the interview, Ferguson suggested that Paul Gascoigne would have had a “better career” if he joined Man Utd instead of Tottenham:

“In reality, you have to say, the only one that always comes to my mind and that’s Gascoigne. He was absolutely fantastic. I think if we’d have got him, he would have had a great career, I really do.

“I’m not saying he didn’t have a good career but he would have had a better career with us.

“We had Geordies in our squad like (Bryan) Robson, (Steve) Bruce plus Bobby Charlton.

“Sir Bobby would have been a fantastic mentor to him because he’s such a fantastic man and even Gary Pallister, although he was from Middlesbrough and I know they don’t count that as a Geordie, as someone who understands the culture like Gary would. He promised to sign for us and I went on holiday.

“I got a phone-call from the front desk from Martin Edwards (the club’s former chairman) saying he’d signed for Tottenham.

“He signed for Tottenham because they bought his mother a house for £80,000 and, dearie me, I couldn’t believe it, you know. He was a fantastic player.”