Sir Alex Ferguson interrupted Coronation Street to ask me to join Man Utd – but I’d already decided to join Arsenal
ARSENAL icon Alan Smith has revealed that he was personally asked by Sir Alex Ferguson to join Manchester United before moving to north London.
Smith, 62, joined the Gunners from Leicester City in 1987 and went on to score 113 goals in 340 appearances.
He famously scored in the historic First Division title-deciding match between Arsenal and Liverpool at Anfield in 1989 which saw George Graham’s side end their 18-year wait to be crowned champions.
However, things could have been very different had the striker accepted an offer from Man Utd.
Speaking to ex-team-mate David Seaman on the Seaman Says podcast with Betway, Smith revealed that he received a phone call from Ferguson regarding a move to Old Trafford.
He said: “I spoke to Alex Ferguson. I was getting a bit of interest.
“One January evening, I was living with my mum and dad still and we were watching Coronation Street, I’ll always remember it.
“The phone goes in the hall and my mum picks it up and she says, ‘Alan, it’s Alex Ferguson on the phone for you.’ I thought she misheard the name.
“Alex had only been at United for about a year and they were struggling. So it’s not like it was ‘the Sir Alex’ calling but he was obviously a big name, he’s the Man United manager.
“I went into the hall and spoke to him. He said he wanted me to wait until the summer when I would have been a free agent.
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“I said, ‘Mr Ferguson, I’m sorry but I’ve made up my mind, I want to join Arsenal.’
“Arsenal wanted to sign me on deadline day, I had already spoke to them in a roundabout way.
“It was a short conversation, I put the phone down and thought, ‘have I done the right thing there, saying no to the Manchester United manager?’
“But they went four of five years really without winning anything and Alex was close to getting the sack.”
After an eight-year spell with Arsenal, Smith decided to hang up his boots in 1995.
He is now a co-commentator and pundit for Sky Sports.