Former Rangers boss, Alex McLeish, has revealed that Barry Ferguson was a one-time target for Manchester United after impressing in his time at Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League.
McLeish, speaking to Si Ferry’s Open Goal podcast and reported by The Scottish Sun, claims that Sir Alex Ferguson spoke to him about the Gers legend when he was managing down south.
“There was a spell when Barry was at Blackburn and Alex Ferguson said he was considering going for him.
“He told me that privately and he definitely thought about it.
“I don’t know if was around when Roy Keane left but he certainly did consider Barry.
“Barry could play any stadium in the world and not be fazed. He had such a belief in himself.”
There is a strange narrative by some in Scottish football that Ferguson wasn’t a success in England, at Blackburn, prior to his second spell at Rangers, he was one of the most dominant midfielders in the league and was regularly picking up man of the match awards before suffering a cruel knee injury.
Should Fergie have stayed in England and moved to a bigger club than Blackburn?
Yes
No
Even at Birmingham City, he won silverware against superior opposition and more than held his own against some of the biggest names in world football at the time, we of course already knew that he could do this given the standard that he set in European football playing for the club he loved.
It was always a bug bear at the time that Ferguson never moved to a club “bigger” than Blackburn and as Big Eck rightly says, he wouldn’t have looked out of place at any of the top clubs in England, at least he had the bottle to leave for a more competitive league rather than acting the big man in the Scottish Premiership.