Alex Ferguson ‘very close’ to Team GB job at 2012 Olympics, reveals Lord Coe

Lord Coe has revealed how close he came to landing Sir Alex Ferguson to manage Team GB at the London Olympics.

On the 10-year anniversary of the Games, July 27th, Coe has lifted the lid on his attempt to lure then Manchester United boss Ferguson in 2012.

The offer leaked, which ultimately ended any chance, and the job eventually went to Stuart Pearce.

Team GB were then knocked out by South Korea on penalties in the quarter-finals, but Coe felt he almost had his man for the Games.

He said: “We got very close. I came up with the idea because we were having a bit of fragility around our Celtic cousins. It suddenly occurred to me that the one unifying influence in all that would be having a not-necessarily-English coach.

“It was ostensibly an English team, there were a smattering of Welsh players but, effectively, it was an English side.

“I thought I can’t imagine any club that’s going to release professional players to an Olympic team having a problem of under-23 players have a four, five, six-week tutelage, a masterclass, from Alex Ferguson on the training ground.

“I didn’t speak to a soul about it, but I rang up Bob Charlton and said, ‘am I out to lunch here?’ He said, ‘no, I’ll tell Alex to give you a call’.

“Weeks went by. I was in a Tesco on a Friday night filling baskets full of food for my kids and I got a call. It was a no ID, and I was at the butter and fats counter, and he said, ‘Seb, it’s Alex here’.

“I threw a load of cash at one of my daughters to keep filling the trolley and said this is the stuff for a long conversation.

“I did explain what my theory was because Bob hadn’t actually told him, he’d just asked him to give me a call. So Alex rang and said, ‘oh, I thought you were looking for tickets,’

“I put him