I rejected Manchester United transfer and didn't speak to Sir Alex Ferguson for six years after it

Sir Alex Ferguson was in Malta when he read the bad news - a holiday cut short in the worst possible way.

It was the summer of 1988 and Paul Gascoigne had agreed to join Tottenham after Newcastle United's £2.2million valuation had been met, but they weren't the first to do so. Manchester United had already put their cash on the table.

"Can I go on holiday, knowing that I've signed you Gazza?” Ferguson asked over the phone. The response was an outright yes but this deal was far from done, and it never got done at all.

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Ferguson was in his early years as United manager in the late 1980s and was keen to bring in that kind of talent that won matches and titles. It was during a game against Newcastle in 1987 that he first laid eyes on that exact player.

Managed by Willie McFaul, the Magpies had been meandering in the lower half of the First Division but they had a star in their ranks by the name of Paul Gascoigne. The then-20-year-old was famously fuelled by Mars Bars and Newcastle Brown Ale but ran United's midfield trio of Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside and Remi Moses ragged.

Admittedly, no one in that era was a model of physical fitness but Gascoigne did things to that United midfield that few had done before. Ferguson set his sights on the midfielder who would go on to be crowned PFA Young Player of the Year and listed in the PFA Team of the Year that season.

Such was Ferguson's desire to sign Gascoigne that he spoke to the mercurial midfielder himself, selling the United project. And he had worked his magic, the pair agreeing a deal will be formalised and Ferguson could