MANCHESTER UNITED icon Gary Neville was left stunned after finding out that Sir Alex Ferguson almost left Old Trafford in 1998.
The legendary United boss handed in his resignation on the eve of the 1998-99 season after growing frustrated with the club’s hierarchy.
Having narrowly lost out on the Premier League title to Arsenal just a few months prior, Ferguson was accused of taking his eye off the ball.
Addressing the situation in an episode of Man Utd’s new Amazon Prime documentary ’99’, former chairman Martin Edwards revealed: “We’d felt that maybe he’d got a little bit more interested in his outside interests than perhaps he should’ve done, and that just needed readdressing.
“He was obviously becoming a celebrity, interested in his racing and all the rest of it.
“So as chief exec it’s your job to know your staff. It was just a – what shall we say – a correction.
“I put it in writing. I knew he wouldn’t be happy about it and he wasn’t.
“He offered his resignation, which obviously I had to accept.”
Ferguson was quick to backtrack on his resignation and withdrew it just a few hours later.
The revelation did not reach the players at the time due to the manager’s immediate change of heart.
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Upon hearing the news while filming for the documentary, which focuses on Man Utd’s historic Treble-winning campaign, former defender Neville was left completely taken aback.
He said: “The manager?! I wouldn’t like to have that conversation with him.
“I didn’t even know that until today.”
United went on to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League that season under the guidance of Sir Alex.
Ferguson eventually left Man Utd in 2013, 15 years after initially handing in his resignation.
He retired with 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League titles, five FA Cups and four League Cups.
