Klopp turned down ‘unsexy’ United

CAPE TOWN — Manchester United failed to land Jurgen Klopp in 2014 after club executive vicechairman Ed Woodward compared Old Trafford to “an adult version of Disneyland”.

The Liverpool boss was at the helm of Borussia Dortmund at the time when United approached him to replace David Moyes in the hotseat at the tail end of the 2013/14 campaign.

Klopp claims in his upcoming biography — Bring the Noise written by Raphael Honigstein — that Woodward jetted off to Germany to meet with him a few weeks before Moyes was sacked.

However, the German was a bit turned off by how the Red Devils chief tried to market the Premier League giants, and he rejected their advances to stay put.

The book, which is serialised in the Daily Mail, read: “Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward had flown out to see Klopp in Germany.

“David Moyes’ short tenure at Old Trafford was coming to an end, and Klopp was United’s favourite to replace him, to bring back a sense of adventure to the Red Devils’ game.

“Woodward told Klopp that the Theatre of Dreams was ‘like an adult version of Disneyland’, a mythical place where, as the nickname suggested, the entertainment was world class and dreams came true.

“Klopp wasn’t entirely convinced by that sales pitch — he found it a bit ‘unsexy’, he told a friend — but he didn’t dismiss the proposition out of hand either.” — Sport24.