‘Fergie was so right... I HAD to snub Spurs’

OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER comes out in a cold sweat when he recalls the day he almost joined Tottenham.

It was the summer of 1998 – less than 12 months before his historic Champions League-winning moment in Barcelona against Bayern Munich.

Manchester United and Spurs had agreed a £5.5million fee for the Norwegian, who had forged an Old Trafford reputation as a super-sub who scored crucial goals.

Spurs, who ironically had sold Teddy Sheringham to United in 1997, offered Solskjaer regular first-team football instead.

“Martin Edwards [United chairman] and Alan Sugar [Spurs chairman] had agreed the fee,” recalled Solskjaer.

“But the gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson called me into his office and said that he didn’t really want to let me go because, if I stayed, I would end up playing enough football.

“That was enough for me. I didn’t really want to go, even though my agent said I should. In the end, he said that he had never met anyone as stubborn as me.

“But you can see that I was right — I normally am!”

Sir Alex, well on the road to recovery following his brain haemorrhage, has already been down to Carrington, United’s training HQ, and has regular telephone conversations with the Norwegian, who is keen to recreate the “Fergie spirit”.

Solskjaer recalled: “At Carrington, we worked our b ****** s off, but never felt it was work. The gaffer always wanted us to express ourselves. He had also created an environment with immediate justice.

“From 2000 onwards, I started to make notes of those sessions that we did, and I’m still using them now.”