Pep Guardiola brutally ignored Sir Alex Ferguson request after the pair had dinner together

Sir Alex Ferguson once revealed that Pep Guardiola did not follow one of his instructions before the legendary Manchester United boss retired from the dugout.

Sir Alex presided over more than two-and-a-half decades of success at Old Trafford between 1986 and 2013 in a trophy laden spell in charge of the club.

In that time, United won 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League crowns, five FA Cups, four League Cups, the European Cup Winners' Cup, the European Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Sir Alex bowed out of management in 2013 after winning the Premier League yet again - the last time United won the English top flight.

Since then, United's results have been dreadful and a host of managers have been hired and churned out as the post-Ferguson struggles to reach the summit of English football again have continued for more than a decade.

David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag have all either been relieved of their duties or, in Rangnick's case, depart following a caretaker spell in charge.

Current head coach Ruben Amorim was hired from Sporting CP as Ten Hag's replacement in November, but there has not been an upturn in results since his appointment and United have continued to slip down the Premier League table.

Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson. (Image: Getty)

Ferguson was beaten by Guardiola's Barcelona in two Champions League finals in 2009 and 2011 as a Camp Nou side featuring the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi emerged on top.

Guardiola departed Barcelona in the summer of 2012 to take a sabbatical for a year before deciding his next managerial job.

He later took charge of German giants Bayern Munich and won three Bundesliga titles, before moving to Manchester City in 2016.

Since his arrival at the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola has overseen the greatest era of success in City's history after winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups, the Champions League in 2023 to complete the Treble, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

But history might have turned out very differently had Guardiola followed up a request from Sir Alex.

In his 2015 book called Leading, Sir Alex outlined how over dinner with Guardiola in New York while he was on his sabbatical and the United boss asked the now City boss to call him when he was thinking about his next job.

But Guardiola never ended up phoning the legendary Scot and the prospect of him managing United passed by.

Sir Alex said: "I had dinner with Pep Guardiola in New York in 2012, but couldn't make him any direct proposal because retirement was not on my agenda at that point.

"He had already won an enviable number of trophies with Barcelona and I admired him greatly. I asked Pep to phone me before he accepted an offer from another club but he didn't and wound up joining Bayern Munich in July 2013."