Manchester United almost sold Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 1998 in a move that would have changed the course of football history.
Less than a year later, Solskjaer scored the winning goal in the Champions League final that saw United become the first and only English club to complete the treble until Manchester City matched the feat in 2023.
But his transfer had been agreed between the chairmen of the respective clubs and it was only intervention from Alex Ferguson, yet to be knighted at that stage of his career, that saw the deal fall through.
«I have a signed fax between Alan Sugar and Martin Edwards, £5.5m, it was all agreed...summer of 1998,» Solskjaer explained on the latest episode of the podcast.
«I said no because the gaffer actually asked me to stay. He said, 'You're not going to be first choice, but you'll play enough'. But he said to me, 'Don't tell anyone that I've said this to you'. They needed the money apparently. But having won the treble, I felt I can say that now.»
Solskjaer is most famous for toe poke at Camp Nou that sealed United's incredible 2-1 comeback win over Bayern Munich, but his impact throughout the 1998/99 season — and in the years that followed — could have been lost had things unfolded slightly differently.
The Norwegian had only been at United for two seasons by the summer of 1998. He enjoyed an outstanding debut year, scoring 18 Premier League goals to finish as the competition's joint-third top scorer, but quickly slipped down the pecking order. Despite the 1997 retirement of Eric Cantona, Teddy Sheringham arrived and Andy Cole was back firing after recovering from two leg breaks.
United may have needed the financial boost from his sale due to twice breaking the
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