Patrick Vieira reveals Alex Ferguson talks over Man Utd move

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The Football Faithful

·29 September 2026

Patrick Vieira reveals Alex Ferguson talks over Man Utd move

Patrick Vieira has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson once tried to sign him for Manchester United.

The former World Cup-winning midfielder attained legendary status at Arsenal, winning the Premier League three times as well as four FA Cups between 1996 and 2005.

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Vieira went on to play with Inter Milan, with whom he won a trio of Scudettos, and Manchester City before hanging up his boots.

The Frenchman, though, could have lined out for Manchester United and even spoke with Ferguson about the possibility of forming an imperious midfield partnership with adversary Roy Keane in the early noughties.

Patrick Vieira reveals Alex Ferguson talks over Man Utd move

“I had the opportunity to move to Real Madrid a couple of times and I even had … an opportunity to move to Manchester United,” Vieira told Sky Sports.

“I had a meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson. Full respect, I couldn’t say no to meeting him because he was an important figure in the Premier League. We met and we talked and he explained to me his vision that he had for Manchester United and the team that he wanted to build.

“He wanted to play me with Roy Keane, (Ryan) Giggs on the left-hand side, David Beckham on the right-hand side and (Paul) Scholes to play behind (Ruud) Van Nistelrooy, so it wasn’t a bad team.

“But I couldn’t leave Arsenal, I was too happy there and we were on the way of building something quite really special for the club and that’s the way it was.

“When you do well, of course there’s teams who are interested and then you have to make a decision. But the decision for me was to stay at Arsenal because I felt the love from the club, from the players and from the fans. Everything was there for me to grow up as a player and to achieve what I wanted to.”

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