Sir Alex Ferguson named Arsenal star as "perfect" for Man Utd and tried to sign him

Legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson tried to sign an Arsenal icon who he thought was “absolutely perfect” for the Red Devils.

The iconic Scottish boss transformed Man Utd in an Old Trafford tenure that lasted more than 26 years, and in that time worked with a plethora of academy graduates, such as David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Gary Neville, turning them into first-team stars.

Arguably the best manager of all time, Ferguson won 13 Premier League titles and regularly shook up his United squad in the transfer market.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s best signings at Man Utd in pictures

As well as bringing through the famous Class of 92, Ferguson would also make a number of shrewd signings in Manchester, with one of his last being Robin van Persie from Arsenal.

The Gunners captain swapped north London for Old Trafford in 2012 and fired Man Utd to the Premier League title in his debut season. Ferguson’s assistant in Manchester, Mike Phelan, recently named Van Persie as one of Ferguson’s best signings as Man Utd boss.

“Well, obviously, Van Persie was an interesting one, because he took us to the title in Sir Alex’s final season. [He] made the difference.”

Phelan named Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Eric Cantona and Park Ji-Sung alongside Van Persie as Man Utd’s five best signings under Ferguson, but if the manager had his way, he would have signed an Arsenal player shortly after arriving at Old Trafford in the 1980s.

Ferguson tried to sign Arsenal star Tony Adams

That man was Tony Adams, with the centre-back going down as one of the greatest Premier League centre-backs of all time after his 19-year career with the Gunners.

The Englishman captained Arsenal to two Premier League titles under Arsene Wenger and made more than 650 appearances for the club in all competitions. Going down in history known as ‘Mr. Arsenal’, things could have been a lot different for Adams if Ferguson was successful in his transfer attempt.

Inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame, Ferguson previously hailed Adams, admitting he saw the defender as “a United player in an Arsenal shirt” and revealed he tried to sign Adams when he was a teenager.

Still the only player to captain a team to a league title in three different decades, Adams was also hailed by Arsene Wenger.

Adams was one that got away from Ferguson, although the defenders he had through the years at Old Trafford, such as Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Jaap Stam, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, served him pretty well themselves.