Sir Alex Ferguson had a legendary response when offered the England job

Sir Alex Ferguson is considered by many as the greatest manager of all time, so it's no wonder the FA wanted him to manage England, but the Scotsman had the perfect response.

It was obvious that it would have been difficult for the FA to get the former Manchester United boss, considering his national allegiances, but they had to try to get the 13 times Premier League winner.

Ferguson spoke to Dan Walker in 2015 and confirmed he'd turned down the chance to manage the Three Lions not one, but twice, then explained why.

"Adam Crozier [then FA Chief Executive} made an appointment with Martin Edwards to come talk to him about signing me and I was in the building anyway and Martin says 'just talk to him,' the 80-year-old explained.

"And I said 'no way, I'm not gonna manage England.'

"And Martin says, 'Just do him the courtesy of speaking to him.'

"The thing was, why would I leave Manchester United? I was as happy as a landlord at this great club. The motivation was there, you look at the training ground and see all these great players.

"The motivations were the players, the dressing room, the opportunity to win football matches and the biggest motivation of all was to win football matches and I was definitely at the right club.

"To sit in the stadium at Old Trafford on a Saturday afternoon with no one in it, or a Sunday morning with no one in it, unbelievable motivation.

"So there was no way I would have left Manchester United and the club knew that. There was absolutely no way I would have managed Scotland, other than the fact I couldn't have gone back to Scotland. "

Ferguson managing against Gareth Southgate. Image: Alamy

Whilst there was little chance of the former Aberdeen boss taking charge of England, he nearly did manage the Great Britain side at the Olympics in 2012.

The job eventually went to Stuart Pearce but, according to Lord Sebastian Coe, that was only due to a late u-turn from the legendary United boss.

"We got pretty close to it. I've always laughed with Alex afterwards," Lord Coe said.

"I bump into him fairly regularly. He often wonders whether he missed out on a really good experience. The players would have benefited a lot from him.

"That was one of my disappointments – that I never got Alex Ferguson across the line.

"The BOA decided that Stuart Peace probably had better credentials. That was a slight disappointment."

The team might not have been knocked out of the quarter finals by South Korea if Fergie had been in charge, but we'll never know...

SPORTbible Stories is the brand-new podcast from the SPORT team at LADbible. The first episode features a chat with former Burnley manager Sean Dyche as he opens up on his departure from Turf Moor, what the future holds and the amazing story of the spin wheel for fines while in charge of the Clarets. You can watch the first episode here.