Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed how the course of English football could have been changed – had he accepted an offer to manage Arsenal.

Ferguson, then at Aberdeen, was approached by the north London club as the potential successor to Don Howe in the summer of 1986. Ferguson was coaching Scotland at the World Cup in Mexico at that point and regards only a delay in his decision as putting an end to the move.

The Manchester United manager has spoken for the first time about the affair in Rangers' match programme for their Tuesday night meeting with Dundee United. The game marks Walter Smith's last at Ibrox as the Rangers manager; Ferguson wanted Smith to assist him had he accepted Arsenal's advances.

"I was offered the Arsenal job and I wanted to take Walter with me," Ferguson said. "I had got to know Walter well by that stage and when I took over the Scotland job in 1985 when Jock Stein sadly passed away I made Walter my assistant with the national team.

"I thought I would sound him out when we were on Scotland duty together. We were going to play in Israel and I didn't know that Walter was going to Rangers at that time. So while we were in Tel Aviv I told him that I had been offered the chance to go to Arsenal and I asked what he thought."

As it transpired, Smith was to move to Ibrox, initially as the assistant to Graeme Souness. Ferguson said: "He [Smith] was positive about it [Arsenal], saying they were a big club and that kind of thing.

"So I said to him: 'Do you fancy coming with me?' Then he dropped the bombshell that he was going to Rangers. I said: 'When did this happen?' and he told me it was a long story but he would fill me in later.

"Of course I later learned that Graeme Souness had been lined up to take over and Walter was going to Ibrox with him.

"The thing about the Arsenal offer was that they wanted an answer right away but I couldn't give them one because I was going to the World Cup in Mexico with Scotland. So the Arsenal thing fell by the wayside. Walter went to Rangers and then later that year I went to Manchester United."

Ferguson explained that he had aspirations of moving south at the time of Arsenal's approach, after a highly successful time in Aberdeen.

"I had started to get itchy feet," he said. "I felt I had achieved everything I could with Aberdeen. I was a young man and I felt the challenge of England would be good for me.

"Of course I was offered the Rangers job in 1983 but I just felt having done so well with Aberdeen and having such a great relationship with the chairman, Dick Donald, and vice-chairman, Chris Anderson, it would have been a kick in the teeth to them to go to Rangers.

"So I felt the best thing would be to go to England and I always remember Dick Donald telling me that the only club that would satisfy me was Manchester United. Amazingly I was there five or six months later and I had no inkling about it."

Ferguson and Smith were to be united in 2004, when the latter assisted the former for a spell at Old Trafford. At that time Carlos Queiroz had left United for Real Madrid but was to return for the start of the following season.

"I knew I was going to be bringing Carlos back because he was having a hard time at [Real] Madrid," Ferguson said. "I explained this to Walter in the January but I felt I needed someone in that run-in, someone I could depend on.

"I went to Glasgow to see him and he was delighted because he wanted to work. He did a smashing job and the players loved him and, of course, we won the FA Cup that year."