Arsène Wenger has always been resolute in his determination to stay at Arsenal, even rebuffing Manchester United’s interest when the club approached him to replace Sir Alex Ferguson in 2001.

Long-time United chairman and current club president Martin Edwards reveals all in his autobiography Red Glory: Manchester United And Me.

In part one of his exclusive interview with GQ at his Mallorcan holiday home, Edwards recalls the moment Ferguson dropped his bombshell that he was planning to step down as United manager at the end of the 2000-2001 season. “I have to say that his decision came as both a surprise and a shock to all of us," he says. "Once we realised that he was very serious about it and that his mind was made up, there were lots of discussions at board level about a possible replacement. Our first choice was Arsène Wenger. Since joining Arsenal in 1996, Wenger had been pretty successful, especially in his first full season in charge when he won the Double. And while it’s true to say that he has suffered hard times since, at the time we all thought he was the best candidate to replace Alex. Certainly he was my No1 choice.”

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United made a private approach to Wenger.

“Wenger did show a little bit of interest, enough to want to meet with both Peter Kenyon and me at his home in London to listen to what we had to say,” Edwards continues. “In fact, we had a couple of meetings with him and for a while we thought there was a possibility of him joining us. But I think Wenger felt a loyalty towards David Dein. He was very close to David, and that was the reason he gave us in the end for turning down United. He felt that he had started something with Arsenal and that his attachment to the club was too great, he didn’t want to break that bond.”

Though Edwards wasn’t convinced, United’s board turned their attention to Sven-Göran Eriksson and negotiations went well with the Swede who was set to be named United manager… until Ferguson changed his mind. United fans were delighted that he did, crediting his wife Cathy with the change of heart and even singing “every single one of us loves Cathy Ferguson” at the following away game.

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It was Edwards who’d brought Ferguson to United in 1986, having been impressed with the Scot’s achievements at Aberdeen, but first United’s chairman discreetly needed to know whether Ferguson would be interested in the United job.

“I couldn’t very well get on the phone to Aberdeen and say, ‘Hello, this is Martin Edwards from Manchester United. Can I speak with Alex Ferguson?’” he remembers. “It was (United director) Mike Edelson who suggested putting on a fake Scottish accent and claiming to be Alan Gordon, Gordon Strachan's accountant. When the receptionist started asking personal questions about his wife and family we thought we might get rumbled, but Mike eventually got through to Alex, explained who he really was and passed the phone over to me.

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“I quickly introduced myself and asked if he would be willing to meet up with us. I didn’t have to spell it out anything; Alex knew straight away what I meant. Why else would I be calling him? He said yes and we arranged to come up that evening to see him. Our rendezvous point was the car park at Hamilton services on the M74.

“Ferguson was the best signing I ever made on the football side,” he tells GQ. “I was with him for 17 years and we won 17 major trophies, yet the first one took four years and we waited seven years for the league title. Can you imagine any big club waiting seven years now? Look at the way Manchester City and Chelsea go through managers.”

Yet by the end of 1989, the majority of United fans had tired of Ferguson. “I never thought about sacking him,” insists Edwards. “I could see what he was doing behind the scenes and with the youth system. We could see his determination and I told him that his job was not on the line in the week before a famous FA Cup match at Nottingham Forest. I wanted him to relax, but I was worried that the situation would go on too long and we’d have to do something - 1990 was the saviour because had we not had that Cup run, it would have been difficult to keep him after finishing 13th. Crowds were dropping and I was getting hundreds, thousands, of letters saying that he should be sacked. The Cup win at Wembley in 1990 changed it all and we won the Cup Winners’ Cup a year later, though we did have easy fixtures on the way to the final against a very good team in Barcelona. Once we were up and running we never looked back.”

Though they seldom socialised once United grew and grew, Ferguson and Edwards enjoyed a fruitful and successful relationship, but there were pressure points, none more pronounced than in 1998 when United lost the league to Arsenal.

Edwards felt that Ferguson had taken his eye off the ball and called him back from holiday in the South of France to tell him.

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“In our view, outside forces, such as his celebrity status and his recent interest as a racehorse owner, had impinged too much on his time, to the detriment of his duties as manager of Manchester United,” Edwards revealed. “About a week after this meeting Alex instructed his accountant, Alan Baines, to start negotiations over a new contract. My first reaction was surprise: 'Hang on a minute, I thought, there’s a few things we need to iron out before we even start considering a new contract. For one, he needs to get back on track.'”

Edwards wrote down the points that had been raised in the meeting and the letter was delivered internally to him on the morning of 7 July 1998. The letter reiterated concern at the lack of silverware while “commending Alex for his youth policy, eradication of pockets of dead wood in the playing squad, improved fitness and skill training and, in particular, his ever-present hands-on policy in all team matters.

“At three o’clock that afternoon my secretary told me that Alex wanted to see me. This is going to be interesting, I thought. I could tell as soon as Alex came through the door that he wasn’t happy. The letter, he said, had upset him greatly and if that was what we thought of him after all he’d achieved for the club, then he had no option but to resign. The language Alex used was a little bit more fruity, but that was the basic gist of it.

“Of course I didn’t want him to go; in a sense I was calling his bluff, but having said that, we did have genuine views about where things could be improved. One of my duties as chief executive was to point out what I considered to be deficiencies. So while I didn’t want Alex to resign I did want him to take on board the concerns I had expressed in the letter.

“As I was preparing to leave the office that evening to head off home, Alex came on the phone. He said he wanted to withdraw his resignation. I was happy to accept. I’d had a feeling that he would eventually come round, although I am in no doubt that my letter must have hurt his professional pride.”

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Ferguson got back to work and won the treble in the following season. By the end of 1999 United were English, European, world champions and FA Cup holders to boot. “The letter was never mentioned again,” recalls Edwards. “I don’t know if the letter made him more determined and maybe he’ll have an entirely different view to me.”

Red Glory: Manchester United And Me by Martin Edwards (published by Michael O'Mara Books, £20) is on sale 7 September.

In part two: the men who tried to buy Manchester United, how United went from football team to super club and dancing with Paul Pogba.