Former Man United boss Alex Ferguson declined the opportunity to bring Zinedine Zidane to Old Trafford, the club's honorary president has claimed.
In an interview with the Manchester United website (MUTV), Martin Edwards says that Ferguson opted to stick with then forward Eric Cantona, as he felt that the arrival of Zidane would 'affect' Cantona's position in the team.
"When Zidane was at Bordeaux," Edwards explains, "Les Kershaw, the chief scout, was telling me we should be interested in him and I mentioned it to Alex. Alex said that Eric (Cantona) had also mentioned Zidane to him but Alex felt Zidane played in the same position as Eric.
"Having gone over to France to persuade Eric to re-sign for us, after the Crystal Palace incident, he felt that, if he had brought Zidane in, it may have affected Eric's position, so he stuck with Eric," Edwards said, while promoting his new book Red Glory.
The former United chairman added that the club lost out on recruiting other potential star players down through the years, including Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker.
In the case of Shearer, Edwards came particularly close to acquiring the services of the England legend, who instead diverted to Newcastle.
"Paul Gascoigne was certainly one (we missed out on).We thought he was coming but he decided to join Tottenham. I think there were certain last-minute inducements involved.
"I'd done the negotiations for Alan Shearer and again, I thought he was coming. But (Blackburn owner) Jack Walker was very adamant he wasn't coming to Manchester United. It was a case of 'over my dead body' but he allowed him to go to Newcastle.
"Gary Lineker, as you know, was going to sign for Everton and his agent Jon Holmes rang me on the day and said:
'We're about to go on the train to sign for Everton but his first choice would be Manchester United, if you want him to come.' I put it to Ron (Atkinson) and he said: 'I've got four strikers already. The last thing we need is another striker.' So we passed on that one.
"With John Barnes, Graham Taylor rang Alex Ferguson to see if he wanted to take him before he signed for Liverpool. Alex passed on him because it was his first season, he had Jesper Olsen in his squad and he wanted to see whether Jesper would make it."
Despite those missed opportunities, Ferguson guided United to a slew of titles throughout his reign which lasted for over two decades.
He delivered 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, and two Champions League trophies.
