Sir Alex Ferguson signed some of the greatest players the Premier League has ever seen during his time in charge of Manchester United, but there’s one star who he still wishes he’d brought to Old Trafford. The legendary manager looked back at his 27 years in charge at the club and named the one star he wished he’d signed during his career. When asked about the player that got away, he said it was Paul Gascoigne. "Paul Gascoigne, without question. He was the best English player since Bobby Charlton, he was a fantastic player," Ferguson said back in 2021 [via Sportbible]. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The manager attempted to bring the midfielder to Old Trafford after watching him play for Newcastle against Man Utd. However, he’s already agreed a move to Tottenham and United missed out on the deal – which Ferguson claimed the player lived to regret. "We didn't get him and I think, looking back now, he made a big mistake. He recognised it himself years later,” said Ferguson. "We had Geordies in the camp – Bobby Charlton, Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce – even Gary Pallister from Middlesbrough. We had people there that would have taken care of him, particularly Bryan Robson – he was fantastic with players, as you know. "So he goes to an island, London, and you're easily swallowed up there, for a young lad. I think that was a big mistake by him. "He was a marvellous player. I loved his strength. We played at Newcastle up there on Easter Monday and he'd just come back from injury. They were near the bottom of the league and as soon as he came back they started winning games. Ferguson went on to say: "I went there and played three in the middle of the pitch – [Norman] Whiteside, Robson and Remi Moses. He destroyed them, and then he nutmegged Moses right in front of the dugout and patted him on the head! I'm jumping out the box going… "Honestly he was unbelievable and I said to [former Manchester United chairman] Martin Edwards on the way home: 'Sign this boy. Get on the phone to him on Monday.' "But by that time, he had already done a deal with Tottenham, which was really unfortunate. That was a disappointment because he agreed to sign and then Tottenham changed his mind by buying his mother and father a house.” After coming through the ranks at Newcastle, Gascoigne played for the likes of Tottenham, Lazio, Rangers and Middlesborough over the course of his career. He was capped 57 times for England. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Art fans have been left convinced of “time travel” after spotting what they're claiming to be an “iPhone” in a piece of art from 1882. The 19th-century image shows the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns holding a rectangular item in a piece of art by the artists R. Josey and James Archer. It is titled The Betrothal of Burns and Highland Mary and depicts the poet and his love, Mary Campbell, as they declare their love for one another. In the engraving, Burns is dressed in outdoor clothing with a hat in one hand and his coat draped over his arm. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The other hand appears to be holding the object which he is handing to Campbell, who stands barefoot across the River Ayr from him. Josey and Archer’s engraving pre-dates the invention of the iPhone by around 125 years, with London beginning the operation of the world’s first coal-fired public electricity generating station at the time. But, while the device certainly resembles an early-generation iPhone, there is a simpler explanation that does not involve time travel. When Burns and Campbell declared their love for one another, they signified the moment with the tradition of exchanging Bibles across a running stream. Their plans to marry were formed in 1786 over the river in west Scotland with the ancient tradition, suggesting that the object depicted is a religious book, not a time-travelling iPhone. It’s not the first time a modern-day item has been spotted in an early piece of art after a “Nike trainer” was supposedly seen in a painting from the 17th century. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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