Former Fulham manager Chris Coleman has revealed that he tried to sign Nemanja Vidic during his time in charge of the club.

The Welshman, who has been without a managerial role since May following his departure from Hebei China Fortune, was handed over the reins at Craven Cottage in 2003.

In what turned out to be a relatively successful spell with Fulham, Coleman retained the club's Premier League status for several seasons before being sacked in 2007.

During the campaign prior to his departure, the 49-year-old sold Louis Saha to United and was looking to re-invest part of the money into his defence by targeting Vidic.

However, the Cottagers were beaten to the signing of the defender by the Red Devils who purchased him for a reported fee of £7m from Spartak Moscow (via The Sun).

Vidic then went on to win 15 major honours at Old Trafford before leaving the club to join Inter Milan in 2014.

Speaking to the Athletic about how close he got to signing the Serbian, Coleman said: "We sold Saha for £13m and I got £500,000 to reinvest.

"The rest of it went on [Craven Cottage] because it was deemed not fit for Premier League football.

"We were playing at QPR, Loftus Road.

"I'd spoken to his [Vidic's] agent and Mohamed Al Fayed was on board.

"He was sensational, only young but already a man.

"I knew Jim Lawlor, United's chief scout, because we'd done our Pro Licence together out of Belfast.

"He's a top boy.

"I said to him, 'You can't take him, he's not ready for you, let him come to me for a few years, do well, then you can take him.'

"He was laughing, 'No we're taking him now.'"

The Verdict

Whilst it is fair to say that Vidic arguably made the best choice for his career by opting to go to United, it would have been intriguing to see how he would have developed at Fulham.

An established Premier League team at the time of this move, the Cottagers may have been able to push on towards a top-six finish with the defender in their side.

Yet instead, Fulham were only able to achieve sporadic success in the top-flight before eventually being relegated to the Championship in 2014.