Lineker explains why he did not join Man United under Sir Alex Ferguson

Gary Lineker has explained why he turned down moves to Manchester United in 1985 and 1989 as a player.

Lineker is known for representing Leicester, Everton, Barcelona and Tottenham during his playing career, but an exchange on Twitter has revealed he twice had the option of playing for United.

The former England striker turned Match of the Day host was replying to a user who had screenshot part of a previous interview where he explained why he did not join United in 1989 under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Lineker had just left Barcelona, and explained in an interview with FourFourTwo that a move to Spurs looked like it was set to fall through.

"Right at the 11th hour it suddenly appeared that Spurs might not be able to do the deal, financially," his answer read. "That's when my agent spoke with Alex Ferguson, who was keen to take me to Old Trafford.

"It was close to being done, but then Tottenham came back and said they could do it. You have to remember that the Manchester United of 1989 weren't the Manchester United of four or five years later."

That quote was sent to Lineker by a user who wanted to know if there was a chance of him joining United four years previous in 1985 when Ron Atkinson was in charge.

But Lineker set the record straight, insisting he wanted to join Everton at the time.

"No, I wanted to go to Everton and I did," he Tweeted. "Important to remember that @ManUtd were very average at the time and Everton were champions."

United may rue missing out on the striker, with Lineker going on to score 30 goals in 41 appearances for Everton between 1985 and 1986 while he netted 67 goals in 105 appearances for Tottenham in 1989-1992.