Liverpool assistant reveals he nearly joined Man United under Sir Alex Ferguson

Liverpool's assistant manager Pep Lijnders has revealed that he almost joined Sir Alex Ferguson's coaching staff at Manchester United.

Lijnders joined the Reds in 2014 and has assisted both Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp at Anfield.

The 39-year-old is predominantly known as Klopp's right-hand man, but the Dutch assistant revealed that he was set to join Old Trafford.

He told FourFourTwo: '[In 2013] I received an approach from Manchester United - Sir Alex Ferguson and his Dutch assistant Rene Meulensteen wanted to bring me to the club.

'It looked really good, but a few months later Ferguson retired and the opportunity fell through.'

A year later he joined Liverpool from Porto to become a coach for their U16 team.

Rodgers made Lijnders his assistant for the start of the 2015-16 season, before he then kept the role when Klopp joined the club just months into the campaign.

Lijnders and Klopp have kept a strong bond - with the former rejoining Liverpool in May 2018 after an unsuccessful four-month spell as manager of Dutch side NEC.

Though he insists he will only work as an assistant manager for Klopp, he still has his own goals of taking a management position once the pair are finished at Anfield.

He said: 'I will assist Jurgen and Jurgen only. After this project I will be my own manager.

'When our contract finishes, I will sit down with my agent and see what’s available. For now, my focus is on attacking each game in front of us.'

Klopp and Lijnders extended their stay at Anfield last year by signing a new deal which will take them until 2026.

Liverpool have won five trophies in Lijnders' spell at the club - including the Premier League 2019/20 title and the Champions League in 2019.