Jurgen Klopp had meetings with the Manchester United hierarchy before declining the opportunity to succeed David Moyes at Old Trafford.

The Sun have reported today that the German manager met three times with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward in the wake of Moyes being sacked.

Ed Woodward believed, according to a source close to the club, that Klopp was interested and Manchester United would land one of the hottest properties in world football.

Woodward and the Red Devils were in turmoil at the time with the Moyes project having clearly failed, and Ryan Giggs in temporary charge for the last few games of the season.

The executive-vice chairman needed a big name to try to fill the void left by Ferguson after Sir Alex's anointed successor had not worked out.

Contact

An anonymous source close to the Manchester club told the Sun: "Ed thought Klopp was the right man for the job. Jurgen seemed really interested and the conversations were quite intense.

"It got to the point where there was direct contact between Ed and Dortmund's chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke.

"Ed thought he had Klopp and that he was going to come.

"But right at the end, he changed his mind and felt he owed it to Dortmund to stay for at least one more year."

Klopp did but announced hwe was leaving in April 2015, freeing himself to joim Liverpool in that summer.

"Ed had to go back to the drawing board and appoint Louis van Gaal." said the anonymous source.

The situation will leave Manchester United fans lamenting what might have been. Van Gaal and Mourinho did land an FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League between them.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side currently sit seventh in the Premier League 18 points off the top.

Meanwhile, Liverpool fans are dreaming about a first league title since 1990 as reigning European Champions.