With Sunderland set to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Monday, a story has surfaced in The Times, claiming that the Black Cats nearly signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic back in 2002 while he was at Ajax.
Zlatan took a different path, starring at Juventus, both Milan clubs, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. But one has to wonder how things would have turned out for him, and even more so for Sunderland, if he'd ever joined their ranks.
The Swede is proving just as menacing at 35 as he was in his prime (prime being used loosely here), and has scored 10 goals in his last nine appearances for United. He will be raring to go against David Moyes' men come Monday, but just imagine how different things things could have been.
In a conversation with former Sunderland directorMark Blackbourne, The Times uncovered Sunderland's attempts to sign the prolific forward.
Peter Reid, who was in charge at the time, was looking for a replacement for Niall Quinn, and who else but Zlatan popped up on the radar. According to Blackbourne, the striker was open to moving to the English club.
Find it incredible that Zlatan Ibrahimović only needs 10 goals to better Danny Welbeck's 20 in the Premier League. It's only just Christmas!
When we spoke with Beenhakker, we were told that they didn't want to sell," he said.
"But nevertheless we made an offer in the region of £3 million. Beenhakker rejected it, but we managed to extend the conversation, in which I found time to call my chairman Bob Murray. He said, 'If you think one million more will do it, go for it.'
"I didn't follow his instructions though, as I increased our offer with a couple of million, to an amount in excess of £5 million. We wanted the deal, and we believed the player was open for it.
Ajax, however, didn't budge, leaving the Black Cats to sign Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart instead.