This from The Observer:
By Monday morning the previous day's headlines looked like a huge collective own goal by the Fleet Street soccerati, a typical example of getting it wrong. Badly. In fact they had it right. When those stories were written last Saturday, they were true. McClaren was about to be offered the job and, if his club had given him permission to speak to Leeds, it is highly probable he and Ridsdale would have been able to agree terms. That remained the case until the middle of last Sunday afternoon when the Yorkshire club had a late change of heart and decided to appoint El Tel rather than McClaren.
The about-turn left people close to McClaren - and, according to several sources, the Boro boss himself - angry, confused and hugely disappointed. They thought their man, keen to prove himself at one of the country's biggest clubs, would be installed at Elland Road by this weekend.
However, it was actually the involvement of Sir Alex Ferguson, McClaren's mentor and former boss at Manchester United, that nudged Leeds in the direction of Venables. Last Saturday morning McClaren, aware he was the front-runner for the Elland Road vacancy, rang Sir Alex to talk over the situation. Ferguson told his protege that moving to Leeds would be a significant step up and with his ability to extract good performances from players, he could do a lot better than O'Leary with the club's array of talented but under-performing personnel. But one of Ferguson's journalistic confidants ensured news of their discussion quickly leaked out and made it into the next day's papers. While Ferguson doubtless intended his advice to help McClaren, its disclosure helped to ruin his chances.