It was to have been John

Dear teachers ,

Please help correct my translation  below::

Situation : Last month the company managenent planned to appoint John the marketing manager , but for some reason ,they changed their mind and appointed Alice marketing manager.

So can I say this to Alice ?:

1/ John was to have been appointed marketing manager , not you .

And can I say this to one of my friends ?:

2/ It was to have been John  who was appointed marketing manager , not Alice ,

Please correct me

Thank you in advance  

Thank you very much Delmobile

Tuongvan wrote:

So can I say this to Alice ?: 1/ John was to have been appointed marketing manager , not you .

You can say it to Alice; but Alice might be offended. It sounds very much as if John was your preferred candidate.

If you don't want to offend Alice, but don't want to be entirely untruthful, you can say e.g.

2. At one stage, there was a possibility that John would be appointed as marketing manager. But of course, after we looked at your CV, it was obvious who was the better candidate.

MrP