Over the years, Liverpool have had their fair share of hits and misses in the transfer
market, but what about 👏 the deals that never quite came off?
On this week’s Wednesday
episode of This Is Anfield’s YouTube and podcast series with 👏 the Late Challenge
Podcast, Paul Cope and Gareth Roberts recalled some of Liverpool’s near transfers and
discussed how things could 👏 have turned out.
Among the best footballers of all time is
Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese began his career at Sporting Lisbon 👏 before
progressing to Man United then Real Madrid, where his goalscoring record was simply
ridiculous – the No. 7 netted 👏 an astonishing 451 goals in 438 games for Madrid.
It
could have been Liverpool he moved to, though, had things turned 👏 out differently in
2003.
With his performances for Sporting attracting attention, Gerard Houllier’s
Liverpool agreed a £4 million fee for the 👏 winger but, speaking to The Athletic, Phil
Thompson revealed how it fell through.
The European Cup-winning captain said: “I asked
about 👏 the salary and Tony [Henry, agent] told me it was £1 million a year, net.
“For an
18-year-old, that was a 👏 lot of money. But Tony said it was negotiable and I thought,
‘Jesus, these lot are really trying to push 👏 him out of the door’.
“We were keen, the
boy was obviously a great talent.”
There was, of course, a twist in 👏 the tale and
Thompson revealed: “I will never forget what happened next.
“On the Tuesday morning, we
were having lunch at 👏 the training ground and it came up on the yellow strap on Sky
Sports, ‘Manchester United have signed Cristiano Ronaldo 👏 for £12.2 million’.
“Gerard
and myself almost choked on our food. I can remember Gerard jumping up and saying,
‘What the 👏 hell has gone on there?’”
Even if the Portuguese had signed for Liverpool,
things may have not turned out as successfully 👏 for him as they did in reality.
On this
week’s podcast, Cope suggested: “I don’t think Houllier and Thompson would have 👏 been
able to manager Cristiano Ronaldo in the same way Alex Ferguson could manage him.
“Alex
Ferguson had that level of 👏 ‘you can’t f**k around with me’, but also had the ‘you’ve
got to respect me because of what I’ve already 👏 done’.
“And I think that’s the
management Ronaldo needed. I think he’d have been too far the other way for us; 👏 too
much the arrogant, cocky young lad.
“You’ve got to remember when he first came in,
there was a lot of 👏 work to do with him.”
Roberts had a similar feeling, saying he
wasn’t a “Liverpool player” and that “he’s turned out 👏 to do what he’s done in every
respect of life, and let’s say maybe it wasn’t the right thing for 👏 Liverpool.”
Paul
Cope and Gareth Roberts are speaking on a new show from This Is Anfield and The Late
Challenge Podcast.
There 👏 is a live show that airs each Monday at 5pm (UK) on This Is
Anfield’s YouTube, with our second show 👏 each Wednesday.
You can also listen as an audio
show, here.
