For many players around the world, the prospect of playing for Liverpool is a dream but this was snatched from one man back in 2014.
Speaking to Weszlo, Yevhen Konoplyanka described how his dream move to Anfield fell apart: “I was crying. A delegation of serious people from Liverpool came to Dnipropetrovsk. We ate dinner. They were (willing) to pay as much as (Dnipro owner) Ihor Kolomoyskyi wanted,” Konoplyanka recalls.
“Martin Skrtel wrote me a message; ‘We are waiting for you’. Steven Gerrard also gave me his blessing.
“I used to go to Kolomoyskyi; ‘Please, please, please, let me go. It will make my dream come true’. I begged.
“Liverpool offered 25 million euros (£18 million). But I didn’t feel disappointed about going to Sevilla.”
To hear that current senior players like Steven Gerrard and Martin Skrtel had sent messages to the now 32-year-old, just shows how close this move was to being completed.
Sometimes the needs or wishes of a player are put below the potential financial gain for the club and it looks as though Dnipro preferred the offer made by Sevilla.
It’s clear that there weren’t any hard feelings about heading to Spain and seeing as his new club beat us in the 2016 Europa League final, maybe the right decision was made for the Ukrainian.
For our supporters though, it’s positive to hear how much of a pull our club is to so many people – even with us being a less attractive prospect eight years ago under Brendan Rodgers than we are under Jurgen Klopp today.