Football fans love a transfer rumour but it’s always hard to know how much truth there is behind each name you hear but thanks to Rafa Benitez’s most recent interview, Liverpool supporters can now learn which players we were closest to signing during his reign.
Speaking on the ‘We are Liverpool’ podcast, the 62-year-old spoke first about Dani Alves: “We had Dani Alves, who was around £10 million, but he was a right full-back.
“Then you have to make a decision on either a player [Dirk Kuyt] who can play as a striker, a second-striker and right-winger, or you go for a right full-back, Brazilian, playing in Spain, that you have to play as a right-winger. It’s a big risk”.
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The the Spaniard mentioned Stevan Jovetic, when he shared: “I wanted to sign Jovetic. He was playing for Fiorentina and the price was £16 million.
“In my head, with my budget, I had the money. And then when I went to sign him I was told ‘no, you don’t have the money’. Then we played against Fiorentina, we lost 2-0, Jovetic scored two goals. This was the player that I wanted.
“These are the kind of things that fans don’t know”.
The final transfer bombshell came from the negotiations for Michael Owen to leave Anfield in 2004: “I said to Rick Parry: ‘Rick, we have to do this price, and try to get this young player Juanfran in the deal’.
“Juanfran was playing for Real Madrid’s B team, and went on to play for Atletico Madrid as a right full-back and right winger. We needed a right winger.
“They said no, and then they put [Antonio] Nunez in the deal. We got Nunez, who was always injured and was maybe not the best signing, but I was trying to bring someone else to improve the deal”.
It’s certainly interesting to hear the number of players who could have worn a red shirt and taken the place of the likes of Dirk Kuyt and Antonio Nunez, had the moves gone ahead.
There are so many deals, conversations and events off the pitch that we simply never get to hear until many years later.
You can watch Benitez’s comments on Alves, Jovetic and Juanfran via Liverpool FC on YouTube:
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