One player you wished they had bought...

[Carra_is_legend]

We signed Sami instead of Ljungberg.

 

I think I can safely say Houllier done good with that.

 

Fair enough.

 

We needed a towering defender more than a attacker then.

[Guest Ibetitsme7]

Keane looks easy with hindsight but at the time he was just a promising kid and I was more than happy we got Clough, who looked the real Liverpool player out of the two, a real first 5 yards in his head player with 360 degree vision and laser-guided passing

 

for whatever reason, it never worked out for us

 

I remember being gutted about Michael Laudrup not coming to us but as others have said, he'd have only made a brilliant team even more brilliant

 

we could probably have done with his brother Brian more, based on timing rather than talent

[gkmacca]

Keane looked a player with huge potential as far as I was concerned. Souness buying the one available player who could be groomed to do what HE used to do in the middle of the pitch. It was such a pity it didn't happen IMO.

 

 

(I also regret us not buying Jari much earlier - I really loved watching him play.)

[PaulMcC]

Phily's right. We could only afford Ljungberg or Hyypia and we went for Hyypia.

[Sut]

I also regret us not buying Jari much earlier - I really loved watching him play.

 

I agree. I think we should also have gotten Gary Mac an awful lot earlier.

 

Was looking for the footage of Jari in Andy Townsend's Tactics Truck (AT: "So Jari, talk us through this goal." JL: "I picked up the ball and shot. Goal."), but found this...

 

[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNYzNaifbVM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNYzNaifbVM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

[El Rojo]

Dalglish - Gascoigne. Easy to forget how supremely talented he was.

Souness -Keane (but chances are Souness wouldn't have gotten out of him what Ferguson did)

Evans - Sheringham. Was told he was too old in 1996!

Houllier - Ronaldo

Benitez - Alves

[PaulMcC]

Around 95-97 Litmanen was one of my favourite players in teh world.

 

Brilliant player.

[ToxtethTerror]

Litmanen was made for Liverpool. Gerrard does great in that position now but wouldn't it be nice to have a Kenny / Beardo type player pulling the strings orchestrating play?

 

A point made earlier that certain teams suit certain players ring true. I doubt lady boy Ronaldo would have been the same player here. I can't imagine him tracking back or working hard for Rafa or Ged. I also doubt Alves would be the same here as his game is all about overlap and running from deep, not the winger we wanted to make him into.

[Mascherano]

I remember watching Keane play centre back for Nottingham Forest and in centre midfield and he was fucking supreme. He was the first player I looked at and thought that he would be the bollocks for us.

 

£3.3 Million or something like that? I heard a story that we had bought someone like Paul Stewart and didn't have the funds to complete the deal. £2.2 million we spent on that.

[Mbrownrigg]

I seem to recall we tried to swap Saunders for Keane, pretty much straight ater we signed him, and just as Keane was making the breakthrough

[Melchett]

Dalglish - Gascoigne. Easy to forget how supremely talented he was.

Souness -Keane (but chances are Souness wouldn't have gotten out of him what Ferguson did)

Evans - Sheringham. Was told he was too old in 1996!

Houllier - Ronaldo

Benitez - Alves

 

Would Houllier have let Ronaldo develop into an attacking "Ginola'esque" type player though?

[dennis tooth]

Wish we had Litmannen now. I wouldn't have wanted Stam over Herpia that much though he was an overrated steggosaur.

Dalglish -Laudrup

Souness-Palister

Evans -Ferdinand, Les

Houllier - Ronaldo

Benitez - Alves/Simoa

[ToxtethTerror]

Ronaldo was a show boating cunt when he first joined them, so you have to give credit to the drunken cunt for developing him.

[El Rojo]

Would Houllier have let Ronaldo develop into an attacking "Ginola'esque" type player though?

 

Probably not. It's a back handed compliment to Slur Alex that so many of his signings have ended up on this list.

 

There's no guarantee they'd have flourished with us, given the inability of Souness to manage, Evans' lassitude in applying discipline, and Houllier (and to a lesser extent Rafa's) over emphasis on defence.

 

I reckon Souness could have signed Zidane and turned him into the French Darren Ambrose.

[paddyberger15]

Good call on Stam, he'd have improved us no end under Evans.

 

His name actually means Jacob Tree Trunk. True story that.

[Faustus]

Didn't we nearly sign Figo under Evans or did I imagine that?

[Alan Sex]

Not got the time - but someone should start a thread in the same vein, manager by manager - with the best relatively unknown signings - who is each Liverpool manager's best success? There surely have been some.

 

(ie no fowler or owen as they came through the club).

[Upton74]

I think Evans also turned down the chance to sign Figo & Rui Costa.........but we did get Leonardsen!

 

He also didn't think Zidane was worth £3m.............

[Liverpool lad]

This is the thread that I will read if we don't win the league. I will also cry as I read it

[G Richards]

It's difficult to answer, since I'm not sure if it is any player they might have singed, or any player we were in with a good chance of signing but didn't.

 

Anyway, here's my go:

 

Dalglish - Keane

Souness - Shearer

Evans - Stam

Houllier - Ronaldo

Benitez - Alves

[fruitbat]

was gutted at being told we almost signed frank worthington in the 70's, but during his medical he had high blood pressure, the club then told him to have a fortnight rest in the then not so popular island of ibiza, where he spent two weeks shacked up with a couple of swedish air stewardesses, he came back and his blood pressure was through the roof

 

i also remember at the time of trying to buy stam, 98, we tried to buy almost every central defender in the world, desailly, blanc, de boer, holokov, west, we even offered psg 5 million for christian worns when he had joined them on a bosman just two weeks before, we where desperate, going for song half way through the season, before finally getting sami the following summer

[aiyic]

Well I'm not sure either if this is about players who nearly signed, or just a retro wish-list.

 

Dalglish - Laudrup

Souness - Keane

Evans - Stoichkov

Houllier - Litmanen (how close does it have to be?)

Benitez - Evra

 

But to be fair, and to put a positive spin on things, my list of players I wished we would buy (and it's swear-on-the-bible honestly, without the benefit of hindsight), and did buy: (whether they worked out or not)

 

Dalglish - Barnes

Souness - Saunders

Evans - Collymore

Houllier - none (though he nearly did with Litmanen)

Benitez - Torres

[redrosetints]

Carrying on the theme of past managers and players - does everyone want to have a go at naming ONE player that each of our past managers SHOULD have bought but didn't for whatever reason? (since we last won the title)

 

I will start with my five:

 

Dalglish: Gary Pallister (we turned him down after he agreed to a move!)

Souness: Roy Keane (We tried for him, dunno what happened)

Evans: Marcel Desailly (board didn't want to pay his wages)

Houllier: Cristiano Ronaldo (didn't want to pay £1m a season in wages)

Benitez: Danni Alves (Didn't want to go above £12m)

 

I think all of these managers might have had a chance of the title with just one of those :(

 

Hindsight eh? Looking at that lot though, I think most fans wanted those players at the time too!

 

Im not sure any of those would have made a huge difference, bar Keane. We got the wrong Forest mid, if we could turn back the clock and take Keane instead of Clough, who knows where Fergie would be now.

[RSM]

Dalglish: Laudrup

Souness: Cantona

Evans: Sheringham

Houllier: Cristiano Ronaldo

Parry: Michael Essien

Benitez: Aguero

[El Rojo]

Dalglish: Laudrup

Souness: Cantona

Evans: Sheringham

Houllier: Cristiano Ronaldo

Parry: Michael Essien

Benitez: Aguero

 

We were linked with Essien for around £3m one summer during Houllier's years.