Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has revealed which major signings that the club missed out on while he was in charge at Anfield.
Benitez is regarded as one of the most successful Liverpool manager of the modern area, following their Champions League win in Istanbul over AC Milan in 2005.
Rafa Benitez, who left Liverpool in 2010 after six years in charge at the club, was the guest on the Stick to Football podcast this week, which many regard as one of the best football podcasts.
“Under Tom Hicks and George Gillett, I wanted to sign [Stevan] Jovetić and he was £16 million,” Benitez said on the Stick to Football podcast.
“In my head, I was selling players and had £34million, but was told that we don’t have money. We went to play against Fiorentina and lost 2-0 – Jovetic scored both goals. I said that this was the player we wanted to sign but we didn’t have money.
“I wanted to sign Aaron Ramsey when he was playing for Cardiff City, and we made an offer of £1.5m but Cardiff were playing in the FA Cup and wanted us to wait, but I told them that we had to do it, he was 17 years-old. When we went again to try and sign him, Arsene Wenger paid £5m, and we couldn’t sign him.
“Gareth Bale, when he was 17 at Southampton, six months after we were watching him, Tottenham paid £8m, and we couldn’t compete.”
Benitez also revealed that he had held talks with Nemanja Vidic before the Serbian centre-back signed for rivals Manchester United.
Benitez continued: “I knew they were making a bigger offer than us. Therefore, we didn’t have the money to buy players, and we didn’t have the money to pay players either.
“The new owners were lucky because we sold Torres for £50m, then Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho. So, they had money to spend around that time. You must spend a lot of money like Chelsea and Manchester City – they just spend.
“For Liverpool, it was very difficult because the families of the players preferred to stay in London because of the airport, as well as Manchester. Liverpool was the third choice because of the size of the city, and they like to go shopping in London, I heard one wife talk to another wife!
“You also cannot pay the salaries. In terms of the city, I love Liverpool but if you go to London there’s the wives, families and all the people. Liverpool were also not winning trophies. Manchester was winning trophies; Chelsea was winning trophies and even Arsenal was winning trophies. So, it was very difficult – you have to convince players.”
