What could have been ...

[LeTallecWiz]

Imagine Batigol and Robbie? Now that would have been phenomenal.

Also interesting that we were close to Sheringham (who would have been a great signing) and Desailly

[article=http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/144497-revealed-roy-s-plan-to-sign-batistuta]Former Liverpool manager Roy Evans has revealed how he attempted to pair one of the most prolific strikers in world football with Robbie Fowler for the Reds during the mid-1990s.

Gabriel Batistuta notched more than 200 goals in Italian football for Fiorentina, Roma and Inter Milan, scaring defences across the continent with his lethal finishing via left foot, right foot or head.

The Argentinian appeared at three World Cups and struck 10 times on the biggest stage before concluding his international career with 56 goals from 78 matches - still a record for his country.

Now it has emerged that the man nicknamed 'Batigol' had a genuine opportunity to take a diversion to Anfield midway through his successful spell in Serie A.

"There were talks of him moving from Italy to somewhere else," Evans told Liverpoolfc.com.

"We had an interest; there were some conversations between Liverpool and his club. He was interested, but unfortunately it just didn't happen.

"It was one of those things where you make an enquiry and it just didn't go any further than that. I'm sure he would have been a great acquisition for us if we had got him."

With Fowler breaking the 30-goal barrier for Liverpool in three consecutive seasons under Evans between 1994 and 1997, the Reds were regularly in contention for the Premier League title.

Asked if the addition of a player with Batistuta's pedigree could have made the difference for his ambitious young team, the 64-year-old was philosophical in his response.

He added: "We'll never know. When you're the manager you always want other players because you're worried about loss of form and injuries.

"You're always looking to enhance your squad. Maybe it would have done, maybe it wouldn't. We also went in for the likes of Teddy Sheringham at that time.

"Teddy was very interested in coming; he was 29 or 30 at the time. But the club had a policy of not buying older players. As it happened, he went to Manchester United and played for six or seven years there with great success.

"Sometimes you miss out on things. I think he would have brought some good experience to a lot of young lads. We had some experience with John Barnes and Ian Rush, but Teddy Sheringham would have been another experienced player for us.

"You're always looking for players and asking different things. At Liverpool in those days, you did all of your business more or less behind closed doors. None of it was leaked to the press.

"Nowadays, with the 24/7 press it's a lot more difficult for the manager to do it. You enquire about many players.

"When Marcel Desailly was moving, we tried to buy him. The only thing that stopped us was that he wanted to live in London - that was his biggest thing.

"I think he was interested in the football club but it didn't happen. You win some and you lose some."[/article]

 

[Silver Sean]

Pick up?

 

[FoxForceFive]

Pick up?

Yeah, I'm not sure what a small flat bed truck has to do with anything either.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Pick up?

That's a word Andy hates.

 

[mark1975]

I remember Sherringham being linked and then being gutted that he'd gone to United. Same with Sol Campbell too, he was even photographed at a game during the Internationals with Evans and it seemed pretty much nailed on, then Wenger stepped in.

 

[Judge Jules]

I remember hearing on the radio about our interest on Desailly and all but praying it would come off. Can't help wondering how much of a difference a player and leader like that might have made to the club in Uncle Roy's time.

 

[Woland]

Weren't we meant to be buying Roy Keane when he left Forest?

The proper failure was not signing Anelka. We were only linked with Batistuta... but Anelka was here and we let him walk away to sign Diouf. Lordy dordy.

 

[gkmacca]

Weren't we meant to be buying Roy Keane when he left Forest?

Yes. I always thought that was THE battle between us and the mancs as far as the 1990s was concerned. If Souey had signed him, I think we could have stabilised and then progressed. As soon as Ginsoak got him I feared the worst, and the worst happened.

 

[Woland]

I was talking to one of our scouts in a pub ages ago, a geordie dude, don't remember his name... and he said that they were all shocked when Keane signed for them, the deal had been in place with us. I didn't remember it at the time and didn't know we were so close to signing him. But yeah, you confirming that... it probably defined the next decade of the league.

 

[Hansern]

Sounds as though he was pretty close to going to B'Burn aswell

Keane was beginning to attract attention from the top clubs in the Premier League, and in 1992, Blackburn Rovers manager Kenny Dalglish spoke to Keane about the possibility of a move to the Lancashire club at the end of the season. With Forest struggling in the league and looking increasingly more likely to be relegated, Keane negotiated a new contract with a relegation escape clause. The lengthy negotiations had been much talked about in public, not least by Brian Clough, who described Keane as a "greedy child"[5] due to the high wages demanded by the Irishman. "Keane is the hottest prospect in football right now, but he is not going to bankrupt this club," Clough stated. Despite the extended contract negotiations, Forest fans voted him the club's Player of the Season.[10] Despite his best efforts, Keane could not save Forest from relegation, and the clause in his contract became activated. Blackburn agreed a £4 million fee for Keane, who soon after agreed a contract with the club.

However, a mistake prevented the move to the club. When the contract had been agreed, Kenny Dalglish realised they did not have the correct paperwork needed to complete the transfer. This was on a Friday afternoon, and the office had been locked up for the weekend. With a verbal agreement in place, they agreed to meet on Monday morning to complete the transfer officially. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, hearing about the move, phoned Keane and asked whether he would like to join them instead of Blackburn. Ferguson ensured they had the paperwork ready and met up with Keane on the Saturday and signed for Manchester United for £3.75 million, a British transfer record at the time.

 

[Holle]

My favourite footballer ever.

*sigh*

 

[peterhague]

I remember that Blackburn fucked up the Keane thing quite vividly, he was widely expected to go there. They were getting everyone they went for at that stage.

For me though some of the big deals we wanted to do but missed out on for various reasons came during Rafa's time. I've heard about too many to name, really, no doubt some more credible than others.

Dani Alves stands out - although as Rafa admits he got Kuyt instead so not all bad. Still galling that we missed out on him for a few million and ended up with Pennant instead. Simao was another, and Jovetic.

Some of the other ones include Walcott, Aguero, Silva, Pato, Falcao, Vidic - no doubt varying levels of interest etc.

 

[Squiggles]

Ex-manager's never mention the footballers they wanted to sign who 2 years later ended up at Kettering United.

 

[Silver Sean]

Weren't we meant to be buying Roy Keane when he left Forest?

The proper failure was not signing Anelka. We were only linked with Batistuta... but Anelka was here and we let him walk away to sign Diouf. Lordy dordy.

Still an incredible decision. Don't even need hindsight for that one! Just an almighty fuck up. I reckon he must have wanted stupid money and we could get Diouf for peanuts or whatever other fruit or nut they have in Senegal.
The one that I wish we'd got who we could have was Michael Laudrup in his pomp. Although Batigoal would have been ace. Never knew that link before.

 

[Silver Sean]

Sounds as though he was pretty close to going to B'Burn aswell

Keane was beginning to attract attention from the top clubs in the Premier League, and in 1992, Blackburn Rovers manager Kenny Dalglish spoke to Keane about the possibility of a move to the Lancashire club at the end of the season. With Forest struggling in the league and looking increasingly more likely to be relegated, Keane negotiated a new contract with a relegation escape clause. The lengthy negotiations had been much talked about in public, not least by Brian Clough, who described Keane as a "greedy child"[5] due to the high wages demanded by the Irishman. "Keane is the hottest prospect in football right now, but he is not going to bankrupt this club," Clough stated. Despite the extended contract negotiations, Forest fans voted him the club's Player of the Season.[10] Despite his best efforts, Keane could not save Forest from relegation, and the clause in his contract became activated. Blackburn agreed a £4 million fee for Keane, who soon after agreed a contract with the club.

However, a mistake prevented the move to the club. When the contract had been agreed, Kenny Dalglish realised they did not have the correct paperwork needed to complete the transfer. This was on a Friday afternoon, and the office had been locked up for the weekend. With a verbal agreement in place, they agreed to meet on Monday morning to complete the transfer officially. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, hearing about the move, phoned Keane and asked whether he would like to join them instead of Blackburn. Ferguson ensured they had the paperwork ready and met up with Keane on the Saturday and signed for Manchester United for £3.75 million, a British transfer record at the time.

'The office was locked up for the weekend.'
Jesus.
Is there any other business in the world with such an imbalance between the money involved in it and the incompetence of those in charge?

 

[peterhague]

Still an incredible decision. Don't even need hindsight for that one! Just an almighty fuck up. I reckon he must have wanted stupid money and we could get Diouf for peanuts or whatever other fruit or nut they have in Senegal.
The one that I wish we'd got who we could have was Michael Laudrup in his pomp. Although Batigoal would have been ace. Never knew that link before.

He was demanding £60k a week but eventually agreed to 30. Ged then struck while the iron was hot and signed Diouf instead.

 

[Judge Jules]

He didn't agree to 30 as such - he voluntarily cut his own original demand in half, he was that keen to stay with us. It was a massive howler by GH, the first of a number of them unfortunately as the job started to run away from him.

 

[Hansern]

We were after Ronaldo aswell werent we?

That summer in 2002 was meant to be the next big step but instead we signed Diao, Diouf and Cheyrou for 20 mill £.
A certain Essien was at Bastia at the time and moved for the same fee as Diao in 2003 to Lyon.

Imagine if we had done our homework and signed Anelka and Essien that summer.

*cries*

 

[Wilko7]

I remember us thinking Shearer was too expensive at £3.6m and spending £2.9m instead on Dean Saunders.

 

[gkmacca]

He didn't actually agree to 30 - he voluntarily cut his own original demand in half, he was that keen to stay with us. It was a massive howler by GH, the first of a number of them unfortunately as the job started to run away from him.

Yes. He compounded the error by refusing to explain the decision properly, preferring instead to make those silly snide 'He knows the reason' comments.

 

[Judge Jules]

I remember us thinking Shearer was too expensive at £3.6m and spending £2.9m instead on Dean Saunders.

I hadn't heard that. Ouch.

 

[gkmacca]

Really, really, irritating.

Gérard Houllier has raised fresh concern about Nicolas Anelka's temperament by revealing that "non-football reasons" were behind the decision not to turn the striker's loan deal from Paris Saint-Germain into a permanent move to Liverpool.
Anelka will face his former club today with Kevin Keegan, the Manchester City manager, acclaiming him as one of the best strikers in the world.
Yet Houllier insists he has no regrets about ending the Frenchman's brief career on Merseyside. "I don't want to expose the reasons why I didn't want to sign him," he said, "but I think he knows why and it has nothing to do with football."

 

[Judge Jules]

Given that GH himself signed Nico on the original loan deal, one would assume he had to be referring to something which happened during Nico's time here, when by all other accounts he kept his nose clean off the pitch as well as turning in some stellar performances on it, both individually (his single-handed destruction of Newcastle during that period was one of the finest individual performances I've ever seen in a Liverpool shirt in 50 years) and in terms of leading the whole attack.

Sometimes good "agents of change" aren't the right people to stay on and lead an organisation forward once the changes have been made. GH is one of the clearest examples of this that I've ever come across in any walk of life.

 

[peterhague]

I hadn't heard that. Ouch.

It's bollocks. We signed Saunders a year earlier.

Btw, wasn't what you said about Anelka cutting his demands in half actually the same as what I said?!

 

[Judge Jules]

Not quite. Your wording "agreed to" suggests that £30,000 p.w.was an offer we made to him. The way I heard it, he took the initiative and said off his own bat that he'd come down to that figure.

 

[peterhague]

Oh I see. That's not the way I remember it. I thought that was our negotiating position that we spent ages trying to get him down to, which he only reluctantly agreed to after quite a while. At which point we signed Diouf instead.

 

[Holle]

Some real stunners right there.

But after all, transfers are hit and miss. I guess similar stories could be done for all clubs.