Liverpool FC Forum

by **columbia** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:18 pm

got this from another forum i visit....

(Phil) Thompson also revealed Liverpool were close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo before he joined Manchester United.

"One star who got away in surprising fashion was Cristiano Ronaldo, who shocked us when he signed for Manchester United in 2003, for an astonishing £12m. I say astonishing because we had been offered the player for £4m.

"I was invited to watch Sporting Lisbon play Porto in the last game of the season. Ronaldo was playing for Sporting. Tony Henry, the former Manchester City player and agent, was on the phone on a regular basis to see if he could take us to watch him.

"I met Tony at the airport and travelled to Porto. I met the player's Portuguese agent before watching the game. Ronaldo was quite good, but not as impressive as the first time I saw him. Tony was pushing the boy and saying he was a talent. He was saying: 'He will only cost £4m.'

"He added: 'It can be paid over the course of his contract, £1m a year.'

"He also said that the player wanted £1m tax free. I said: 'The boy is only 18. That is a massive problem,' but Tony suggested it was negotiable.

"I returned back the following day impressed with what I had seen and mentioned it to Gerard. He said: 'I will ask Rick.'

"We had just signed Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec, both on far less than Ronaldo's aspirations. And we would have had anarchy if the other players had found out how much we were considering paying for an 18-year-old kid.

"We looked for a compromise. Ten days later I was sitting in a lounge at Anfield having some lunch and looking at the big TV screen. Up came the news United had signed Ronaldo from Lisbon for £12.2m. Gerard and myself nearly choked on our food.

"Gerard said: 'Contact Tony Henry,' and I went straight out and rang him. I said: 'what happened? More importantly, what happened with the price?' He said: 'After you had been with me, I got a phone call the following week and was told to drop everything on the deal. Hand on heart, I really don't know what happened.'

"I went back and told Gerard the story. What happened, God only knows. For the fee to jump from £4m to £12m, especially as they seemed so desperate, was surprising to say the least."

by **columbia** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:48 pm

Fergie is one dodgy corrupt ba*tard. So then, we have the use of a dodgy agent, fergie and a mysterious 8 million pounds that was supposedly ahem "worked" into the deal somehow. In my opinion he's been using dodgy transfers for years to keep his family sweet and pay off his immense gambling debts.

Lets look at previous past transfers. Veron at 28m, a player he had never spoken of and united had paul scholes playing at his prime. He didnt need veron it was clear at the time but still splashed out all that money on him. The sale of Jaap Stam for hinting in his book fergie may have used underhand tactics with his agent to sign him....oh the irony. Forlan, an unheard of player mysteriously stolen from boro at the airport for 8m, way more than boro were about to pay.

by **parchpea** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:51 pm

If Im not mistaken Preston North End where offered Forlan for £750,000 and rejected him after a trial. Suddenly its an £8m deal. Makes you wonder what the heck is going on.

by **mikopool** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:52 pm

I remember soccernet.com talking about us in the front running to land him a while back, but the fancy little :censored:

said he wanted to go to United.

by **onizukaeikichi** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:58 pm

it was a damn big mistake

by **RUSHIE#9** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:13 pm

Just seems to show that over the past 10-12 years Liverpool have made some really poor choices in the transfer market and have possibly been to cautious on a few occasions. Still it could be worse, we could be in Leeds' position.

by **neil** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:19 pm

yes, and we could have actually signed this little p.rick

by **metalhead** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:58 pm

oh well we didn't sign him! Man u beat us to him :devil:

by **onizukaeikichi** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 8:04 pm

do u all know about rooney could have been a red but he was rejected by the academy as well

by **metalhead** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 8:23 pm

maybe because of his temparement

by **mighty mo** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 10:05 pm

ronaldo was saying in the papers that summer before he signed that his dream was to play for liverpool because he wanted to play with michael owen

by **The Canadian Red Army** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:13 pm

i wouldnt want little miss fancy pants here anyway

by **Espionage** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 3:50 am

^

then you are a fool

^

by **RedRoots** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 3:53 am

I'd take him here in a heartbeat, he's a quality player, I couldn't give a funk if he's a fancy pants, maybe he'd show Garcia how to actually do a trick with the ball so he wouldn't look like so much of a t1t all the time.

by **xd3vilx** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 8:57 am

compare Ronaldo to Garcia...hu would u want to take?...u should know my answer...

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Ronaldo almost signed for liverpool for 4m - According to phil thompson

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