During his tenure as Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez managed to win both the Champions League and FA Cup, while narrowly missing out on the Premier League title in the 2008/2009 season.
The Spaniard brought the likes of Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres, and Javier Mascherano to the club during his reign; however, he might have won more if a move materialised for a future Premier League legend…
Liverpool missed out on Aguero back in 2006
Benitez revealed in 2016 that Liverpool were once offered the services of Sergio Aguero, saying: “I was Liverpool manager. They offered him to us as a young player for big, big money. He signed for Atletico Madrid.
“He was a player that we knew. We were following him. We knew he was a very good player.”
Aguero instead moved to Atletico Madrid, with Independiente pocketing €23m (£20m) and his journey to the top began in Spain.
Five years and 101 goals later, he moved to Manchester City for a fee of £38m where he went on to become a club legend.
His decade-long spell in Manchester was extremely successful, to say the least, as he won five Premier League titles alongside a hatful of other domestic honours, but his goalscoring abilities will ensure he has a place in the City history books.
He netted a remarkable 260 goals in 390 appearances and became the club’s all-time top scorer in 2017 and left Manchester in 2021 to join Barcelona.
Unfortunately, due to a heart condition, the frontman, who was earning €200k per week (£174k), had to retire from playing in December 2021.
His former manager Pep Guardiola described him as “unique” and Benitez certainly made a massive howler by not stumping up the cash and bringing him to England in 2006.
There’s no doubt he could have thrived for the Anfield side, and they may have won another few trophies during the Spaniard’s reign if the Argentinian was leading the line.
Instead, he created history at Man City and it must be one of the Spaniard’s biggest regrets when looking back at his time at Liverpool.
from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2bWoniK
via IFTTT