Premier League - Liverpool 'turned down Ronaldo'
Gerard Houllier has admitted that he turned down the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo when he was Liverpool manager back in 2003.
The Frenchman, who will return to Anfield for the first time as an opposing manager with his Aston Villa side on Monday night, said that Ronaldo's wage demands and the fact that he already had Harry Kewell were behind his decision to not sign the Portuguese winger.
Ronaldo, then with Sporting Lisbon, instead signed for rivals Manchester United for £12.24 million and after six hugely successful seasons at Old Trafford, he moved to Real Madrid for a world record fee of £80m.
"I saw him (Ronaldo) in the Toulon U21 tournament and we went for him, but we had a wage scale and we weren't paying the sort of salary he wanted," Houllier is quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.
"Then Manchester United played a friendly against Sporting Lisbon and all their boys said to Sir Alex Ferguson, 'You have to sign him'. But I agreed with not breaking the wage structure. I thought it would cause problems in our dressing room.
"I know some of the signings were not as sharp as they could have been. Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time and was very hungry but got a bad injury. After that, he never had the same confidence, the same appetite."
A year after he rejected the chance to sign Ronaldo, Houllier - who won five trophies with the club in 2001 and the League Cup in 2003 - left Liverpool by mutual consent. He said he was hopeful of a good reaction from the Anfield crowd on his return.
"It will be interesting to see what the Liverpool crowd is like," he said.
"I trust them to be good. After all, I didn’t go afterwards to Everton or Manchester United."
Comment 87 - 106 of 106
if you seriously think that CR7 wouldn't be one of the best players in the world your crazy because he was transfered to real madrid and made a big impact in his first year and was aurgably the best player on the team and lets not forget a team that bought kaka and barely played due to injury so that just goes to show you his work ethic. wethere you like him or not the GREAT ZADANE has come out and said that hes the first one to train in the morining and the last one to leave. so i differ with the comments that people say that he wouldn't be one of the best in the world thats what he strives for to be the best. i'd like to see how messi would do with a different cast because hes not the same player when he is on argentina. its understandable because he been playing with fc barcelona since he was 14. but that just goes to show you how good ronaldo is he started at sporting moved to man utd became the best player in the world there and when everyone said his career was over when he joined real madrid he proves them wrong again 55 goals in 57 apperance is a crazy stat in my eyes what do u think.
*Osama B* Ive never actually managed to read so much @#$% in my life!!! bellamy has always been a prick which is why liverpool flogged him!!! @#$%***ed. People like you probaly watch highlights a read magerzines and make your fantasy teams!!?? Do you actually watch football? like from the terraces?? Do you hell haha. Get a life............xx
go gaynald take torres off from Anfield to"real MAD,RIDDED"and take him as a bun-pet!
where manu hold that HUGE transfer gain? they must have got enough money and made themselves richier...already spent it up? to what???
looks soooo cr*p!
awwwww...come on!!!
Liverpool's choise is ABSOLUTELY right! who cares this beast?
admit it, you fuked up.a business man? ,, never.
fo af
COMMENT 91, I TOTALLY AGREE.
SAF BRINGS THE BEST OUT IN EVERY PLAYER WHO IS WILLING TO TAKE HIS HARD METHODS.
THEN THE TW*TS @#$% ON UNITED.
AND SAF DOES IT ALL OVER AGAIN, THATS WHAT MAKES SAF PROBALLY THE BEST MANAGER BRITISH FOOTBALL.
NON MAN UTD FAN.
CARDIFF CITY SUPPORTER
That might have been funny post 100 ..........had you not completely f*cked up the spelling of (is).
100.L?ngxi?n y?bł ........."ar u on drugs son? ia that how you type your name because you have pigs trotters for feet".................................
____
Irony =..................You comment on a persons name in an abrasive manner,and look a complete""""""" pr*ck """""""""i n the process............Wtg you cloning mongoloid!.
It's written in Chinese!!!!!! Yahoo translates it as such !
So all the little spastics have to copy and paste it.........
Fed fan .............If you had any knowledge of football you'd think more before posting such nonsense.
Chelsea and United have Terry Cole Rooney to name a few who shouldn't even be playing............they're complete @#$%s.........as are you.!
Do one @#$%!
Bellamy was a c*ck before he signed for Liverpool.
While @ Liverpool he had no problems........
Clearly you're not a proper Footy fan.................showing how little you know once more.!
Christ - I'm glad Liverpool had a prohibitive wage structure that prevented that overblown arrogant prima donna from donning the red of the 'pool!
L?ngxi?n y?bł, yeah thats right liverpool always make great players into role models like stan collymore and craig bellamy lmao what a tool
L?ngxi?n y?bł ar u on drugs son? ia that how you type your name because you have pigs trotters for feet ha ha
a lot of scousers in here tonight busybee,must be a quiet night in derby ha ha
'darrenhindle2001' - who's stuart gerrard?
Ronaldo wouldn't have lasted @ Liverpool if his ego took off,as it did while @ United.
Though Playing for Liverpool would have given the lad some decency and maturity.
Little Victor has his Sempre clone out pmsl.............
These so-called stories are put on Liverpools threads to entice all the bitter mancs ..........................and you all fall for it ,everytime.
Classic.
Doesnt matter how gd a player is, wudnt make liverpool any better
Harry Kewell was outstanding at the time. I'd have rather had kewell than Ronaldo at that time.
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