Liverpool could have signed Man Utd star Ronaldo for just £4M
Posted on 22. Mar, 2008 by Milox in Premiership
In his recent autobiography, ‘Stand Up Pinocchio’, former Liverpool assistant boss Phil Thompson revealed how Manchester United ace Cristiano Ronaldo could so easily have ended up at Anfield - for just £4 million.
“Yes, he was good,” Thompson wrote. “Portugal had two starlets, [Ricardo] Quaresma and Ronaldo, who played right and left wing for their under-21s. I watched them play and both were very good. It was a toss-up as to who was the best.
“I was invited to watch Sporting play Porto in the last game of their season. Tony Henry, the former Manchester City player and an agent with Paul Stretford’s ProActive agency, was on the phone on a regular basis to see if we would take Ronaldo and asking if he could take us to watch him. I met Tony at the airport and travelled to Oporto. 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’ll only cost £4 million. It can be paid over the course of his contract at £1 million a year.’ He also said the player wanted £1 million [a year] tax free. I said, ‘The boy is only 18. That is a massive problem.’ We would have had anarchy if the other players had found out how much we were considering paying for an 18-year-old kid in Ronaldo.”
It was only months later that Ronaldo was on his way to Old Trafford for £12.24 million, a fee that Thommo described as “astonishing”.
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5 Comments
Sagar
22. Mar, 2008
In life sometimes you have to take a gamble and for fergie it paid off big time.
Look at him now…Phil Thompson must be gutted that he didn’t recomend liverpool sign him then did he and what a bargain as well he would have been at £4 million.
And I think he was a bargain at 12 million.
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matt
22. Mar, 2008
this isnt the true story, re-read phil’s book again, because I don’t think the writer of this article read it. Liverpool had agreed to sign ronaldo, but united and their dodgy dealing paid more than the asking price, over £12m compaired to the asking price of £4 - where did the rest of that money go Slur Alex?
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Cantona
22. Mar, 2008
That happened because Liverpool has no intentions of developing young stars and are short-sighted in spotting future talent. They have never showed us that they are interested in blooding young stars in my opinion. Its all about buying proven talent to get immediate results, sorta like Chelsea. Apparently, they dont believe ‘the children are the future.’
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Dave McIlroy
23. Mar, 2008
Typical of Thompson, clueless! Look at the ‘world class players’ we ended up with under Houllier/ Thompson…..NOT!
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Tom
27. May, 2008
This while thing was a scam. Man Utd and S.Lisbon had agreed that Ronaldo would join United at a set time, and agreed the fee. Manchester United then wanted to delay the deal so they could put the fee down in the next years accounts, and Lisbon refused this request, and used Liverpool, and numerous other foreign clubs (one beiong real madrid, who aactually turned him down) as pawns in forcing Uniteds hand…and they knew the only way to do this was to offer him to other clubs for A LOT less money…which worked a treat…and United duely signed him up through fear of losing him.
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