Speaking on the Official Liverpool FC Podcast, Rafa Benitez has been speaking about his time as the Reds’ manager and some signings he tried to make at the club.
Benitez spoke about signing the likes of Juanfran and Dani Alves for the Reds, and, interestingly he also discussed his attempts to sign Stevan Jovetic for the Merseyside club.
The 33-year-old is currently playing for Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga, but back in the day he was seen as one of the hottest prospects in Europe when he was at Fiorentina.
Liverpool tried to sign him for £16m, but due to the financial situation at the time, the move was put on ice.
Manchester City eventually swooped and Jovetic would go on to become a Premier League winner.
Benitez wanted Jovetic
The Spaniard spoke about trying to sign Jovetic.
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“We were under massive economic pressure. I wanted to sign Jovetic. Jovetic was playing for Fiorentina and the price was £16m. In my head with my budget I had the money, When I went to sign him they said no you don’t have any money. We played Fiorentina, we lost 2-0 and Jovetic scored two goals. These kind of things, the fans don’t know. As a manager you have to work with the money that is available,” Benitez said.
Lucky escape
To be honest, Liverpool are probably lucky that they didn’t do this deal under Benitez.
Jovetic never really kicked on to become the player many thought he would be, and perhaps if he was at Anfield at that time, the Reds wouldn’t have gone out and bought Luis Suarez in 2011.
Now, Jovetic isn’t a bad player by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s hard to imagine that many at Liverpool are losing sleep over this one.
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