Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur, lost out to Chelsea 10 years ago when they completed the signing of Willian from Anzhi Makhachkala
Liverpool will be keeping a watching eye on Premier League investigations into Manchester City and Everton for potential financial rule breaches for varying reasons.
READ MORE: Mohamed Salah left in tears at half-time after being 'destroyed' by manager who 'took no prisoners' Willian joined Chelsea in a £30m deal in August 2013, having only joined Anzhi from Shakhtar Donetsk for the same fee the previous January. However, Liverpool had actually tried to sign the Brazilian from the Russian outfit first, before first Tottenham Hotspur and then Chelsea swooped in.
"I slipped into the groove with Willian. I said hello and hoped he didn’t mind me contacting him directly. I stressed how much I admired him as a player and then, having mentioned the fact that I knew Liverpool were speaking to his agent, I used the standard line: ‘If you need to chat or ask any questions I’m available at any time’.
"The next text from Willian was so obvious I could have written it for him even before I read it. He again said that it would be great to play in the same team as me but, ‘I’m not sure Liverpool can give me the Champions League’. “Some might say too ambitious but this is Liverpool Football Club – we are trying to get the best players that we possibly can. If we can’t get them in, we just have to move on. We’ve got 11 days to go, we have to do everything we possibly can.
In a further interview, he said: "It’s disappointing because this was a player who would have been perfect for us. It wasn’t a football and I don’t really want to go into it… that’s for us as a club really. Tottenham officials were left furious as Willian had to spend another eight hours at Spurs lodge before completing his move to Chelsea, with club sources at the time claiming Levy was incandescent and there was a firm belief in the Tottenham camp that Chelsea did not truly want Willian, and only moved for him to prevent former manager Andre Villas-Boas from constructing a squad to challenge them in the Premier League.
"So you protect the situation, so you do it in secret, and after that when you sign the contract with the club and with the player you say: 'Done'. “The situation was… complicated. Well, not complicated actually. It was more... unusual,” Willian told FourFourTwo when reflecting on the move back in 2017. “When I came to London, there were other clubs interested in my football: Liverpool, Tottenham as well as Chelsea.
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