Former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed that the club were very close to signing Tottenham star Dele Alli.
Spurs’ young starlet Alli has been dubbed the ‘next Steven Gerrard’ as the two players’ style of play is very similar.
The Reds were among a host of teams vying for the signature of Alli, 19.
But he ended up at White Hart Lane after a fee was not agreed between Liverpool and Milton Keynes Dons.
Rodgers, who was sacked as Liverpool manager in October, revealed on Goals On Sunday:
“We thought we had him at Liverpool.
“The manager of MK Dons actually drove him down to us. They played a game on the Saturday and we were playing West Ham on the Sunday.
“We’d had contact with Dele, it was all above board, I was speaking with Karl Robinson and I spoke to Dele and his adoptive parents.
“Karl’s did really well with him and he came to me and said ‘I’ve got a really exciting player, I’d love to see him at Liverpool’.
“I spent a couple of hours in a hotel room with him and he wanted to come to Liverpool.
“It was all about getting the deal done with the club but unfortunately it never got done.
“On Saturday evening we thought it had got done but eventually he went to Tottenham, which was frustrating and disappointing. He’s done really well there.”
Alli joined Spurs for £5m at the end of the January 2015 transfer window, was loaned back to MK Dons for the rest of the 2014-15 season, before linking up with Spurs in the summer.
By Steve Osborne @BlizzardSteve75
