10 Liverpool Players Who Nearly Signed for Man United

9. Joe Cole

In the context of this list, there are two Joe Coles. There is the talented youngster tipped to scale heights similar to that of one Diego Maradona, flummoxing Premier League defenders 15 years his senior during his time at Upton Park. Then there is the polarizing shadow of the former Hammer, having been chewed up and spat out by a string of injuries, leaving a shell of a man on £90,000 p/wk to the frustration of the despairing Kop. While Manchester United were accredited with an interest in picking up the sullied shadow on a freebie from Chelsea in the summer of 2010, it was 16 years prior to that when their interest was really serious. Despite being just a 13 year old kid, Cole's potential rise to stardom had found the airwaves to the top scouts in England, and Ferguson was desperate to add the future England international to his ranks.

''He did want to sign me as a kid. I made my decision to come to West Ham because all my pals were here and I was very comfortable here as a youngster. Then they asked me go to the cup final with the team. It wouldn't have been right going along and taking all of the razzmatazz of the day at the cup final. It just wouldn't have been right because I knew I was going to sign for West Ham so we said no.'' - Joe Cole, January 2013.

Unfortunately for Ferguson, the Red Devils missed out on one of the most skilful players the nation has produced in the last decades, but by the time he found his way onto the scrapheap at Stamford Bridge four years ago, Roy Hodgson will have wished he had possessed the same good sense that his Scottish counterpart had in giving the washed-up crock a dodge.