10 Liverpool Players Who Nearly Signed for Man United

5. Pepe Reina

A number of these 'fan favourites' either came to within a whisker of signing for Manchester United either before their ties with Liverpool were fashioned or several years after the cord with the club was cut. However, in Pepe Reina's case, he was halfway through his nine-year stint with the Reds when he began making noises about replacing Edwin van der Sar at Old Trafford. Loyalty to the badge, eh? With Sir Alex Ferguson stuck in a goalkeeping quagmire - never his forte - the club were stuck in a purgatorial transition, following the veteran Dutchman Edwin van der Sar's retirement in 2011. With newspaper reports linking the club with a move for Liverpool's highly-rated Spanish goalkeeper, he was doing nothing to quell such rumours.

''I won't lie, I want to play in the Champions League and challenge for titles. Van der Sar will hang up his gloves in the summer so of course United are looking. I can't do anything. Of course one likes to fight for titles and be in a team that does that.'' - Pepe Reina, February 2011.

In the end, the move never materialised and Athletico Madrid's 21 year old David de Gea was drafted in for the princely sum of £18.9 million, sparking an indignant statement from Reina declaring that he never actually wanted to leave.

''I am happy at Liverpool and so are my family. I've never wanted to go. It is true that we have improved a lot this year but we have to keep growing.'' - Pepe Reina, June 2011.

Following his recent antics regarding his on-going flirtation with Barcelona and desperate 'come and get me' pleas, one might just take that face-saving statement with a pinch of salt.