10 Liverpool Players Who Nearly Signed for Man United

4. Stan Collymore

Cutting a controversial figure at Anfield, he still enjoyed a largely successful time at the club, ousting club hero Ian Rush from the starting line-up as he embarked on a fruitful partnership with local lad Robbie Fowler. With a goal-scoring ratio of one every 2.5 games, Collymore was an instant hit at the club, despite his off-pitch misdemeanours. However, before Liverpool pounced to sign him from Sheffield Wednesday for a British record fee of £8.5 million in June 1995, it was Ferguson who almost added him to the plethora of goal-scorers at the Stretford End. In January 1995, the Scot was on the look-out for a younger replacement for the ageing Welshman Mark Hughes, and had identified both Collymore and Newcastle United predator Andy Cole as potential targets. Phoning up his former protégée Mark McGhee for advice, Ferguson asked who to break the British transfer record on. McGhee's response favouring the Sheffield Wednesday forward was clearly the wrong one, as Ferguson was to splash out £7 million on prizing Cole from St. James' Park. He has since stated in his tell-all book that he was 'glad he never ended up signing Collymore', which went some way to irking the former Anfield hot-shot.

''I would have been a threat at United, and I think they may have won even more trophies if they had signed me. I once cheekily suggested I could have helped them win the European Cup a couple of years before they eventually managed it in 1999. Fergie can say he made the right decision not to sign me, in the same way I can say I would have produced the goods for him.'' - Stan Collymore, October 2013.