10 Players You Didn’t Know Liverpool Almost Signed

3. Mario Gomez

Named the German Footballer of the Year at the tender age of 21, Fiorentina striker Gomez very nearly avoided his three year jaunt to Bayern Munich in 2008, whilst Liverpool were still mired in the dark reign of Roy Hodgson. Jamie Carragher has since spoken out about the near-signing in his Telegraph column, sadly noting that in the next season Gomez racked up 55 goals in 65 appearances for Munich. There's no real information on hand about why the German player slipped through our fingers, but we do know who Hodgson deemed a suitable replacement. Instead of the 26-year-old goal scoring dynamo, we got saddled with the Andy Carroll-shaped albatross around our neck which blighted the team well into Brendan Rodgers' tenure as gaffer, scoring a mere 11 goals in the same period Gomez racked up his 65. We're finally rid of the lumbering Carroll now, but we still can't help wonder how things might have been different with the Bayern prodigy up front.