10 Players Who Rejected Liverpool

In at number one is a transfer rejection and hijack a whole year in the making.

Brendan Rodgers set his sights on signing Costa to join his ominous front line in the summer of 2013. Liverpool bid £21.8m to Atlético Madrid for his services, triggering the striker's release clause.

However, Costa rejected the Reds and chose to sign a new contract at Atléti instead of joining the likes of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge as they attempted to win the Premier League title.

So far, so innocuous, but a biography of Diego Costa later revealed that he had been convinced by Jose Mourinho not to join Liverpool a whole year before he signed him for Chelsea. Scandal.

Mourinho, who hadn't quite convinced owner Roman Abramovich to invest in his squad rebuild at Stamford Bridge in 2013, pleaded with Costa directly to reject Liverpool - promising to sign him for more money the following summer if Costa was still there.

Costa stayed, won La Liga with Atlético, then moved to Chelsea and scored 20 Premier League goals which secured the title.

Liverpool? Well they could have done with Costa's services as their Premier League challenge faltered in the final stages of the 2013-14 season, after a slip-up they could ill afford.