Top6 - Number 1: Cristiano Ronaldo

When: 2003

What happened: In an interview in 2010, former manager Gerard Houllier explained “I saw him [Ronaldo] in the Toulon Under-21 tournament and we went for him, but we had a wage scale and we weren’t paying the sort of salary he wanted.”

Houllier turned down the Sporting teenager in order not to break the wage structure and unsettle the dressing room. Some reports claim Sporting were asking just £3m for the player - who joined United for £12m shortly after.

What could have been: A very different story, for both Liverpool and their rivals Man United.

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