Rafa Benitez tried his best to sign the future Premier League star.

Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has admitted he tried to sign a Manchester United legend through his girlfriend.

While Rafa Benitez will not go down as one of the game’s greatest managers, he did oversee one of the most incredible achievements in football history.

The Spaniard managed Liverpool for six years between 2004 and 2010, and in his first season he led a fairly average side to glory in the Champions League.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the rest of Benitez’ tenure failed to reach the heights of that famous night in Istanbul. However, that wasn’t necessarily all his fault.

In a recent appearance on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet, Benitez spoke about the difficulties Liverpool faced when competing with their Premier League rivals for transfer targets.

Liverpool didn’t have the financial resources of Chelsea nor the pull of Manchester United or Arsenal.

Benitez admitted that he tried to sign defender Nemanja Vidic before he decided to join United, where he became a club legend.

“To replace these kinds of things you need money and say, ‘I’m looking for a player that has this and so and so’,” Benitez said.

“I was talking to Vidic before he signed for Manchester United, and I knew 100 per cent that he was not coming for us. “When I was talking to him, I had to talk through his girlfriend because [she spoke] English. She said, ‘I like the cities Manchester and Liverpool’.

 

Vidic is one of United’s greatest Premier League players (Getty)

“I knew right away, why else is he talking about Manchester. So, I knew they were making a bigger offer than us. Therefore, we didn’t have the money to buy players, and we didn’t have the money to pay players either.

“The new owners [Fenway Sports Group bought the club in 2010] were lucky because we sold [Fernando] Torres for £50 million, then Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho.

“So, they had money to spend around that time. You must spend a lot of money like Chelsea and Manchester City – they just spend.

“For Liverpool, it was very difficult because the families of the players preferred to stay in London because of the airport, as well as Manchester. Liverpool was the third choice because of the size of the city, and they like to go shopping in London, I heard one wife talk to another wife!.

“You also cannot pay the salaries. In terms of the city, I love Liverpool but if you go to London there’s the wives, families and all the people. Liverpool were also not winning trophies.

“Manchester United was winning trophies; Chelsea was winning trophies and even Arsenal was winning trophies. So, it was very difficult – you have to convince players.”