Rafa on signing Aguero and selling Pongolle

[Bender]

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has admitted that he turned down the chance to sign Sergio Aguero.

Benitez has revealed that The Reds were offered the chance to sign Aguero in 2006 when he was 17.

However, the Spanish coach thought he was too young and did not want to pay what his club, at the time, Independiente were wanting.

Atletico did pay around £14million and now just two years on he is regarded as one of the best players in world football.

Benitez will face Aguero on Wednesday when The Reds travel to Madrid for their UEFA Champions League clash.

"Two years ago the agents were talking with us about players and he was one of those but he was too young," Benitez told The Times.

"Atletico paid big money for him, around 18million euros [about £14million] for a player who was a risk.

"In the Premier League it's different and sometimes players will need more time here to improve."

Another player who will come face-to-face with Benitez is Florent Sinama-Pongolle - who departed Anfield after he failed to impress during a three-year stay on Merseyside.

The Frenchman is now producing some good form and Benitez admits he was only sold because he had too many forwards.

"We had a lot of confidence in him, we knew that he's a good player but he needed to play games," Benitez said.

"We had Crouch, we were bringing in Torres, it was a question of space."

[SB]

We can't afford to buy players like Aguero for the sort of money that Athleti paid and keep em in the ressies, Unfortuanetly!

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Makes sense I guess

[Vermilion]

Think bringing him to the prem at that time was an issue also, would he have developed as well here as he has at Atletico?

[Skillz]

Aguero's move to Atletico has proved to be the right one. They can afford to play him and be patient. Rafa did not have that luxury, especially in the premiership, which is exactly what he is saying.

Hopefully we will be in a position to sign him in a year or 2 although that looks unlikely.

[ukfootballfan101]

Think bringing him to the prem at that time was an issue also, would he have developed as well here as he has at Atletico?

You've hit the nail on the head there. There are lots of examples of players who are great in other leagues but can't cut it in the premiership.

If we had the money that Man Ure of Chelsea have then maybe we could have signed him.

[dww]

What I think is interesting is that these (very valid) opinions were very much in the minority at the time with the feeling being that we ****ed up and that it was either a lack of funding from G&H or negotiating skills of Parry to blame. At the time Rafa did nothing to discourage those feeling either. It is clear that now Rafa feels more confident to air his opinions I wonder how much is due to a change in internal politics and how much to our improved form.

[cled the red]

What I think is interesting is that these (very valid) opinions were very much in the minority at the time with the feeling being that we ****ed up and that it was either a lack of funding from G&H or negotiating skills of Parry to blame. At the time Rafa did nothing to discourage those feeling either. It is clear that now Rafa feels more confident to air his opinions I wonder how much is due to a change in internal politics and how much to our improved form.

We can't blame them for not signing Aguero in 2006 - they didn't even own us!!!

So that leaves us with one option - sack Parry!!!

[Tee]

Until we have serious clout in the transfer market we will miss out on many of these younger potential 'gems', such as Aguero and even Walcott - on another level you could even say Rooney and a young Ferdinand (before he went to Leeds).

I think Aguero is well suited to La Liga and as has been said before, at Atletico he was also afforded a bedding in season and did not have the added pressure of learning a new language.

Would love to see him at Liverpool one day, after all we are his favourite PL team.

[rage]

should have kept pongolle and never bought voronin. a bid mistake there imo. i saw pongolle as our solskar type player.

[ElRobbie]

We won't spend over £10m+ on teenagers because its too risky when you have a relatively tight budget, if we had the money of Man City or Chelsea maybe.

Its always a risk spending that amount on a player who isn't developed, was the same with Walcott.

Sometimes you have to take risks though and clearly there are players who may take time to develop but its obvious they have talent and I think Aguero would have been worth the risk.

[dww]

We can't blame them for not signing Aguero in 2006 - they didn't even own us!!!

Fair enough - I really thought that he was one of the millions of world class signings everyone bemoaned when they took over. Must be a problem with my memory.

[Guest]

AFII was right.

[Skillz]

We won't spend over £10m+ on teenagers because its too risky when you have a relatively tight budget, if we had the money of Man City or Chelsea maybe.

Its always a risk spending that amount on a player who isn't developed, was the same with Walcott.

Sometimes you have to take risks though and clearly there are players who may take time to develop but its obvious they have talent and I think Aguero would have been worth the risk.

So did I and it is easy to say that out loud now but we do not know how it would of worked if he came to us then. Rafa has a certain amount to spend and he needs to spend the big spondoola on proven talent.

Well he did, he might now be able to speculate more considering the quality of the squad (especially the 1st 15).

[cled the red]

Would he have got a work permit??