Liverpool Director Claims Reds Bought Crouch and Pennant Over Dani Alves

Former Liverpool director Mike Parry has claimed that the club had a deal arranged for Dani Alves back in the summer of 2005, but elected not to go through with the signing. Instead, the Reds purchased Jermaine Pennant from Birmingham City and Peter Crouch from Southampton. According to Parry, Liverpool baulked at Sevilla’s valuation of […]
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sambafoot_admin
2017-06-26 14:54:00

Former Liverpool director Mike Parry has claimed that the club had a deal arranged for Dani Alves back in the summer of 2005, but elected not to go through with the signing. Instead, the Reds purchased Jermaine Pennant from Birmingham City and Peter Crouch from Southampton.

According to Parry, Liverpool baulked at Sevilla’s valuation of the right-back. Alves joined Barcelona instead, where he went onto win three Champions League titles. The Brazilian looks set to join Manchester City from Juventus this summer.

“We had the deal – finally after enormous complications – tied up for Dani Alves and then the decision was should we buy two players or should we spend all of that on a full-back,” Parry told BBC Radio Merseyside.

“Alves wasn’t the player then that he is now. But he always looked like he would be a great player. Would he have been a better signing than (Jermaine) Pennant and (Peter) Crouch for example? Probably yes, but it’s easy with hindsight.

“Clearly, we were trying to make that final step. We didn’t have Chelsea’s money so we were trying to be smarter. Looking back, if I could do anything different, it would be to focus on buying one at a time rather than having to buy five or six every season.”