How John Terry almost signed for Liverpool & actually wanted Anfield switch

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Imagine a central defensive pairing of Sami Hyypia and John Terry – or Jamie Carragher and John Terry – or all three of them together!

According to Phil Thompson, it was once very close to happening.

Our former captain turned assistant manager for Gerard Houllier told the Athletic’s James Pearce about how the legendary ex-Chelsea captain was a big target for the Reds in 2003.

Terry was keen on a move, but then Roman Abramovich arrived, gave Terry a mega new deal and the rest is history.

“Chelsea were in financial trouble at the time and John hadn’t signed a new contract,” said Thompson. “Gerard said to me, ‘What do you think?’ I said he would be perfect. John was still only a young lad but he was fantastic. He wasn’t blessed with great pace but he read the game so well and was clearly going to be a top centre-half.

“After the game Gerard had a quiet word with John and asked if he’d like to play for Liverpool. The response was positive.

“Gerard sent [director of scouting] Alex Miller to get his agent’s details and he came back from the players’ lounge with John’s mobile number.

“Then a few weeks later Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and suddenly they had all this money. John and Frank Lampard both got big new contracts.”

Liverpool missed out on plenty of incredible players in the early-noughties, with the club not having the financial power to compete with those backed by billionaires or Manchester United.

We had a run at Cristiano Ronaldo, Dani Alves and Sergio Aguero – but sadly none came off.

Now though Liverpool seem so well run that we imagine we’ll acquire the few players seriously targeted.

Whereas previously our transfer strategy had appeared quite scattergun – the arrivals under Jurgen Klopp have been studied, researched and analysed to the nth degree.

In the summer, we reckon there’ll be another forward, some left-back cover and a midfielder if Adam Lallana leaves.

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