Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Steven Caulker admits Brendan Rodgers tried to sign him twice during spells at Celtic and at Premier League giants Liverpool.
Speaking on the Undr the Cost Podcast, the former England international is looking back on a career which took him from North London to South Wales. From the Scottish Lowlands to the metropolis of Istanbul.
The well-travelled Caulker, who currently plies his trade in the Championship with Wigan Athletic, was one of the country’s most exciting young centre-halves at one stage. Tottenham demanded a colossal fee when Liverpool came calling in the summer of 2012, then-Anfield boss Brendan Rodgers a big admirer of a player who shone on loan at his Swansea City side the previous season.
“(Rodgers) came for me at Liverpool,” Caulker recalls. “After he left Swansea, he went there (to Liverpool). He tried to get me to come from Tottenham, and Tottenham said no. That was for around £20 million, the same year they got Joe Allen.”
Liverpool once wanted Steven Caulker from Tottenham Hotspur
Caulker would join newly-promoted Cardiff City just 12 months later for a markedly-reduced fee of around £8 million; something the now-31-year-old puts down to some off-field issues.
“That tells you something about my behaviour that year,” he adds.
Caulker would, of course, spend a brief loan spell at Liverpool in 2016, albeit after Rodgers had departed. He was famously utilised as a centre-forward by Jurgen Klopp during Premier League clashes with Arsenal and Manchester United, a testament to the lack of top-quality attackers at the German’s disposal prior to the arrivals of Sadio Mane and Mo Salah.
Celtic, according to the Scottish Sun, held talks to sign Caulker following that short-lived stint on Merseyside, but a reunion with Rodgers north of the border would never come to fruition.
“He came for me at Celtic,” Caulker admits.
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