Liverpool have had problems at centre-half this season, but perhaps they wouldn’t have had so many issues if they’d signed Ruben Dias.
Of course, it’s easy to say Liverpool would be a better team if they had one of the best defenders in the league in their ranks, but what many may not realise is that the Reds actually had the chance to sign him as a teenager.
Indeed, Johnathan Woodgate was employed as a scout at Liverpool for a period of time after his playing career came to an end, and he recently spoke about how he’d spotted Dias as a teenager playing for Benfica’s Under 19s.
“You get to know the younger players from around the world like Llorente the lad at Atletico Madrid, the Hernandez brothers one moved to Bayern Munich, one moved to Real Madrid. Dias, when he was at Benfica you’re watching these players,” Woodgate said.
“Yeah, Dias I watched him play at Sunderland I think it was for Benfica Under 19s, he was top-drawer.”
Missing out on any quality footballer is always a kick in the teeth, but for Liverpool this one has to sting just that much more.
Not only do Liverpool have ongoing problems at centre-half that Dias could have solved, but he’s been arguably the Player of the Season for their biggest rivals.
Indeed, Dias has earned all sorts of plaudits, and he’s even been touted as a potential PFA Player of the Year winner by Jamie Carragher.
Dias is only 23 years old, so he could genuinely be at the heart of City’s defence for the best part of the next decade, and if he continues to play how he has this season, he could help the Manchester outfit pip Liverpool to a fair bit of silverware.
This has to go down as one of Liverpool’s biggest transfer errors of all time. They’d scouted out a future £65m player as a teenager, but failed to act on it.
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