Liverpool have signed some of the biggest players in the world during the Premier League era, and over the last 31 years they have maintained their status as one of the most successful and competitive clubs in football.
In more recent years since the arrival of Jurgen Klopp and with Michael Edwards as the sporting director, Liverpool have been almost perfect in their transfer business, developing a team which has brought plenty of success over the last few seasons.
However, in the early days of the Premier League, identifying the right players wasn’t always a common activity at Anfield; and after a successful spell in the 1980s the club found themselves needing to rebuild and reinvent themselves as they desperately tried to compete with bitter rivals Manchester United in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In fact, Liverpool handed their most fierce competitors a lethal weapon when they failed to sign Teddy Sheringham in 1997 after agreeing on personal terms with the player. If they had secured the Premier League legend’s signature 26 years ago, it may have spared them from years of existing in United’s shadow.
Sheringham – who remains the Premier League’s 12th top scorer of all time with 146 goals – made his name at Millwall before enjoying successful spells at Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur.
After his collapsed move to Anfield, the talented striker completed a £3.5m deal with Manchester United. Over the next four years, he won eight trophies at Old Trafford, including the famous 1998/99 season treble (with him netting the equaliser in the dramatic Champions League final triumph over Bayern Munich) before leaving in 2001 for a secomd stint at Spurs.
Furthermore, the now 56-year-old – who was dubbed a “rare” talent by Sir Alex Ferguson – was a regular England international, earning 56 caps and scoring 11 goals, including two in the memorable 4-1 hammering of Netherlands at Euro ’96.
It is reported that then-Liverpool boss Roy Evans was a huge admirer of Sheringham and wanted him to form a potent strike partnership alongside Robbie Fowler, but the club went over the manager’s head and rejected the opportunity due to Sheringham being 31 years old and deemed too old (The Athletic).
It is now a case of what could’ve been if Liverpool had captured the services of Sheringham rather than Manchester United and how that could’ve impacted Premier League history as we know it now.
