While Gerard Houllier made some highly questionable signings towards the end of his tenure at Liverpool, some of the players he brought to the club turned out to be massively successful.
The likes of Sami Hyypia, Dietmar Hamann, and Steve Finnan turned out to be brilliant additions, especially when you consider all were bought for modest fees.
The Frenchman certainly attempted to bring a continental presence to the club after his appointment, greatly increasing the amount of overseas players at Anfield. As it turns out, he came close to signing a Euros winner.
Appearing on Sport 1’s “Lieber Fußball” podcast, former Germany international Thomas Helmer revealed he came close to signing for Liverpool in 1998.
The defender had hugely successful spells at Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in the 90s, also winning the Euros with Germany in 1996. He was coming towards the end of his career when the approach came from Merseyside, but said that he was too 'cowardly' to leave Bayern at this stage.
I didn’t have the courage to go to Liverpool.
At that point, I was a bit cowardly. The prospect of winning a few more titles was more important to me than adventure and money.
Looking back, Helmer probably regrets the decision. He would make the move to English football only a year later, signing for Sunderland on a free transfer.
However, he would make only two appearances for the club before joining Hertha Berlin on loan before retiring in 2000.
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