Urban Legends- MYth or true?

[growler]

There have been some stories which have become fact and I thought as a summer treat, we could list them and those who know for a fact, can confirm which are true and which are not.

 

THese are ones I think I believe:

 

1. Liverpool were set to sign Essien for 3.5mil in Houlliers last year, but the board cancelled it. The player apparantly came to anfield and everything.

 

2. The year we missed out the CL to leeds, we also missed out on Zidane because of it. Had we qualified ahead of leeds, we would have got Zidance

 

3. The russian was looking for a club that summer, and had we finished ahead of them, we would now be the russian's toy instead.

 

4. Curbishley was a real candidate for the club after Houllier

 

5. Parry signed Keane because of history they had

 

6. We turned down Mourinho and selected Benitez instead, and that is why he is bitter.

 

7. Ronaldo was actually coming to us until the mancs offered triple the fee we had agreed.

 

OThers?

[Sion]

  growler said:

4. Curbishley was a real candidate for the club after Houllier

he was a candidate, don't know how real

6. We turned down Mourinho and selected Benitez instead, and that is why he is bitter.

true

7. Ronaldo was actually coming to us until the mancs offered triple the fee we had agreed.

also probably true

Edited June 21, 2009 by Sion

[Benzo-13]

Actually apart from the Zidane one (no one knows that truth) they're all true.

Edited June 21, 2009 by Benzo-13

[anny road]

1. Liverpool were set to sign Essien for 3.5mil in Houlliers last year, but the board cancelled it. The player apparantly came to anfield and everything. TRUE

 

2. The year we missed out the CL to leeds, we also missed out on Zidane because of it. Had we qualified ahead of leeds, we would have got Zidance EVERY SEASON FOR ABOUT THREE YEARS WE WERE GETTING ZZ

 

3. The russian was looking for a club that summer, and had we finished ahead of them, we would now be the russian's toy instead. NOT TRUE....

 

4. Curbishley was a real candidate for the club after Houllier..TRUE - He was interviewed

 

5. Parry signed Keane because of history they had...>WHAT?

 

6. We turned down Mourinho and selected Benitez instead, and that is why he is bitter......NOT SURE

 

7. Ronaldo was actually coming to us until the mancs offered triple the fee we had agreed. NOT TRUE....We had agreed a fee with Sporting but decided not to sign him..United signed him for more money months later

[David Hodgson]

  growler said:

There have been some stories which have become fact and I thought as a summer treat, we could list them and those who know for a fact, can confirm which are true and which are not.

 

THese are ones I think I believe:

 

1. Liverpool were set to sign Essien for 3.5mil in Houlliers last year, but the board cancelled it. The player apparantly came to anfield and everything.

 

2. The year we missed out the CL to leeds, we also missed out on Zidane because of it. Had we qualified ahead of leeds, we would have got Zidance

 

3. The russian was looking for a club that summer, and had we finished ahead of them, we would now be the russian's toy instead.

 

4. Curbishley was a real candidate for the club after Houllier

 

5. Parry signed Keane because of history they had

 

6. We turned down Mourinho and selected Benitez instead, and that is why he is bitter.

 

7. Ronaldo was actually coming to us until the mancs offered triple the fee we had agreed.

 

OThers?

 

The only ones there's any substance to are the ones about Curbishley and Ronaldo (and I'm not sure they trippled our offer).

[Tosh]

Abramovic was going to buy Spurs, not us. Chelsea were a little bit, er, cheaper and had a better platform due to the work Ranieri had done (including getting 4th ahead of us)

[David Hodgson]

  Benzo-13 said:

Actually apart from the Zidane one (no one knows that truth) they're all true.

 

Fyds does.

[anny road]

  David Hodgson said:

The only ones there's any substance to are the ones about Curbishley and Ronaldo (and I'm not sure they trippled our offer).

 

we defo went for Essien

[Benzo-13]

  anny road said:

we defo went for Essien

Yep. The boards patience snapped with GH on that as he wanted to loan him back to Bastia for a season plus we'd p-ed money away on Diao for the same position.

Essien is an ex-Manc too BTW.

[fh]

Curbishley might have been interviewed as a back-up but it can't have been all that serious as Parry was told by the board to go out and find someone who had experience of winning at the top level - which can hardly be applied to him.

[David Hodgson]

  fh said:

Curbishley might have been interviewed as a back-up but it can't have been all that serious as Parry was told by the board to go out and find someone who had experience of winning at the top level - which can hardly be applied to him.

 

I think he was a very serious possibility. A cautionary note for all those quick to credit Parry with finding Rafa. It could almost as easily have been Curbishley.

[Eskimo]

I don't care what Mourinho or the press have to say on the matter I know for fact that we had no contact with him/his agent prior to appointing Rafa.

 

The last time his agent had any dealings with the club was approx 2 years before hand when he attended a match at Anfield, whether or not they discussed Mourinho replacing GH at the time I don't know.

[fh]

I wasn't intending to give credit to Parry - he was just lucky that we needed someone at the same time as Rafa was pissed off at Valencia. But I do know that he was asked to sound out people in Europe as early as April in GH's last season to see who might be interested in taking over. And was apparently amazed by some of the impressive names who put themselves forward. Which again points away from Curbishley.....

[FakeNewsBear]

3. The russian was looking for a club that summer, and had we finished ahead of them, we would now be the russian's toy instead.

 

TRUE - ISH

 

4. Curbishley was a real candidate for the club after Houllier

 

IN TOP THREE OTHERS OLEARY + BENITEZ

 

5. Parry signed Keane

 

TRUE

 

7. Ronaldo was actually coming to us until the mancs offered triple the fee we had agreed. NOT TRUE....We had agreed a fee with Sporting but decided not to sign him..United signed him for more money months later

 

7.75M LIVERPOOL

12.25M MAN U

[Kite]

  Javi-n A Laugh said:

...

 

7.75M LIVERPOOL

12.25M MAN U

My memory is our offer was only around 4.5 million? As were other offers at the time. The 12 United offered then came as a real bolt from the blue, so to speak.

[stressederic]

It was a choice between Spurs and Chelsea for Abramovich. He'd had negotiations with Spurs before Chelsea but the story is that they didn't fully realise what he was trying to do. A more accurate story would be if we'd finished above Chelsea they would have gone out of business and we would have signed John Terry.

[John am Rhein]

1. myth

2. myth

3. myth

4. true

5. true

6. myth

7. true

[meredithmathieson]

7. Ronaldo was actually coming to us until the mancs offered triple the fee we had agreed.

 

 

FWIW, Phil Thompson says that we were offered Ronaldo for £6m, before he went to the Mancs WEEKS not months later for £12m+.

 

The stumbling block, he says, was that even then ,as Ronaldo was such a brilliant prospect, his agent wanted £60k a week, which at that time was what our top earners were on.

 

Reluctantly, therefore, we had to pass.

 

He also queried where the extra £6m fee came from/ went to.

Edited June 21, 2009 by meredithmathieson

[_00_deathscar]

  stressederic said:

It was a choice between Spurs and Chelsea for Abramovich. He'd had negotiations with Spurs before Chelsea but the story is that they didn't fully realise what he was trying to do. A more accurate story would be if we'd finished above Chelsea they would have gone out of business and we would have signed John Terry.

 

Chelsea becoming a force isn't such a bad thing actually (spit). Arsene Wenger and Arsenal have been on a strange ego-trip ever since 2004 and in the process have become utterly useless.

 

We needed Chelsea to help stop the Mancs. Mind you, maybe we could have done it if they hadn't stolen half our targets...

[JonShar]

Well glad that's been cleared up.

[Sion]

  meredithmathieson said:

7. Ronaldo was actually coming to us until the mancs offered triple the fee we had agreed.

FWIW, Phil Thompson says that we were offered Ronaldo for £6m, before he went to the Mancs WEEKS not months later for £12m+.

 

The stumbling block, he says, was that even then ,as Ronaldo was such a brilliant prospect, his agent wanted £60k a week, which at that time was what our top earners were on.

 

Reluctantly, therefore, we had to pass.

 

He also queried where the extra £6m fee came from/ went to.

 

Ronaldo played for Sporting Lisbon against United in a friendly which obviously made Ferguson thing 's*** better try and blow everyone else out of the water'

See Nani and Anderson.

[allawee]

  David Hodgson said:

I think he was a very serious possibility. A cautionary note for all those quick to credit Parry with finding Rafa. It could almost as easily have been Curbishley.

I think charlton beat us 1-0 at anfield that season and parry spoke to curbs that day after the match.

[growler]

all good to know.

 

anyone got any other stories that have become fact, but maybe are not?

[psl]

  allawee said:

I think charlton beat us 1-0 at anfield that season and parry spoke to curbs that day after the match.

 

That was a bad day.

[Tosh]

As bad as when Lisbie got a hattrick against us?