BENITEZ RUES MISSED ALVES CHANCE

Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has said that his club came extremely close to signing Barcelona right back Dani Alves a few seasons ago.

However, they had to pull out of the deal due to the lack of cash to sign the right back, who is regarded by many to be the best in the world.

The Spaniard has also revealed that he tried to sign Fiorentina star Stevan Jovetic while he was at Liverpool. Benitez has often been criticised for not being able to build the team capable of winning the league, despite having more than half a decade to do so. However, the former Valencia manager reckons that it was due to the lack of cash he was unable to bring in quality talent to Anfield.

Benitez is widely known for bringing a lot of players through the Anfield gates without much success. However, the manager, who has been out of work since being sacked by Inter Milan a year ago, has said that it was mainly due to the lack of cash. The Spaniard left the club in the summer of 2010 after having brought the Champions League success to the club in 2005. However, in the final years of his Anfield career, Benitez was highly criticised by the media and the public.

"Daniel Alves was our first option on the right side. The problem that we had was that I had to decide to bring Alves as a winger when he was an offensive full-back. It was a difficult decision as we had money at the time for only just one striker or a winger/full-back. We signed a striker - the striker was Dirk Kuyt, who to be fair has turned out to be a fantastic contributor to the club," Rafa Benitez said in a recent interview.