JOSE MOURINHO reportedly agreed to take over Liverpool before Chelsea swooped in with a massive offer in 2004, an explosive book has claimed.
The Special One had an agreement to join the Reds from Porto in 2004 to replace Gerard Houllier, only for the Blues and Roman Abramovich to hijack the deal.
Jose Mourinho reportedly agreed to move to Anfield before Chelsea swooped in with a massive offerCredit: Reuters
The Special One had an agreement to join the Reds from Porto to replace Gerard HoullierCredit: Getty – Contributor
The new book, ‘Mourinho: Behind the Special One, from the origin to the glory,’ written by French journalist Nicolas Vilas, details just how close the 57-year-old came to joining the Merseysiders.
The Reds attempted to poach Mourinho away from Primera Liga prior to Porto’s Champions League quarter-final crunch clash with Lyon in April 2004.
Mourinho’s adviser at the time, Jorge Baidek recalled: “Mourinho should have gone to Liverpool. Rick Parry [then chief executive] was in charge of transfers and we had an agreement. They asked us to wait for 15 days as Houllier was still the Reds’ manager.”
Houllier enjoyed a trophy-laden start to his six-year reign at Liverpool but fell out of favour at the end of his time in charge.
French agent Bruno Satin had been involved in negotiations to hash out a deal which would see the Special One move to Anfield, but Jorge Mendes alerted Chelsea to the possibility of scuppering the Reds’ plans and helped devise a more appealing offer.
Mourinho met new Chelsea owner Abramovich for the first time on the eve of Porto’s Champions League semi-final tie with Deportivo La Coruna at the beginning of May.
The pair then met again on the Russian billionaire’s plush yacht in Monaco the day after Porto incredibly won the Champions League over Monaco.
In the build-up to the final there was talk that either he or Monaco’s Didier Deschamps would take over at newly rich Chelsea. It was literally winner takes all.
And on the biggest European stage, Mourinho worked his magic with his Porto side delivering the perfect final 3-0 performance.
Mourinho’s first trophy at Chelsea was in fact a League Cup extra time win over Liverpool secured at the Millennium Stadium during his first campaign in charge.
It was a result that started a fierce rivalry between the two clubs and a hostile relationship between Mourinho and Rafa Benitez.
Benitez instantly achieved success at the Reds by lifting the Champions League in his first season in charge, he also won the FA Cup a year later and eventually for Inter Milan in 2010.
Spurs boss Mourinho instead gave birth to the ‘Special One’ tag at Chelsea before winning back-to-back league titles.
Over his two spells at Stamford Bridge he won three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and three League Cups overall.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
