Liverpool pulled out of Dani Alves deal in favour of signing Jermaine Pennant, reveals former CEO

Alves is understood to be moving to Manchester City this summer to solve Pep Guardiola’s full-back issues, but former Liverpool CEO Rick Parry has revealed that he could have been in the Premier League 10 years earlier.

Rafa Benitez was in charge at the time and was keen to sign the Brazilian from Sevilla but the transfer failed to come to fruition after the club decided to spend the money on two players rather than just one.

He told BBC Radio Merseyside: “We had the deal - finally, after enormous complications - tied up for Dani Alves and then the decision was should we buy two players or should we spend all of that on a full-back?

“Alves was not the player then that he is now, but he always looked like he would be a great player.

“Would he have been a better signing than [Jermaine] Pennant and [Peter] Crouch, for example? Probably yes, but it's easy with hindsight.”

He also explained that the Reds came to the decision as a result of holding far less financial clout in the transfer market than the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United and felt they needed to buy quantity over quality.

He added: “Looking back, if I could do anything different, it would be to focus on buying one [player] at a time rather than having to buy five or six every season.”