Spurs missed the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo before he joined Manchester United because manager Gerard Houllier believed it would “cause problems” in the team.

Ronaldo moved from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United in the summer of 2003 for £12 million. He would go on to become one of the best football players in the world, as we all know.

But his story could have been very different. Former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier said that the club’s pay structure was the reason they weren’t able to sign the youngster in 2003.

He said in 2017: “I saw him in the Toulon Under-21 tournament and we went for him.” We had a pay scale, though, and the amount he wаnted wasn’t in it.

“After that, Manchester United played a game against Sporting Lisbon, and all of their players told Sir Alex Ferguson, “You have to sign him.” But I agreed that the pay system shouldn’t be broken. I thought it would make things hard in our changing room.

Instead, in July 2003, Liverpool would sign Harry Kewell from Leeds.

“Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time and was very hungry but got a bad ιnjury,” Houllier said.

“After that, he never had the same confidence, the same appetite.”

At the time, Phil Thompson was Houllier’s deputy. He has talked about Florent Sinama Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec’s contract problems at Anfield, which affected their move for Ronaldo.

“We had just signed Florent Sinama Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec, both on far less than Ronaldo’s aspirations,” he stated.

“And we would have had anarchy if the other players had found out how much we were considering paying for an 18-year-old kid.”

Thompson also said, “We tried to find a middle ground.” After ten days, I was eating lunch in a bar at Anfield and watching TV on a big screen.

“It came out that United had bought Ronaldo from Portugal for £12.2 million.” Both Gerard and I almost choked on our food.

It was also almost possible for Arsenal to sign Ronaldo that summer. An agreement was made between the Gunners and Sporting Lisbon for a $8 million fee.

The player and his mother, Dolores, took a plane to London, where they met Thierry Henry and other Arsenal players.

Ronaldo even met with Arsene Wenger in his office, where he promised him the shirt number he wаnted at Arsenal. But soon after, Ronaldo made a move to Manchester United, and the rest is history.