Thiago Alcantara wanted to sign for Manchester United prior to leaving Bayern Munich and joining Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, Rio Ferdinand has claimed.
The Spanish midfielder made the move to the Premier League in 2020 after winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich, and although his first season with Liverpool was difficult he is now thriving at Anfield.
Thiago’s first campaign was disrupted by injuries, Covid-19 and a poor season overall from Klopp’s side, but with the Reds now challenging for the Premier League title Thiago is producing his best football.
Ferdinand has said Thiago has been “ridiculous” in recent weeks, such as in Liverpool’s 4-0 win over his former club Manchester United at Anfield, but has revealed that the Red Devils had the opportunity to sign Thiago before he moved to Anfield.
“Thiago has been the stand out midfielder for the last few weeks and months he’s been absolutely top,” Ferdinand said on his VibeWithFive podcast. “Thiago’s pass accuracy by the way in the last two games was 98.4 per cent against Man United and 95.6 per cent against Everton. That is ridiculous.
“I spoke to him at the time [before joining Liverpool]. He speaks perfect English, he was a great guy, wanted to come to United. But you look at him now and he couldn’t be happier.”
Ferdinand added that Liverpool have been rewarded for showing patience with Thiago and says it is a good example for Manchester United to follow with another new recruit from the Bundesliga in England forward Jadon Sancho.
“What I would like to talk about just with Thiago is that you could have gone to a huge amount of the fanbase after last season and [they] would have said, ‘he isn’t good enough for us, he isn’t the player he thought he was, he’s slowing us down, let’s get him out’.
“There were ex-players I saw saying, ‘He’s side to side, doesn’t play the ball forward he isn’t ready-made for this league’. Players need time.
“It goes back to this thing with managers and Man United as well the club need to give the manager at Man United patience, the clubs need and the fans need to give players that come in from other leagues especially patience.
“Sancho is another example. I bet you see a better player with Sancho next season for sure.”
