One promising prospect that never panned out was Frenchman Anthony Le Tallec, who was nothing more than a fringe player during his time at the club. Well one journalist had higher hopes than most for Le Tallec. In fact Liverpool Echo and now Telegraph journalist, Chris Bascombe, had such high hopes that he wrote a column debating whether he was a better signing than Cristiano Ronaldo.
According to everyone who they make listen, United have just signed the best teenager in the world. By God are we hearing about it.
I'm not doubting Ronaldo's abilities. Clearly he's a talented kid who may be on the threshold of greatness. It just strikes me as rather odd that no-one has given the same attention to Liverpool's equally stunning new teenage recruit.
Time will tell who's got the better deal, but for value for money I know who I'm backing. It's a bit like Houllier and Ferguson have both dined at the same top class restaurant and had their pick of the best main courses on the menu.
Houllier has managed to get his dish at a quarter of the cost Ferguson has paid, and yet it's his rival who is getting all the praise.
Is it cruel to pick out something that was written ten years ago? Probably, but it was so abjectly and hilariously incorrect that it would have been cruel to the readers to leave it out. And Bascombe wasn't entirely wrong, Le Tallec scored 2 goals in 4 appearances for Valenciennes this season while Ronaldo has only scored 54 goals in 53 games. Actually wait......
