Luis Suárez, Dirk Kuyt, Andy Carroll and Nolan Roux (instead of Craig Bellamy)…
That could have been the strike force at Liverpool for the 2011-12 season had Stade Brestois been informed that two members of the Premier League club were going to come watch for French forward in action.
This is the story recounted by Corentin Martins, who was then the Ligue 1 side’s director of football, in a chat with Le Télégramme about the now 32-year-old Nîmes player.
They look back at the summer of 2011, when Roux was coming off a ‘good first season in Ligue 1’, having scored a memorable goal against Rennes.
Soon after that, rumours that both Liverpool and Schalke 04 were after the then 23-year-old started appearing, which were true.
Martins explained: “Damien Comolli and, I think, Kenny Dalglish had come incognito in the stands and weren’t put in a great spot in the stadium… They complained about it. I called Damien afterwards to tell him we weren’t aware they were coming…”
Following that trip, Liverpool seemingly dropped out of the race, leaving Schalke with a clean run at the player, who ultimately would sign with Lille during the 2012 January transfer window.
There’s no indication if the bad reception from Brest had any direct impact on their plans to sign Nolan Roux, but that’s how things happened, and the forward never got the chance to move to Anfield.
