Alisson Becker may never have joined Liverpool without failed $68m transfer attempt

Former Liverpool goalkeeping coach John Achterberg has revealed the Reds failure to land Nabil Fekir allowed them to bring in goalkeeper Alisson Becker .

Back in 2018, Liverpool looked set to bring Fekir, then of Lyon, to Anfield in a deal worth $68million. The deal looked to be a certainty, with Fekir even snapped in a Liverpool shirt and having conducted an introductory interview with the Reds in-house club media.

But the deal fell through at the 11th hour. It had been reported this was due to medical issues with Fekir's knee. Back in 2015, the attacking midfielder, who now plays for Real Betis, tore his knee ligaments.

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That was later refuted by Fekir, who told the Times : "I saw plenty of things which weren’t true. It was said the knee stopped me going to Liverpool but that wasn’t true.

He added: "I had a problem with my agent, my adviser. It was the agent [who was] responsible for the deal not going through." But while collapsing of the deal saw the Anfield door slammed shut on Fekir, it opened another one for Liverpool to bring in Alisson Becker from Roma.

At the time back in 2018, Liverpool were coming off the back of a Champions League Final defeat to Real Madrid, which saw goalkeeper Loris Karius endure a difficult evening between the sticks for the Reds. While he was at fault for two of Liverpool's three goals that evening, it is important to point out the German was later found to have been concussed prior to his first mistake.

However, it also prompted Liverpool to begin their search for a new number one - leading them to Alisson. And former goalkeeping coach Achterberg has revealed the failed move for Fekir actually helped them to sign the Brazilian, who has won everything there is to win at club level with Liverpool.

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"I wouldn't have had no problem to [have] started with Danny Ward as a No. 1, but I think that was never the case really," Achterberg told the Football Historian Podcast .

"It was a little bit like, the boss had said they'd both [Ward and Karius] get a fair chance. I think both had their issues in the pre-season and that’s why it also was decided that we needed a new goalie.

"But it was all the pieces falling together because if you would have signed [Nabil] Fekir, then there was no money to sign Ali. So, we were lucky that the deal fell through.

"And then I said, ‘Okay boss, we have to be quick now’ because Chelsea for sure wanted to sign Ali too. And they will sell Courtois to Madrid so we have to do it before, and that’s what happened."