'Liverpool wanted to sign me - but I agreed to stay and broke my leg the next day'

Roy Hodgson's brief tenure as Liverpool manager is not remembered with much fondness .

The former Crystal Palace boss took over from Rafa Benitez in the Anfield hot seat in 2010, only to be shown the door by new owners FSG in July 2011 after a poor spell on Merseyside that saw him manage just 13 wins from 31 games. His transfer dealings are also something Reds fans would rather erase from memory, having brought in duds like Milan Jovanovic, Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen, Danny Wilson, and Paul Konchesky.

The latter followed Hodgson to Anfield from Fulham on summer transfer deadline day, in a notorious deal which saw the then Liverpool boss mistakenly offload the wrong player as part of a swap involving two youth players. But Konchesky wasn't the only player Hodgson attempted to lure from Fulham after taking the reins at Liverpool .

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With Fernando Torres plagued by injuries and his future under scrutiny, leading to a move to Chelsea in January 2011, the former Liverpool boss also tried to sign Bobby Zamora from his old club. According to the striker himself, Liverpool even tabled a bid for him, but he ended up signing a new contract at Craven Cottage after Hodgson's successor, Mark Hughes, told him he wanted him to stay at Fulham.

Zamora dished the dirt on what could have been, recounting his transfer saga tales on the Say it and Spray It Podcast. "We had Mark Hughes at Fulham at the time," he said. "I enjoyed my time with Mark, he came at the start of the season, I had a good pre-season with him.

"Roy came in for me at Liverpool and Harry Redknapp came in for me at Spurs, but Mark said he wanted me to stay, and I'd just had my twins in August. The end of the transfer window was coming and they both bid, I ended up signing a new contract and broke my leg the next day."

Zamora had quite the run under Hodgson back at Fulham, notching up 19 goals and battling through to the Europa League final. After healing from his nasty break, he managed seven goals in 16 games during the next season.

Yet despite once hitting more than 10 Premier League goals in a season, afterwards he never scored more than seven goals in all competitions following that window of 'what ifs' with Liverpool. At 29 when Liverpool's approach fell through, and six years later Zamora hung up his boots in December 2016 as the curtains closed on his playing career.

Meanwhile, in another universe, Sir Kenny Dalglish was crafting his own striking force at Liverpool, snagging Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll in a deadline day coup post-Torres' handing over his reds kit for Chelsea's blues. While Carroll's stint at Anfield was less than successful, Suarez turned out to be one of Liverpool's best Premier League signings, netting 82 goals in 133 appearances before making a move to Barcelona in the summer of 2014.