Steve Bruce has revealed that he tried to sign Virgil van Dijk during his time in charge of Hull.
The Newcastle boss takes his team to Anfield to face Van Dijk and Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.
The Dutchman has become one of the world's leading centre-halves after moving to Merseyside from Southampton for £75m in January 2018.
But things could have worked out very differently had Bruce succeeded in brining the former Celtic stopper to Hull.
“Virgil van Dijk: wow, what a player,” he said. “We all know how good Liverpool are up front but signing him and the keeper [Alisson] gave Liverpool the backbone they needed, just took them to the next level.
“I could have taken him [Van Dijk] to Hull. I had dinner with Kenny Dalglish and the owner of Celtic, Dermot Desmond, in Barbados – I’m name-dropping now –and Desmond was waxing lyrical about the best players he’s had. He was saying: ‘[Henrik] Larsson is definitely, definitely the best I’ve seen play for Celtic in my ownership but what I can’t understand is nobody has gone for Van Dijk.’
“I thought: ‘That’s interesting, he’s seen a lot of football over the last 12 years,’ so I tried to get him before he went to Southampton but I had no chance.”
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