Former Liverpool boss reveals attempt to sign Alexis Sanchez

Former Reds manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed he wanted Alexis Sanchez to replace Luis Suarez after the Uruguayan's £75 million move to the Camp Nou in 2014.

Liverpool were in the market for a world-class striker to fill in for Suarez, who propelled Rodgers' side to second in his last season in the Premier League with 31 goals.

Suarez's impending arrival meant Alexis Sanchez was allowed to leave the Catalan club and Liverpool seemingly held most of the cards to land their target. However, Arsenal swooped in for the £30 million Chilean.

"We felt like Luis was going to move on and we needed to get a world-class operator to go like-for-like," Rodgers told 'talkSPORT'. "We finished second in the league playing a great level of football. Players were flexible in how they could play and then it was about trying to make that next step."

"And for that we needed to get a replacement. And we deemed Sanchez to be that one," said the Celtic coach. Liverpool signed Mario Balotelli instead and the Italian scored only once in the Premier League, as the team finished sixth.