Liverpool have let a few top talents slip through the net throughout their history.
The Reds have a knack for finding top quality stars and turning them into world-beaters, with there being many examples of this.
This is not just buying players either, as their academy produces some incredible talents that go on to achieve great things.
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In fact, some were even tipped to go right to the very top, with Jamie Carragher admitting Liverpool had a player on a similar level to Paul Gascoigne.
But the manager at the time Gerard Houllier simply did not rate him, leaving many to wonder: What if?
David Thompson of Liverpool celebrates his goal during the FA Carling Premiership match against Southampton at Anfield Liverpool, England
16 Jan 1999: David Thompson of Liverpool celebrates his goal during the FA Carling Premiership match against Southampton at Anfield Liverpool, England. Liverpool won the game 7-1. Mandatory Credit: Laurence Griffiths /Allsport
Jamie Carragher says Liverpool had a Paul Gascoigne-esque youngster
The name David Thompson may not ring a bell to many, but among those at Liverpool in the late 1990s, he was regarded as one of the up-and-coming talents.
He was a tricky midfielder from Birkenhead who was one of the best in the youth team, with the then-16-year-old catching the eye of many first-team stars.
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One of them was Carragher and the former defender has admitted that he thought he was going to be as good as Gascoigne one day.
“He was actually playing for Liverpool reserves at 16 – which was a big thing to do,” Carragher explained to Sport Bible.
“He played in the Premier League and was in England squads but I think the feeling at the time was that he would go on and have a great Liverpool career and it didn’t quite happen.
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“[Gerard] Houllier came in and he had an injury, he didn’t quite take to him. He probably never had what the youth programme thought he would have at Liverpool.
“Some of the things I used to see him do in the Liverpool youth team – he’d chip the goalkeeper from the halfway line. He was that Gazza-type figure in the youth team but it didn’t quite happen for him in Liverpool and England.”
What happened to David Thompson?
Despite the injury and falling out of favour at Liverpool, Thompson still went on to have a fairly successful career.
He went on to play for Coventry, Blackburn, Wigan, Portsmouth and Bolton, playing over 200 times across his 11-year career.
He retired aged 30 due to a recurring knee issue, doing so without making an appearance for England despite featuring in the squad a few times.
Thompson certainly never lived up to expectations and definitely never got to Gascoigne’s level like Carragher thought, meaning he might just be one who got away.