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Liverpool idol claims he had transfer talks over move that could have cost Everton Tim Cahill

Everton could have been denied a move for one of their most-popular fan favourites of the Premier League era. That's if a Kop Idol had made what would have been a hugely controversial move across Stanley Park back over two decades ago.

Snapped up from Millwall for just £1.5million, Tim Cahill proved to be one of the most talismanic performers for David Moyes during his first spell as Blues boss.

The Australia international hit double figures in three of his eight seasons at Goodison Park and totalled 68 goals in 278 matches, including five in Merseyside derbies.

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However, Everton’s beloved ‘Boxing Kangaroo’ might never have arrived if a long-serving Liverpool player had arrived earlier in the summer of 2004 to take up an attacking midfield role.

Danny Murphy played 249 games for the Reds, scoring 44 goals, a haul that contained three match-winners in four seasons against Manchester United at Old Trafford. But when his time at Anfield was up, he now claims he had transfer talks with the Blues.

Abel Xavier (January 2002) and Nick Barmby (July 2000) had caused ructions when moving from Everton to Liverpool not long before, but no player has gone directly in the opposite direction during the Premier League era with the late Gary Ablett the last to make such a switch in January 1992 with the Scouser subsequently becoming the only man to win the FA Cup with both clubs.

After finishing seventh in 2002/03, his first full season in charge, Moyes’ men dropped to 17th on 39 points in 2003/04.

And Everton News quote Murphy as telling talkSPORT: “Well, when I left Liverpool it was a difficult one. I spoke to Charlton, Tottenham, and Everton and before I spoke to any of them, I thought Tottenham was the obvious choice.

“Not because Everton wasn’t as big a club. It was more because of the Liverpool-Everton thing, and Everton had been struggling down near the bottom.”

Chester-born Murphy, who was 27 at the time, instead joined Charlton Athletic for £2.5million before subsequent spells at Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham and Blackburn Rovers.

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