Steven Gerrard has admitted his disbelief over Liverpool’s infamous decision to sign El Hadji Diouf instead of Nicolas Anelka back in 2002.

It is a move that remains one of the club’s biggest transfer regrets. Nicolas Anelka spent a season on loan with the Reds, impressing Steven Gerrard and his teammates.

However, the permanent £13 million move fell through after the club turned their attention to the World Cup-performing Senegalese forward.

(Photo by AMA/Corbis via Getty Images)

He came on the latest episode of Rio Ferdinand Presents Podcast, discussing various topics.

Gerrard opened up on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s controversial move to Madrid. He also discussed the club’s decision to not sign Anelka, describing it as a classic case of the club getting recruitment badly wrong, opting for a striker based on a short burst of international form rather than proven, long-term pedigree.

Gerrard recalled: “We got recruitment badly wrong at times. I’ll give you one example, we had the chance to sign Nicolas Anelka or El Hadj Diouf, and we bought Diouf on the back of a four or five game World Cup instead of someone off the back of five or six years.”

Gerrard pointed to Anelka’s aura during training as evidence of his...