Gradi said: "The boy's club were very good about it, but the manager felt he was close enough to the first team and with a lot of games coming up he couldn't let him go.
"Getting the loan player in was to eliminate the risk, but in truth we would only have needed him for a couple of games. I could bring in someone else in and Gerard Houllier has offered me one of his players, but I'm not sure that he is better than what I have here. To be honest, I'm not sure the other boy was better either."