Former Oldham manager and Everton striker Graeme Sharp has revealed that he tried to sign Sami Hyypia five years ago but the Oldham chairman Ian Stott thought it was too much of a gamble.
"We heard about this young lad Hyypia who had been on trial at Newcastle, so we got him in to have a look," said Sharp.
"He played in a behind closed doors match at Boundary Park and you could see he had something. I thought there would be no problem and told the chairman we should sign him. He would have cost no more than £100,000 or so and the wages wouldn't have been massive.
"Sami was with us for about 10 days and I left the financial side of it to the chairman to sort out. But word came back he had decided to play in Holland with his mate at Willem II - at least that was the excuse I was given."