Reds failed in Woodgate swoop

The Spanish boss, who has so far signed only players from his homeland, was interested in securing a deal for the player but was perturbed by both the asking price and the 24-year-old's suspect injury record.

Benitez said: "Woodgate is a very interesting player and I asked Liverpool about signing him because I was given some excellent references. But he was very expensive and the fact that he was injured made us delay a little and by the time we'd decided to buy him Real had made an offer we couldn't match.