Michael Essien said “I had lot of offers [when I was at Bastia]. I was close to signing for Liverpool when Gerard Houllier was their coach. I even went to Melwood to meet the coach. We had a talk and I returned to France but the offers were still coming. PSG, Olympique Marseille et al, but I told Bastia I didn’t want to move and they also didn’t want to sell me at that time because they wanted me to stay for another year which was fine with me because I also didn’t want to leave the club. So I stayed for another season, that’s my third year with the club. Lyon joined the three aforementioned clubs to enquire about me but I thought it was too early to move to England. That was why I joined Lyon and later moved to Chelsea under Mourinho [in 2005]. Lyon were my favourite team when I went to France because they were winning everything. I told my agent that if Lyon have come into the picture I’d like to join them.”
Former Chelsea player and club legend Michael Essien has revealed how he almost joined Liverpool instead of Chelsea when he moved from Lyon to England in 2005. Essien was the record Chelsea signing at the time in a deal worth £25 million and it was a time of intense rivalry between the West London and Merseyside club where both clubs met each other in champions league for five seasons running.