Alberto Aquilani has revealed that he would rather have stayed at Roma when Liverpool came calling to sign him in summer 2009.
The Italian is widely regarded as one of the worst signings in Liverpool's history after Rafael Benitez paid Roma £17.1m for the midfielder to replace the departing Xabi Alonso.
The Reds had finished second in the Premier League in the previous season, but Aquilani, who was recuperating from an ankle injury when he joined the Reds, struggled as Liverpool slipped to seventh in 2009/10.
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Aquilani subsequently moved on loan to Juventus in 2010 and AC Milan in 2011 before being sold to Fiorentina in 2012.
But in an interview with Italian website DiMarzio, Aquilani admitted he would he preferred to have stayed in Rome rather than move to Merseyside in 2009, only for Roma's financial problems to mean a transfer was necessary.
He explained: "It was hard. I had to go to England, to a cold place, a huge change, but I played with incredible players. Torres, Mascherano, Kuyt, and Gerrard: one of greatest I have every played with. The fact that he was there influenced a lot, I’m not hiding it, he’s a champion.
"Every year I received an important offer, I said no to Inter, and Juve, together Roma and I turned them all down.
"The year that I was injured, Roma was having financial problems and needed to make a big sale. Vucinic and I had several offers, and so it goes."
Aquilani's only season at Liverpool was disrupted by a number of injuries, resulting in him playing a part in just 28 games for Benitez's men.
The Italian international scored twice for Liverpool, and he admits that injuries struck at wrong time throughout his career.
He said: "They came to me in the worst moments, that always seemed to happen.
"In Milan I was playing well, I was in form, but then I was sidelined for three months and I didn't recover it. I could have been able to do more, every now and then I think about it, but it's fine."
Aquilani could have moved to England earlier in his career, revealing that as a youngster he turned down Chelsea and Arsenal.
On Arsene Wenger, he said: "He called my father all the time.
"I had to choose between Roma and Lazio. Tempestilli asked my father to come to Trigoria to sign. My heart decided for me."
