Jonathan Woodgate told Liverpool to sign Theo Hernandez before his move to Real Madrid while working under Jurgen Klopp as a scout.
Woodgate left Liverpool in March 2017 to replace Aitor Karanka as Middlesbrough manager, having joined the Reds' scouting department in 2016, a few months into Jurgen Klopp's tenure as manager.
Having retired the year before, the former Real Madrid and England man explained why he wanted to get into such a role - and how the opportunity at Liverpool, a club he had no direct prior connection to, came about.
Speaking on Jamie Carragher's The Greatest Game podcast, Woodgate explained: "Michael Edwards was at Spurs [as head of performance analysis] and every day I was in there watching players with him - Philippe Coutinho, actually, when he was at Inter Milan.
"I would be in there every day constantly turning [Edwards'] office upside down and getting to know him. He was a really good guy.
"He rang me one day and said 'what are you doing?'. I said 'nothing, I've just retired'. He said 'do you fancy coming on board and doing some scouting for Liverpool in Spain and Portugal?'.
"I said 'too right I do!'. I was all over that. I was watching all the games, Spanish second division, Spanish first... I was going every couple of weeks and doing four games and then you come back and watch the game on the telly and the laptop."
Had Liverpool listened to Woodgate's advice on one young star coming though in that region, then they could have had the solution to their centre-back troubles this season - and likely for much less than the £65m that Manchester City shelled out this summer.
Woodgate outlined: "You get to know all the younger players from around the world like the lad [Marcos] Llorente at Atletico Madrid, the Hernandez brothers who moved to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid - and Ruben Dias at Benfica [now at Man City].
"I watched Benfica play at Sunderland, I think U19s, and [ Dias ] was top drawer. You have all these players coming through now and it is just like 'wow'."
There were other gems that Liverpool were looking at during that period, with the former centre-back explaining the scouting process.
"You do your homework before and sometimes you are given players to watch and you have to do in-depth analysis and then you send it off," Woodgate explained.
"What is his body position like at the front post when the ball comes into the box? Does he get tight to his man? Does he stay free and go and attack the ball?
"Little things like that and I would clip these things up on my computer - not just on the ball, off the ball too, of what you're seeing.
"I recommended a player who signed for Real Madrid. I absolutely adored him but [Liverpool] decided they didn't want him. He's done OK - he's at AC Milan now. Theo Hernandez - bombs on for fun, and he's a machine."
