Man City nearly signed Serie A icon with help from Liam and Noel Gallagher.

Manchester City fans have been celebrating their monumental treble success with the cry “We see things they’ll never see!” This phrase, taken from Oasis lyrics, has become a symbol of City’s achievements in recent seasons and is set to be sung for the foreseeable future. Liam and Noel Gallagher, lifelong fans of the club, have watched City attract some of the best in the business since their takeover in 2008. They almost influenced a signing of their own in Roma legend Daniele De Rossi. An Italian midfield general, De Rossi spent 18 years of his senior career at Roma, but in 2012 was linked with a £31million transfer and a £130,000-a-week contract. The move was rejected by De Rossi because, in his words “I am a Roman”, but his love of Oasis came into his thinking when mulling the move over. Speaking to Roma’s website in 2016, he said: “There was a lot of talk about me moving to Manchester City a few years ago, but I’ve never wanted to leave Rome. What excited me the most about that prospect, however, was the fact I could have met the Gallagher brothers.” De Rossi did eventually leave Roma in 2019 and sealed a switch to Boca Juniors before announcing his retirement from the game.