GERARD HOULLIER believes if had been allowed to sign Cristiano Ronaldo he could have landed the Premier League title with Liverpool.

Ahead of his return to Anfield with Aston Villa tonight, the former Reds boss says his hopes of signing the Portugal international as a teenager from Sporting Lisbon were dashed by the club’s wage structure.

Instead Ronaldo moved to Manchester United for £12million in 2003, winning three titles and the Champions League before being sold on to Real Madrid for £80million last year.

“I saw him in the Toulon Under-21 tournament and we went for him, but we had a wage scale and we weren’t paying the sort of salary he wanted,” Houllier said.

“Then Manchester United played a friendly against Sporting Lisbon and all their boys said to Alex Ferguson ‘you have to sign him’. But I agreed with not breaking the wage structure. I thought it would cause problems in our dressing room. I know some of the signings were not as sharp as they could have been. Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time and was very hungry but got a bad injury. After that, he never had the same confidence, the same appetite.”

Houllier admits it will be an emotional night for him as he returns to the Anfield dugout for a competitive fixture for the first time since he left in 2004.

“It will be interesting to see what the Liverpool crowd is like,” he said.

“I trust them to be good.

“After all, I didn’t go afterwards to Everton or Manchester United, did I?”

After the high of winning the treble in 2001, came the heart problems which forced him to undergo 11 and a half hours of life-saving surgery.

“After my illness, some of my signings were not good enough. I didn’t have time to check,” he said.

“I try to forget (being told he was sacked). Probably Rick Parry (then Liverpool chief executive) came to see me but the deal was already done with Rafa Benitez.

“A few things now add up.

“It’s like when your wife is cheating, you are the last to know. I think they were a little embarrassed.

“But I don’t consider that as a dark period. Six years at a big club is sometimes enough.

“I wasn’t going to sign a new contract anyway because from a health point of view, it was better to have a sabbatical.”