Jerzy Dudek has claimed that Steven Gerrard was eager for Jose Mourinho to join Liverpool in 2010 following his departure from Inter Milan.

The Portuguese guided the Italian giants to the Champions League, bowing out at San Siro with a memorable treble success.

Rafael Benitez departed Liverpool the same summer, to make a switch to Inter, but Mourinho would go on to manage Real Madrid for three years prior to his Chelsea return.

Writing in his autobiography, Jerzy Dudek: A Big Pole In Our Goal, which is being serialised in The Mirror, the 43-year-old recalled: "Stevie once said to me that it would have been great if Mourinho could have taken over at Anfield when Rafa left.

"I think it was after my leaving, when I came to Liverpool as a Real Madrid player in the Champions League. I remember those words well, even if it was just a casual conversation."

Dudek played alongside Gerrard for six years up until 2007, helping the club to the European Cup in Istanbul during that spell.