Rafa walks in and says: ‘What are you still doing here?’
Stephen Warnock
But Warnock ended up getting the wrong impression of Benitez when the move collapsed.
“Back at Liverpool, I was going to Blackburn in the summer,” Warnock said on BBC 5Live.
“I was on my way down in the car, down the motorway. I met my agent at the services.
“We were on our way to Blackburn, we’d agreed. We’d been told we could speak to Blackburn so on the way down there we were talking. We agreed terms and things like that.
Stephen Warnock has revealed Rafa Benitez was surprised to see him back at Liverpool (Image: GETTY/BBC)
Stephen Warnock (far left) played under Rafa Benitez before leaving in 2007 (Image: GETTY)
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Stephen Warnock started his career at Liverpool (Image: GETTY)
“I got in the car to go to the ground to do the medical and then I got a phone call around 8 or 9 o’clock.
“The deal was off, Liverpool didn’t want to do the deal. So I turned round and went home.”
Asked if he was elated or frustrated, Warnock said: “Well. That night I was thinking ‘great, I want to go back and show my worth. The manager wants me!’.
“But I got in the next morning, Rafa walks in and says: ‘What are you still doing here?’
Stephen Warnock (right) eventually got his move to Blackburn (Image: GETTY)
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“And I thought ‘right’. I walked straight out, got on the phone to my agent and said: ‘Get me out in January’.
“And I ended up moving to Blackburn in January.”
Rovers eventually paid around £1.4m for Warnock and he spent 18 months at the club before being moved on the Aston Villa.
He also played for Leeds, Derby, Wigan and Burton, with loan spells through a number of Football League clubs.