Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers rues failing to sign Alexis Sanchez for Liverpool ahead of Arsenal.

Rodgers targeted Alexis as a replacement for Luis Suarez following his sale to Barcelona.

“We felt like Luis [Suarez] was going to move on and we needed to get a world-class operator to go like-for-like," Rodgers told talkSPORT.

“We finished second in the league playing a great level of football.

“Players were flexible in how they could play and then it was about trying to make that next step.

“And for that we needed to get a replacement. And we deemed Sanchez to be that one."

Rodgers admits failure to land Alexis was a big factor in their failure to build on their successful 2013/14 Premier League campaign.

Alexis now comes off contract this summer, with the likelihood now that he will be leaving Arsenal in 2018.