Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez has said he was offered Sergio Aguero during his time as Liverpool boss.

Benitez's Newcastle are to host Aguero and his club Manchester City on Tuesday, with the Spaniard's side looking to make it back-to-back wins in their bid to avoid Premier League relegation.

Aguero, 27, signed for Atletico Madrid from Independiente in 2006 before leaving the Spanish side for City in 2011.

Benitez, however, has said he had the opportunity to bring the Argentina international to Anfield before his switch to Atletico.

Newcastle United Newcastle United Manchester City Manchester City 1 1 FT Game Details GameCast

Lineups and Stats

He said in the Daily Mirror: "Sergio was helping me. We have a foundation in Liverpool. Sometimes I am asked for shirts to be signed to make some money and he was one of the nice people.

"I was Liverpool manager, they offered him to us as a young player for big, big money. He signed for Atletico Madrid. He was a player that we knew. We were following him. We knew he was a very good player then."

Looking ahead to this week's meeting with City at St James' Park, Benitez said: "I have a good relationship with Sergio because he's close to [Argentina teammate Javier] Mascherano and I was watching the Argentina team. Hopefully he can score a lot of goals in the Champions League but not against us.

"To stop him it's not just about one player, you have to work as a team. But they have so many good players that you can't concentrate on just Aguero.

"You have to think about the other players coming from midfield or the wide areas and they're also good from set pieces, so it's a very good team.

"If you talk about them you cannot just concentrate on just one doing really well, because the others could make the difference."